“We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves” by Karen Joy Fowler is a book with a very unique structure. She starts the story in the middle rather than the beginning. At first, this may not make sense. But as you read along, you realize that this structure was pertinent to the book. It helps keep a huge secret in the storyline; that the main character’s sister, Fern, is a chimpanzee. Karen Joy Fowler is an author from California who has written several novels, one of which has been made into a major motion picture. Her book, ‘The Jane Austen Book Club” was such a huge success it was taken to the big screen. Her newest work is “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves” which follows a character named Rosemary on her journey to deal with her past and confront the truths she finds out about her family. This novel involves immense amount of research and even visits to a chimp habitat in Ellensburg, WA.
Andrea Barrett, a fellow author, says, “In this curious, wonderfully intelligent novel, Karen Joy Fowler brings to life a most unusual family. Wonderful Fern, wonderful Rosemary! Through them we feel what it means to be a human animal.”
Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones, says, “Deliciously jaunty in tone and disturbing in material.”
Rosemary narrates the story from the future, reflecting back on her life and the discoveries she made along the way. She grew up in a scientific household; literally. She was part of an experiment as a child to observe how a chimp and human child would be affected if they were raised alongside one another. Her sister, Fern, was a chimpanzee her family adopted shortly after Rosemary was born. As a young child, her sister is sent away and the family deals with it in very different ways. Her mother becomes depressed, her brother, Lowell, becomes a fugitive, and Rosemary goes silent. Many years after Ferns disappearance, Rosemary meets a girl named Harlow who begins to bring out another side of her. Her brother returns to her, with answers about Fern that she is hesitant to hear. And in the end, Rosemary is reunited with her long lost sister at last where she realizes that things might never be the same.
Fowler uses the novel to tackle some very important social questions that many of us avoid talking about. She reveals what is means to be a human being and that it is more about the “being” than the “human”. She also discusses animal cruelty topics, using Lowell to bring those harsh realties to light.
“I recognized Fern right away, he said, but not because I actually recognized her in the dim light, just because she was the youngest and the smallest. She was in a cage with four large adults. I don’t thin I realized how different one chimp looks from another. Her hair was redder than most, and her ears were set higher, more like teddy bear ears. All very easy to figure out, all very logical even though she’d changed quite a bit. Solid and squat where she used to be so graceful.”
Fowler visited one of my writing classes to discuss the book after we had read it. She says that this is the novel she was always meant to write. She wanted people to consider our relationships with animals, and even if all they did was stop and think about it, that was enough for her. Action would have been greatly accepted as well, in legal forms of course. The title of the novel at first may seem like just a common phrase to most individuals, but means something completely different when the book is finished. “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves” is a great read for anyone interested in the way we live alongside animals and also a great story about family and friends and human relationships.
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Popular Highlights in this book
We are so excited that, in the strangely illuminating phrase my mother favors, we’re completely beside ourselves.Highlighted by 2,204 Kindle readers- When there is an invisible elephant in the room, one is from time to time bound to trip over a trunk.Highlighted by 1,660 Kindle readers
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Overall assessment it is a good read.
It is exciting and straight forward. Some places it difficult to distinguish whether the author is talking about chimpanzees or humans. I find it a close relationship between families and friends described in the book. This brings the title of the vividly home. A bit of vulgar language and words are found a bit detestable. Overall assessment it is a good read.
Top reviews from other countries
janie1471
A thought provoking and well written novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2024
Victoria Mihalyi
Potent! Powerful! Passionate!
Reviewed in Canada on January 18, 2015