book we are all completely beside ourselves

Because in the end, Rosemary is haunted by what all of us are - tricky memory, unreliable language, and in all the untrustworthiness of memory and language lies a truth that no factual statement can capture. I am tempted to say that one may understand this family across cultures, language and time. Because of her masterful writing, this never becomes more confusing than it should be, which is very confusing, and that, I think, is what makes this book a universal portrait of “family”, even though her particular story is as unique as they come. And we are plunged into infinite mental states. The novel starts in the middle, goes to the end of the beginning, then the beginning of the end, and then ends with the beginning of the beginning and the end of the end.īefore meeting her brother for the first time in years, Rosemary thinks about the “theory of mind” which encompasses the number of embedded mental states one is capable of (science says five to seven, she thinks possibly infinite). Why was it hidden from us for 25 percent of the book? Because Fowler wants us to think of her as a sister like any other, and not a pet. Her sister, we soon find out is a chimpanzee.

When she begins the novel, right in the middle, both her siblings have disappeared. Narrated by Rosemary Cooke, a girl who was brought up with a brother and sister, by parents who were psychologists. Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves broke my heart a thousand times over.

Book we are all completely beside ourselves