We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

By: Karen Joy Fowler

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

The New York Times best-selling author of The Jane Austen Book Club introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

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 was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion...she was my twin, my funhouse mirror, my whirlwind other half and 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.

©2012 Karen Joy Fowler (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A novel so readably juicy and surreptitiously smart, it deserves all the attention it can get.... [Its] fresh diction and madcap plot bend the tone toward comedy, but it never mislays its solemn raison d’être. Monkeyshines aside, this is a story of Everyfamily in which loss engraves relationships, truth is a soulful stalker and coming-of-age means facing down the mirror, recognizing the shape-shifting notion of self." (Barbara Kingsolver, The New York Times Book Review)

"Fowler’s interests here are in what sets humans apart from their fellow primates. Cognitive, language and memory skills all come into playful question. But the heart of the novel - and it has a big, warm, loudly beating heart throughout - is in its gradually pieced-together tale of family togetherness, disruption and reconciliation. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is Fowler at her best, mixing cerebral and emotional appeal together in an utterly captivating manner." (The Seattle Times)

"Elegantly and humorously orchestrated.... Knitting together Rosemary’s at times poignant, at times hilarious scraps of uncovered memories, Fowler creates a fantastical tale of raw, animalistic love." (O, The Oprah Magazine)

A madcap plot

I acquired a habit from my mother and grandmother of reading local authors and reading books that were prize winners or short listed. My mother always said reading local author showed support and they were easier to contact with my comments about their books. This book by Karen Joy Fowler fits both categories she is local and a prize winner. This book won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction and was short-listed for the 2014 Man-Booker award for fiction.

The author managed to hold back the key fact or surprise of the book until the book’s second quarter, no small authorial feat. (You are not going to find out from me). The plot turns on a volatile moment in behavioral psychology, the late 1970s, when Skinner dogmatists were fighting it out with proponents of a more nuanced, evolutionary grasp of behavior. The novel’s narrator, Rosemary Cook, claims to care about none of this. Her snappy storytelling and occasional wise cracks, use of the second person engages the reader/observer directly. This is a story of every family in which loss engraves relationships.
Fowler is an excellent writer and oh, what a way she has with words. I suggest you keep a dictionary handy. One of my favorite narrators, Orlagh Cassidy narrated the book.

Enjoyable

I listened to this every night before bed. The narrator had a nice voice, and conveyed well the personality of the lead character. The story made a very uncommon situation feel relatable.

entertaining and thought provoking

loved every bit of it and will recommend it to others. narrator's reading of it was tiresome however because a sing sing constantly repeating cadance voice was used throughout that was almost as boring as a monotone.

compelling and unpredictable

It was a very enjoyable book. I liked the way the author told the story by jumping around in time and and brought the reader along by only revealing small pieces of information about characters and plot at a time. It was a story about the enduring love among siblings even when their lives are turned upside down.

Loved every minute’

Beautiful storytelling of love, loss and how our memories shape us as we grow into adults!

Completely Beside Myself! Read This!

Wow. I'm completely beside myself. This book hooked me and delivered. It made me laugh, cry, and think. It taught me something new and changed my mind about some issues. It reminded me. It gave me hope.

Fern and Rosemary, are two sisters who are separated. As sister separations tend to do, this act unhinged the family, but there is hope for a brighter tomorrow. I can't say more without spoiling it for you, so just trust me on this one.

Wonderful Book but Robotically Read

If you could sum up We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in three words, what would they be?

Brilliant and funny

Any additional comments?

I ended up reading rather than listening to this book. I don't like to write negatively about anyone--or think I don't--but the way this is read somehow keeps you from hearing the very clever humor and style.

Try to keep it all separate.

This is far too beautifully a written and read book not to experience; even if you have to hurt a little bit. You won't regret this.

Gripping and suspenseful. Cannot predict where this story will go.

Too many books follow a well recognized format. Written in first person, this story is refreshingly different in that respect one cannot predict where the characters will end up. While disturbingly sad in content at times, this reader found the story intellectually stimulating, emotionally interesting and more than worthwhile.

Wonderful book but a flat narration

This book was one of those interesting books that you need to read twice (First time not knowing the plot and story line and the second time with having the plot in mind). Very much recommend but maybe not the audiobook version since I found the narration to be a bit flat.