You were “blursed”. Sometime, between birth and this very moment, I’m sure you’ve noticed. There’s that one thing you can do unbelievably well, or that comes so naturally to you, but at the same time, could make you absolutely miserable.
When a flighty immigration guard changed the “y” to an “e” in their great-grandfather’s last name, the Wyird family, became the Weird family. On top of this, each Weird sibling was blessed by their eccentric grandmother Annie (more fondly known by her family as The Shark), at their birth. As the five Weird siblings aged, their “blessings” began to feel more like curses. And so, the blursing was born; a combination of a blessing and curse.
For our main character Angie, her blursing has made her an extremely vulnerable woman. She will always forgive. When The Shark declares that her own death will occur in a mere fourteen days (on her birthday), she instructs Angie to round up her siblings from across the globe and bring them to her so that she may lift the “blursings” placed on them at birth.
What follows is an epic, hilarious and tender story about a family divided over a tragedy, and living their separate, weird lives who are brought together by their crazy grandmother. It is near impossible not to fall in love with the Weird siblings: Angie, extremely pregnant and overly emotional; Lucy, blunt, wild and never lost; Richard, careful, predictable and on the hunt for true love; Abba, brave and hopeful; and Kent (curiously named..
Unfamiliar with Andrew Kaufman’s previous work, my co-worker Chihoe and I both took home advanced copies of Born Weird on a random weekday. We both returned a few days later, gushing like teenagers about how much we loved it. The bare bones of this story is family love, but there was just something so exquisite about how Kaufman’s writing brought out the superhero-loving, magic-believing, quirky part of myself.
Chihoe and I attended the launch for Born Weird, eager to meet the man behind the bright yellow book. After being interviewed on a platform at a local bar, Kaufman chatted joyously with his readers and peers. When Chihoe and I approached and introduced ourselves as the Indigo people who had emailed him about our love for the book, we got hugs!
Andrew Kaufman is a man to watch. After reading Born Weird, I began to attack his backlist (All My Friends are Superheroes and The Waterproof Bible) and remain shocked that I had not picked either of these up before. Each book contains that special something that Kaufman seems to do so well: inject a little whimsy and make those ordinary, weird people, extraordinary. Which is promising, because, like me, you were born weird.
Also, check out Chihoe's Indigo Recommends blurb for Born Weird, at select stores across Canada!
