The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Annie took another sip of the vodka, letting the alcohol seep through her system, turning bad ideas into good ones.


There are times when the words of a novel are more like poetry than storytelling, when the sound of the language matters as much as the idea. This is one of those great moments in reading. Rearrange the words of the sentence into lines that look like poetry and it would work as a poem.  Enough is said and left unsaid to be artful, provoking, meaningful, and beautiful.


While Annie's influence here is vodka, one can easily consider the vodka a metaphor for all influences that have the effect of "turning bad ideas into good ones." Annie's experience can relate to everything from peer pressure to over-zealous ambition, or any other experience when we let outside influences put a veil over our more rational decision making mind, when we go with the flow that we know will probably lead us to some Class V rapids that we would normally avoid.


Wilson, Kevin. The Family Fang. New York: Ecco, 2012.