Blog written by Sarah
Spoiler alert – these notes assume the reader knows the plot already.
Published in 2013 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was partly inspired by the author’s childhood experiences of living with a psychologist/mathematician father who ran experiments with rats in mazes. Karen Joy Fowler is also author of the well-known “Jane Austen’s Book Club”, which has also been made into a movie.
Our group enjoyed reading about a family who had lived a very different experience of family life through the introduction of a primate into their midst by their scientist father. Living with chimps as the basis of animal study was repeated by many researchers through the first half of the 20th century, until Jane Goodall famously turned the tables in 1960 and went to live with them in the wild. Seems like an obvious approach now, but back then it was revolutionary in scientific terms. Adaptation to living with a chimp, the highs and many lows were all explored in the novel and the fraught nature of dealing with family members who are somehow different was raised. Interesting how humans are domesticated to live with species like dogs and cats but that without the benefits of millennia of mutual adaptation, chimp adoptions were generally disastrous, especially long-term for the chimps’ wellbeing.
We discussed animal rights, animal language and experimentation, as well as dysfunctional families. The role of memory in writing history when recalling childhood events was discussed, and Sally highlighted the seeming lack of honesty and functional communication amongst the adult members of the sisters’ family. In the end no one talked about Fern in a way that felt as if we understood her, but everyone expressed their sadness of her plight. The defining nature of Rosemary’s guilt about Fern and Lowell’s extreme self-destructive activism was further testimony to how this experiment damaged the lives of the participants.
For me the high point of the book was the moment Fern’s identity was revealed and most of us agreed the second half lost it’s way somehow. Meredith commented on how it began to feel journalistic and a little preachy, and Melissa pinpointed how as the writing changed, we stopped caring about the sisters in the second half. The ending felt a bit neat and formulaic and Madame Lafarge, the puppet, was widely disliked, as was the character of Harlowe. Lee and others wondered about Kafka’s work quoted at the start of each chapter – “A Report for an Academy” – maybe a read for another time!
Despite the drawbacks, the novelty of Fern’s presence and the unique perspective of a girl whose sister was a chimp generated lively and wide-ranging discussion and the average rating awarded was 7-8/10.
It’s a good bookclub book for getting people talking about issues that are not standard fare whilst at the same time being full of food for thought about those novel staples - human relationships, families and communication.
Our next meeting is on Thursday July 16th at Sally's and her book selection is The Strays by Emily Bitto.
Quite a fascinating study in sibling impact. Commenced in a narrative style but became slightly theoretical which was always very interesting though not quite as emotionally engaging as it might have been.
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