The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done (2003)

The Moffat family is beyond dysfunctional. Adopted daughter Chrysalis literally crawls out from under the bed to learn that her absentee dad, once a CIA bio-weapons specialist, rescued her from Central America as a child. When mom dies, the family's California mansion is left to Chrysalis' belligerent brother, Eddie, who turns it into a Buddhist institute led by a sham shaman named Ralph. Their postmodern lives are so twisted -- Ralph's step-sister has been entangled with both Eddie and his father -- that you get cramps. And there's no relief in the long passages formatted in a word processor's outline function: ''2.1 Friends could sit with Ralph for hours. 2.2 Friends passed the time as if it was cheap fuel.'' It's a needless crutch for Newman, who has a penetrating voice that could one day garner a devout following.