Light and comic, this novel offers pleasant distraction within its formal structure. Fogel uses it deftly although one could take issue with the emails from talking animals, dead people and inanimate objects. Fogel offers her own defense as part of the novel. Similarly, she defends the untied loose ends with which she concludes. Fair enough. Let’s hope she breaks out further in her next.

Problematic and hard to keep up with. I tried to get into it but just couldn't. I love epistolary novels, but the timeline and lack of input from Julie made this novel too disjointed for my taste.

I am a big fan of epistolary novels (aka books written in the form of a series of letters, emails, etc), as I find them to be quick and easy reads, and this book was in fact that. There is decent character development through the series of communication between mostly family and some friends with one central character (the only character who I feel the author failed to develop), and the story is both humorous yet relatable. The only parts I could have done without were the letters from inanimate objects (which I believe the author knew would turn some people off, based on the final letter from the father to the main character). All in all, if you enjoy this form of novel, I don't think you'll be disappointed by this book.

My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1925303630.

All opinions are my own and do not reflect those of any organization I am affiliated with.

Nuclear Family is the perfect summer read. Especially if you're traveling to visit your kin. This slim epistolary volume will arm you with the knowledge that whatever it is you don't like about your mother, father, sister, etc. - it could always be worse.

Nuclear Family: A Tragicomic Novel in Letters is written by fellow native Rhode Islander Susanna Fogel. It is an epistolary novel consisting of letters/texts/emails from various members of a dysfunctional Jewish family, including parents, a sister, a hot cousin, a Chinese stepmother, and an uncle with undefined sexuality to Julie, who we never meet. Many of the characters were incredibly funny, even if they didn't necessarily mean to be! I particularly enjoyed the mother character's comedic attempts to set up Julie with random men and her chronicles of post-divorce life. The novel also includes letters from Julie's NordicTrack, the Indigo Girls, her cell phone, her IUD, and a container of hummus, among other things. Although a strange choice, these letters actually helped us to know a little bit more about Julie. The negative about this novel is that you never really learn that much about the character to whom all the letters are written. I would have liked to know more. Overall, a funny dysfunctional family story.

I’m so glad I took a chance on this debut novel! It was a thoroughly entertaining read, the funniest book I’ve read in a long time. I’ve always liked epistolary books, and it somehow was even more fun only reading one side of the correspondence and trying to fill in the blanks for the main character. The book had a great cast of characters, sometimes stereotypical, but with an original twist here and there. This was a refreshing change of pace for me, and I highly recommend the book.

I love epistemological books, when they are done well, so I liked NUCLEAR FAMILY, tremendously. Fogel tells the story of Julie Feller through a series of letters. These letters are so well done that we really get to know both the various writers (some inanimate or not human) and Julie very well. As we read through years of letters and emails, we smile and laugh, amazied at how enjoyable reading Julie's Mail can be.

I must admit to strongly identifying with both her mother, and grandmother...I confess to being a senior citizen. I was engaged by the mail, rooting for Julie and her sister Jane, and thrilled by her successes.

I was caught laughing out loud when grandma was invited to a destination wedding, told to wear beach apparel, but had to admit that older women rarely had new beachwear at hand, as I thought of my first new bathing suit bought in the past 10 years which will probably never be worn.

I urge everyone to tuck this in their Beach bag and have some lovely afternoons.

I read a few pages of this and gave up. It was trying to be funny. It was not funny.

Love 'em, hate 'em, or merely tolerate 'em we all have a family who'll no doubt embarrass us. The extent to which we let them effect us varies, as can be seen in Susanna Fogel's Nuclear Family: A Tragicomic Novel in Letters.

Composed from letters sent from her various family members, the lives of those surrounding Julie is depicted through these missives. Described as dysfunctional at best, these glimpses into the lives of this family demonstrates the struggle to retain meaningful relationships in a world where staying connected is too easy. Told over decades, the story develops with humorous, cringe-worthy, and sad tales from Julie's scientific-minded father, psychoanalyst mother, adopted younger sister, grandmother, inanimate objects, and various family friends.

The narrative was rather entertaining and made me appreciate my comparatively normal family. The story became a bit meta toward the end with Julie writing a book based on her family as we're reading letters from her family that sound very similar to her novel (which, let's be honest, provides plenty of fodder). While I understand that the letters are all coming to Julie, I found it a little strange to have a one-sided conversation, as we never know how Julie responded to any of her family and family friends's correspondences. Each of the characters' personalities is well-realized through the way they write to Julie; however, we don't ever really get a sense of Julie and instead only see her through the twisted eyes of her self-involved family members.

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This book was a funny, fast read. Despite occasionally veering too far into the realm of shtick, the writing was compelling and the characters extremely well-developed despite (because of?) the conceit of the entire novel being told through their letters/emails.