The Full Ridiculous

I loved this book!!! Really one of the best novels I've read in awhile. I'll write more later. So happy I won this one - thanks goodreads and the publisher!

The Full ridiculous describes a year in the life of Michael O'Dell. The year starts badly when he is hit by a car while out jogging and lands up in hospital and from there it's all down hill. He has given up his job as a movie reviewer for a major paper to write a book on Australian cinema but after his accident develops PTSD and depression and finds he can't write. His normally well behaved teenage daughter has inexplicably attacked another girl at school and faces expulsion and he finds a bag full of drugs in his son's bedroom. Add in Michael's attempts to help his son make a film and an over-zealous policeman and Michael's life starts to spiral out of control.<br /><br />Very humourous in places, this was a fun read. Michael is so hapless and his wife so incredibly patient and forgiving (but has his measure, no doubt about that). The style of the writing may bother some people as it is written in the second person as if the author is directing an actor. I think it was a technique used to put the reader in the situations that Michael faced and for me that worked well but I suspect some readers might not be so comfortable with it. An excellent debut novel from an Aussie writer.

It is said that these days, all middle class families are just one accident away from financial ruin. This is exactly what happens to Michael, who has an accident, which throws him and his whole family into a series of small disasters that threaten to break them in every way possible. Michael loses his job and falls into deep depression. His wife tries to support them on her one income, while keeping a happy face and trying to handle everything since Michael is just not coping. Their children are also experiencing all kinds of problems, and the whole family is persecuted by a quite-mad and very-stupid policeman. Michael goes through therapy, a process which Lamprell describes quite believably. I kept turning the pages, eager to find out what happens to this nice little family, and whether Michael is going to be able to pull himself together and out of his depression, a thing I sadly know too much about. There are funny moments and sad ones, all very human and feel true to life. I enjoyed this book quite a lot.

Highly readable and endearingly human account of a man's path through crippling depression and PTSD. <br /><br />It doesn't rain but it pours, so this poor fella must live through a series of disasters while he is battling mental illness. There are a lot of boring accounts of mental illness out there - it is actually quite difficult to write about depression without sounding a little samey and generic. This book is refreshingly well-written. Mark Lamprell has found a way to make his hardships entertaining, touching and funny, which is much more powerful than reading someone's self-absorbed angst.<br /><br />Some other reviewers have criticised his use of the second person, but to me, it worked beautifully to make the book feel more immediate and visceral. I could relate to his feelings of self-loathing and inadequacy due to his depression - I am sure many people with depression can understand it. For me, the book enabled me to have a good, warmhearted laugh, which is so therapeutic in bleak times. I would recommend this book to anyone who has lived with mental illness because I think his intimate confessions may help others feel less alone and freakish.

I enjoyed the witty writing style of this story. The story is about a man who gets hit by a car and his life just keeps getting worse and worse. I found myself laughing at the story, which is something I don't do very often.

I received a copy of this book from Goodreads. <br /><br />I had higher expectations for this book. It wasn't a bad story, but it was not at all memorable. Pardon the pun, but the book was almost too pedestrian to be considered interesting. <br /><br />I wasn't able to really connect with any of the characters, even though I consider myself to be very similar to Michael O'Dell. There was just a lack of personability with Michael. <br /><br />I would consider his book a print version of the sitcom Seinfeld - it was about the hum-drum of normal, uneventful life with tiny air pockets of slightly deeper thoughts. That doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad book; just that it was a mindless read and would be most appropriate for a reader who needs a break from more provocative, thought-inducing reads.

This was a good read, quick, and engrossing. Michael O'Dell is hit by a car while jogging and he is subsequently left traumatized and depressed. He is no longer able to handle the ups and downs of everyday life including his job, 2 teens, wife, in addition to his self-care. This story was very real for me, with the wife carrying the burden, and Michael spiraling and not being able to pull himself up. It's a good look at what it is like to live with anxiety and depression but in a fun sort of way, like all depression should be :)

A fun, somewhat different story of family life that made me both laugh like a maniac and cry like a baby. <br /><br />Mark Lamprell is one of a kind! This was a wild ride and I enjoyed it immensely!

The Full Ridiculous is the first novel by Australian screenwriter and author, Mark Lamprell. Pleased to have survived being hit by a car, journalist Michael O’Dell leaves the hospital telling his wife, Wendy, that at least things can’t get any worse. Famous last words, he later comes to realise, as his life unravels in a cascade of events that resembles a train wreck. He’s in pain and unable to muster up the will to work on his book, and Wendy’s job is the sole source of family income. Then daughter Rosie uncharacteristically uses violence to resolve a dispute and son Declan appears to be hiding drugs in his bedroom. As parent/teacher meetings loom and bills threaten, a weird police constable seems determined to persecute the family. This is a book about ordinary people doing ordinary things and having (mostly) ordinary things happen to them, but somehow it manages to strike a chord and be very funny into the bargain. The main character is imperfect, self-deprecating and easy to identify with. “You’ve been avoiding mirrors lately but you know if you looked you’d find yourself doing an alarmingly accurate impersonation of an over-stuffed sausage.” His worries and fears are common to many of us. Michael’s observation on psychiatric questionnaires is particularly perceptive: “On the inside you feel like a complex mass of intertwining disasters but maybe from the outside you’re just a Fuck-up Grade B with a degree of difficulty of zero point seven.” Lamprell takes the unusual step of narrating this story in the second person: perhaps this is a side effect of being a screenwriter, and, while it takes a moment to get used to, it does work. Michael’s inner monologue is clever, often hilarious, and occasionally quite stirring. This is a funny, thought-provoking and ultimately inspiring tale that will have the reader thinking about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, adoption, self-worth, suicide, peer pressure, unconditional love, self-delusion and hospital ceilings. An outstanding debut novel.

Lamprell writes of a normal man, living a normal life, finds himself facing a series of normal setbacks - he is injured in a car accident, his daughter has problems at school, his son is on drugs, the family is persecuted by a deranged policeman, there is financial pressures, the meaning of life escapes him. As a result he falls into depression. Slowly life turns and the main character realises how lucky he is to have his family's love and how he does serve a purpose.<br /><br />Written in the second person, this is entertaining, realistic, sad and honest. There are no heroes in this book just realism.