A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris

It’s a trademark Joshua Ferris book full of straight up dose of reality presented in a hilarious way. You’ll laugh a lot and then realize soon after that hey, that’s actually very sad.

The book is also about a modern day family that’s more than just being blended, is also very complicated. You’ll discover why it’s not that simple to give love or care for family and why it’s inescapable to sometimes hate.

Ultimately though it’s about the individual journey of Charlie Barnes told to us through the eyes of an “outsider” and in the end you can only guess which parts are real and which are a product of blurry versions of circumstances.