Ordinary People

Ordinary People is a quintessential classic of the modern era, it is required reading in institutions of higher learning, and study guides are published specifically for it. it was the first unsolicited manuscript Viking Publishers had purchased in twenty-six years, and the under-anticipated initial sales from booksellers was to such a degree that they had to reauthorize two more printing runs before the trade edition was first shipped to stores. Ordinary People was the recipient of the Janet Heidiger Kafka Prize in 1976. It was made into a blockbuster movie in 1980, garnering three Academy Awards, directed by Robert Redford, and starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton. It is the story of a teenager returning home after several months in a mental facility, coming to terms with his none too ordinary self, in a middle class family that has always considered themselve, simply, as ordinary people. And it is the story of his family coming to terms with with the awakening that there are no ordinary people, and no ordinary families. Each must come to realize that all have their own trials and tribulations, joys and love. And come to accept that in opening up to each other they bring together that which creates a unique family, their family.