Orion Kwirk is sure he was adopted. Or maybe he’s a space alien that got grafted into the Kwirk family. His mother studies the stars and worries about germs and accidents why too much. Rion’s father makes weird-flavored jellybeans for a living and explains scientific concepts for way too long. One sister is a drama queen, and the other is a word collector and academic star. But Rion’s somewhat estranged grandfather is the quirkiest of all the Kwirks.

This story is a little too snarky for my tastes. Rion needs an attitude adjustment from the point of view of a sixty year old grandmother (me). But he does end up growing and learning and maybe even changing his attitude over the course of the book. And Papa Kwirk, the sort of hero of the story, also becomes more understandable and sympathetic by the novel’s end. So there’s that.

The characters in the story were believable (except for the name which is just a little too apropos), and at the same time quirky. The situation, Papa Kwirk’s death and subsequent parting wishes and post-death instructions, edges over into unbelievable at times, but it’s funny and enlightening. The moral of the story is “don’t judge a book by its cover”, or “there’s often more to a person or relationship than meets the eye.” Papa Quirk failed Rion’s dad when that dad was a boy, but maybe there’s more to the story than even Rion’s dad knows. This book could make readers look at family members and others in a new way, with more compassion and understanding, reserving judgment and giving mercy and forgiveness.

The book does have some mild profanity, and the treatment of religion is respectful, but syncretic—the all roads lead to God in the end sort of thing. Nevertheless, Mr. Anderson’s story about a father and his son and the son’s eccentric grandfather touched a nerve as I was reading, partly because I recently experienced the death of a family member myself. I would recommend it as a funny story and for the development of empathy and understanding.