Courting Disaster Author:Julie Edelson Fiction. By taking Tolstoy's famous dictum that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and bending it to the service of the black-comic, southern neo-gothic novel, Julie Edelson creates an extended, inspired riff on the allure of chaos, and the necessity of order. Angie and Joe DiPietro, son Nick, daughter Tess, Angie's mother Agnes, th... more »eir dog Mutt, an assorted cast of lovers, friends, cops, neighbors, clinic patients, an amorous psychiatrist, and an impassively enigmatic derelict are all the dramatis personae of this sad, funny southern farce." Other books by Julie Edelson include NO NEWS IS GOOD and BAD HOUSEKEEPING.« less