We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

by Karen Joy Fowler

384 pages

Published July 1, 2013 by Center Point Pub.

ISBN:: 978-1-61173-809-4

(49 reviews)

Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. "I was raised with a chimpanzee," she explains. "I tell you Fern is a chimp and, already, you aren't thinking of her as my sister. . . . Until Fern's expulsion . . . she was my twin, my fun-house mirror, my whirlwind other half. . . . I loved her as a sister." As a child, Rosemary never stopped talking. Then, something happened, and Rosemary wrapped herself in silence. In We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler weaves her most accomplished work to date--a tale of loving but fallible people whose well-intentioned actions lead to heartbreaking consequences.

14 editions

GG reviewed We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Review of 'We are all completely beside ourselves' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The fallibility and inherent untrustworthiness of memory isn't a particularly original subject, but the author handles it in an interesting and original way in this novel. One thing I wanted to share is that I didn't read this book for a long time after it was recommended to me because I believed I already knew a key plot point that I thought was an important "reveal" -- it isn't. So if you are already aware of the central conceit of the story, don't let that stop you from reading it.

Didactylos reviewed We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Review of 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Not at all what i started off thinking this would be.... a complex narrative that entertains but also illuminates the 'human condition' and has some lovely line sin there. Worth the read.