Judith Lucy has always used stories about her extraordinary family as material for her one-woman shows. Her mother was afraid of water and shampoo, ate only cream-cheese and raspberry cordial, and refused to let Judith go swimming or turn off any appliances. Her father wore makeup, loved car crashes and pretended to be retarded to get into the football for free. And that was before she discovered she was adopted. At the age of 25. On Christmas Day. When her sister-in-law told her. Her childhood fantasy that these crazy people were not really her parents had actually come true! They weren't! But a fantasy for a child can be a nightmare for an adult, and this revelation left Lucy with some life-changing questions - not just "Why didn't you mention it before now?", but "Who are my parents, then?" and as a result, "Who am I?" From 'A is for Adoption' to 'Z is for Zorba', this extremely funny and ruthlessly honest tribute exposes the lunatics who gave Judith Lucy a hair-raising upbringing, and also a career.

Reviews

A great deal of Judith Lucy's successful stand-up shtick has centred around her crazy family and in particular her parents. Therefore when someone made a passing comment that implied she must despised them Lucy was shocked and decided to set the record straight. This A to Z (A is for arguments, B is for bathing...) of the Lucy family is both funny and honest but mostly it is a tragically poignant portrayal of life growing up in a dysfunctional family in the Perth of the 1960s and 1970s. While Lucy continues to mine the material for a joke anywhere she can find one, there are plenty of incidents where perhaps the only way to cope was to find the laugh. The Lucy Family Alphabet gives us insight into one of Australia's funniest comedians and provides the context for many of her long-running gags. Avoiding any of the usual relinquished-child narrative sentimentality, it is respectful of her parents' lopsided way of demonstrating their love while allowing Lucy's irreverent voice to remain distinctively clear. I am a sucker for any book as nakedly honest as this one but if you (or the intended recipient) are easily offended then perhaps this is not for you. Rachel Wilson is an academic and occasionally works at the Sun Bookshop Yarraville