"As part of leaving Bloomington for college and my brand-new start, I'd made a careful decision to never ever tell anyone about my sister, Fern. Back in those college days, I never spoke of her and seldom thought of her. If anyone asked about my family, I admitted to two parents, still married, and one brother, older, who travelled a lot. Not mentioning Fern was first a decision, and later a habit, hard and painful even now to break."
How do I write about this book without mentioning the one detail that forms the crux of it's beginning, middle and its end? I could "start in the middle" as our narrator, Rosemary Cooke does and take it from there. But I would still find it hard to write a good enough recommendation that you probably could get from the blurb anyway.
So how do I begin? Do I tell you about Fern? It's impossible to leave her out of this because she's the reason the characters' lives turn upside down. But telling you about her right now would also change the way you approach the novel and influence your judgement right from the start. I'm sure you're not one to trivialise certain details of family life. But if you know about Fern before you get to it yourself, you won't appreciate the bigger picture,
If it wasn't for Fern's disappearance, Rosemary would probably not spend her time and energy avoiding the subject of her family. Their brother Lowell would not have run away from home before graduating high school. If it wasn't for her reluctant abandonment to the jowls of science, their mother would not be prone to depression and would still perhaps play the piano. The family would not have left their sprawling farm house for homes that were smaller and smaller to din out the silence and emptiness of a shattered nest.
How do I begin to describe how utterly beautiful and heartbreaking this novel is without adding spoilers? As you can see, I'm trying... really hard.
So the book starts in the middle, in the year 1996 when Rosemary Cooke's in the 5th year of college. She has a secret and it involves her family. Years ago, her sister Fern was plucked from their lives and never spoken of ever again. Fern or the subject of her, isn't buried. But her fate and the feelings it incited in the family, are.
I think it's okay to tell you that Fern did not die in an accident nor was she kidnapped with a child snatcher. Fowler makes that clear pretty much from the start. That's actually what draws you into the novel because a) curiosity and b) once you start reading it, the book is so immersive, there's no turning back.
I see that haven't written much about it without giving it away, have I? So let me try one last time to do this recommendation justice.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a novel about a child who is loved so dearly that her disappearance breaks her whole family. But what's truly tragic is that the while Cookes force themselves to give her away believing it was for the greater good which, really, is a matter of perspective but I'll tell you right away that it wasn't.
So for the first time I'm asking you to trust me and just read the damn book because it's good. Like really, really good. It won't change your life. It won't make you bawl but it will make you well up every once in a while. It will give you fresh fodder to analyse things you already know about science, psychology and family life.
Read it because it is very well written and will keep you hooked right to the end. But most importantly, it may not force you to see things you'd rather not but it will make a great case for opening your eyes.
So how do I begin? Do I tell you about Fern? It's impossible to leave her out of this because she's the reason the characters' lives turn upside down. But telling you about her right now would also change the way you approach the novel and influence your judgement right from the start. I'm sure you're not one to trivialise certain details of family life. But if you know about Fern before you get to it yourself, you won't appreciate the bigger picture,
If it wasn't for Fern's disappearance, Rosemary would probably not spend her time and energy avoiding the subject of her family. Their brother Lowell would not have run away from home before graduating high school. If it wasn't for her reluctant abandonment to the jowls of science, their mother would not be prone to depression and would still perhaps play the piano. The family would not have left their sprawling farm house for homes that were smaller and smaller to din out the silence and emptiness of a shattered nest.
How do I begin to describe how utterly beautiful and heartbreaking this novel is without adding spoilers? As you can see, I'm trying... really hard.
So the book starts in the middle, in the year 1996 when Rosemary Cooke's in the 5th year of college. She has a secret and it involves her family. Years ago, her sister Fern was plucked from their lives and never spoken of ever again. Fern or the subject of her, isn't buried. But her fate and the feelings it incited in the family, are.
I think it's okay to tell you that Fern did not die in an accident nor was she kidnapped with a child snatcher. Fowler makes that clear pretty much from the start. That's actually what draws you into the novel because a) curiosity and b) once you start reading it, the book is so immersive, there's no turning back.
I see that haven't written much about it without giving it away, have I? So let me try one last time to do this recommendation justice.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a novel about a child who is loved so dearly that her disappearance breaks her whole family. But what's truly tragic is that the while Cookes force themselves to give her away believing it was for the greater good which, really, is a matter of perspective but I'll tell you right away that it wasn't.
So for the first time I'm asking you to trust me and just read the damn book because it's good. Like really, really good. It won't change your life. It won't make you bawl but it will make you well up every once in a while. It will give you fresh fodder to analyse things you already know about science, psychology and family life.
Read it because it is very well written and will keep you hooked right to the end. But most importantly, it may not force you to see things you'd rather not but it will make a great case for opening your eyes.
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