We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
By Karen Joy Fowler
Read by Orlagh Cassidy
• 8.95 Hours
• 05/30/2013
• Unabridged
Format:
Digital Download (In Stock)
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1 Format: Digital Download
The New York Times bestselling 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. “A gripping, big-hearted book...through the tender voice of her protagonist, Fowler has a lot to say about family, memory, language, science, and indeed the question of what constitutes a human being.”—Khaled Hosseini
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Summary
Summary
A New York Times bestseller
Winner of the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Winner of the 2014 California Gold Medal for Literature
Shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize
A New York Times Editor’s Choice
New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books, 2013
A Los Angeles Times bestseller
A 2013 Chicago Tribune Noteworthy Book
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2013 for Fiction
A 2014 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalist
Nominated for the 2013 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Selected for the June 2013 Indie Next List
A BookPage Best Book of 2013
A Booklist Top 10 in June 2013
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.
“A gripping, big-hearted book...through the tender voice of her protagonist, Fowler has a lot to say about family, memory, language, science, and indeed the question of what constitutes a human being.”—Khaled Hosseini
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Rosemary’s voice—vulnerable, angry, shockingly honest—is so compelling and the cast of characters, including Fern, irresistible. A fantastic novel: technically and intellectually complex, while emotionally gripping. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Piquant humor, refulgent language, a canny plot rooted in real-life experiences, an irresistible narrator, threshing insights, and tender emotions—Fowler has outdone herself in this deeply inquisitive, cage-rattling novel. —Booklist (starred review)
A strong, unsettling novel...Fowler explores the depths of human emotions and delivers a tragic love story that captures our hearts. —Library Journal (starred review)
This brave, bold, shattering novel reminds us what it means to be human, in the best and worst sense. —The Miami Herald
Rosemary’s experience [is] a fascinating basis for insight into memory, the mind, and human development. —Publishers Weekly
“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
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
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
[The novel] lies somewhere between psychological thriller, scientific theory and coming-of-age story, a seemingly untenable combination. But Fowler, through wit and mastery of her craft, handles the complexity effortlessly. —USA Today
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. —Andrea Barrett, author of Servants of the Map and Ship Fever
It’s been years since I’ve felt so passionate about a book. When I finished at 3 a.m., I wept, then I woke up the next morning, reread the ending, and cried all over again. —Ruth Ozeki, author of My Year of Meats and A Tale for the Time Being
This unforgettable novel is a dark and beautiful journey into the heart of a family, an exploration of the meanings of memory, a study of what it means to be ‘human.’ In the end the book doesn't just break your heart; it takes your heart and won't give it back. —Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake
A funny, stingingly smart, and heartbreaking book. Among other things, it's about love, family, loss, and secrets; the acquisition and the loss of language. It's also about two sisters, Rosemary and Fern, who are unlike any other sisters you've ever met before. —Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen and Pretty Monsters
You know how people say something is incredible or unbelievable when they mean it's excellent? Well, Karen Joy Fowler's new book is excellent: utterly believable and completely credible - a funny, moving, entertaining novel that is also an important and unblinking review of a shameful chapter in the history of science. —Dr. Mary Doria Russell, biological anthropologist and author of The Sparrow and Doc
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a dark cautionary tale hanging out, incognito-style, in what at first seems a traditional family narrative. It is anything but. This novel is deliciously jaunty in tone and disturbing in material. Karen Joy Fowler tells the story of how one animal—the animal of man—can simultaneously destroy and expand our notion of what is possible. —Alice Sebold, New York Times-bestselling author of The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon
Karen Joy Fowler has written the book she's always had in her to write. With all the quiet strangeness of her amazing Sarah Canary, and all the breezy wit and skill of her beloved Jane Austen Book Club, and a new, urgent gravity, she has told the story of an American family. An unusual family—but aren't all families unusual? A very American, an only-in-America family—and yet an everywhere family, whose children, parents, siblings, love one another very much, and damage one another badly. Does the love survive the damage? Will human beings survive the damage they do to the world they love so much? This is a strong, deep, sweet novel. —Ursula K. Le Guin, author of Lavinia, The Unreal and the Real, and the Earthsea Cycle
“We Are All Completely beside Ourselves is a dark cautionary tale hanging out, incognito-style, in what at first seems a traditional family narrative. It is anything but. This novel is deliciously jaunty in tone and disturbing in material. Karen Joy Fowler tells the story of how one animal—the animal of man—can simultaneously destroy and expand our notion of what is possible.” —Alice Sebold, New York Times bestselling author
“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.” —Andrea Barrett, Pulitzer Prize winning author
“A novel so readably juicy and surreptitiously smart, it deserves all the attention it can get…[Its] fresh direction 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.” —New York Times Book Review
“Unsettling, emotionally complex.” —Washington Post
“Fowler has given us the gift of a splendid novel. Not only is the story fascinating, moving, and beautifully written, but it also ripples with humor.” —Boston Globe
“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…Utterly captivating.” —Seattle Times
“By the time you get to the last section of the novel, which is absolutely sublime…you will feel as though Rosemary and Fern are your own siblings.” —NPR, All Things Considered
“Achingly memorable…This brave, bold, shattering novel reminds us what it means to be human, in the best and worst sense.” —Miami Herald
“Fowler’s novel is superb.” —NPR’s Fresh Air
“Piquant humor, refulgent language, a canny plot rooted in real-life experiences, an irresistible narrator, threshing insights, and tender emotions—Fowler has outdone herself in this deeply inquisitive, cage-rattling novel.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Rosemary’s
voice—vulnerable, angry, shockingly honest—is so compelling and the cast of
characters, including Fern, irresistible.
A fantastic novel: technically and intellectually complex, while
emotionally gripping.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Rosemary’s experience [is] a fascinating basis for insight into memory, the mind, and human development…Fowler’s great accomplishment is not just that she takes the standard story of a family and makes it larger, but that the new space she’s created demands exploration.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Karen Joy Fowler has written the book she’s always had in her to write. With all the quiet strangeness of her amazing Sarah Canary, and all the breezy wit and skill of her beloved Jane Austen Book Club, and a new, urgent gravity, she has told the story of an American family…This is a strong, deep, sweet novel.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of Lavinia
“You know how people say something is incredible or unbelievable when they mean it’s excellent? Well, Karen Joy Fowler’s new book is excellent: utterly believable and completely credible—a funny, moving, entertaining novel that is also an important and unblinking review of a shameful chapter in the history of science.” —Dr. Mary Doria Russell, biological anthropologist and author of The Sparrow and Doc
“It’s been years since I’ve felt so passionate about a book. When I finished at three a.m., I wept, then I woke up the next morning, reread the ending, and cried all over again.” —Ruth Ozeki, award–winning author of All Over Creation
“It really is impossible to do justice here in a blurb. This is a funny, stingingly smart, and heartbreaking book. Among other things, it’s about love, family, loss, and secrets; the acquisition and the loss of language. It’s also about two sisters, Rosemary and Fern, who are unlike any other sisters you’ve ever met before.”
—Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen and Pretty Monsters
“This unforgettable novel is a dark and beautiful journey into the heart of a family, an exploration of the meanings of memory, a study of what it means to be ‘human.’ In the end the book doesn’t just break your heart; it takes your heart and won’t give it back.” —Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake
Reviews
Reviews
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a very unique family
- This book has one of those premises that make no sense when you explain it to someone, but that makes for a very unique reading experience. The writing is honest and interesting and the narration was a great fit for the story, which delves into family dynamics, loss, loyalty, and how your childhood can profoundly influence who you are. Psychology fans will be drawn to its scientific bent, and fiction fans will love the character studies. A solid read, and one that I’ve kept thinking about long after finishing.
Author
Author Bio: Karen Joy Fowler
Karen Joy Fowler is the author of The Jane Austen Book Club, which was on bestseller lists nationwide and spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times list. Along with her first two novels, it was a New York Times Notable Book. Sister Noon, her third novel, was a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award.
Titles by Author
Details
Details
| Available Formats : | Digital Download |
| Category: | Fiction |
| Runtime: | 8.95 |
| Audience: | Adult |
| Language: | English |
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