Victoria Roberts is a cartoonist for The New Yorker. She says that she has been thinking about this story for 17 years which means she had it mind before she became a contracted cartoonist. That is a long time to think about a story and I suspect part of the reason is that she had to build up a reputation for excellence before anyone would publish this odd little book. 
 Don't get me wrong, although this is an unusual and weird tale, it is worth reading. I just recommend that you suspend all disbelief because if you don't this novel will lose you between chapter one and chapter two. I had to go back and make sure that I hadn't missed a page. 
 Once I got over my attempt to make the book follow my logic, I enjoyed it. Alan, the narrator was lots of fun and the rest of the family are quite amusing. It took me about two hours to read the book and study Roberts' entertaining sketches. 
 I am not sure to whom to recommend this book. I would hope that most readers of The New Yorker would sit down with this and many residents of NYC would love it. Outside of those two groups, I think this has a limited audience.