review by Babs Simpson on show 3rd November
The Battle family is fairly typical of today's society. Mum, Mo, is a psychiatrist who is about to suffer a mid-life crisis, her daughter, Dora, 17, is a beautiful girl, crippled by a horrendous lack of self-confidence while Dora's younger brother, Peter, knows himself to be as brilliant as his hero, Oscar Wilde, and in fact insists on being known as Oscar while affecting a similar flamboyant style of clothing and speech. And lastly there's Dad who holds everyone together.
This is advertised as being extremely funny "makes you laugh on every page" according to The Times' Review, but I actually found it terribly sad. Okay, funny incidents happen but I felt so desperately sorry for poor Dora who tries so hard to be uber-cool and professes to loathe and despise her mother, whereas all she wants is to someone to listen, to reassure her she is a worthwhile human being, to tell her she looks lovely. Peter/Oscar is another terribly sad character although he doesn't realise it, while Dad deserves better than he gets from them all. Meanwhile, Mo needs a good slap for her sheer stupidity and total lack of understanding, but then, of course, she is only a psychiatrist!
Having said all that, I found it quite a good read and it does have a happy ending, albeit a rather predictable one.
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