we are all completely beside ourselves review

Unfortunately, I didn’t know which one and consequently tried to read the first chapters thinking it was going to be revealed that it was Rosie. In fact, when I came to read the book for the first time (two of my book groups had chosen it for the same month) I did know that one of the main characters was a chimpanzee.

If you don’t, then be aware that there is a reveal around seventy pages in and I am not going to avoid talking about it. And from this point on I am going to assume that you have either read the book or know what it is about. Some sections (and I’ll quote one later) are nothing short of joyous.įinally, and this is where I suspect the Booker nomination came from, there are the subjects that she is addressing. Despite the fact that there is very little in the lives of the people we meet to laugh about, Fowler still keeps us chuckling and, at times, laughing out loud. By the time you get to the difficult bits you are too engaged to duck out.

However hard it may be to read on in some sections, you simply have to in order to find out what happens to these individuals.

Fowler knows how to tell a story that involves the reader from the start, as well as being able to create characters you care about and empathise with. Even when it is dealing with some intensely difficult subjects the pages seem to turn themselves. So, what is it about this book that makes it stand out as one of the best books I’ve read so far this year? Well, to begin with, it is incredibly readable. Well, more fool me! And more fool anyone else who has been avoiding this novel for whatever reason, because having read it twice in quick succession I think it is a remarkable work and I will certainly be going back to explore Fowler’s previous books as well as adding her to the list of writers whose new releases I automatically read as soon as I possibly can. She simply hadn’t struck me as the sort of writer that would attract the judges of literary awards. And, again like many others (all presumably people who hadn’t read the novel) I was surprised when this latest book made the Booker long list and astounded when it reached the short list. Like so many book club addicts I’d read and enjoyed The Jane Austen Book Club but not enough to send me scurrying off to discover whatever else she had written nor to ensure that any current work would automatically find its way on to my library list. For a number of reasons I resisted reading Karen Joy Fowler’s Booker short listed novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves when it was first published in 2013.

We are all completely beside ourselves review