We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
I picked this book off a well-stocked shelf in my AirBNB apartment in Crete. Of course it was written about a girl attending UC Davis by a writer living in Santa Cruz. I can't escape my life. I also had no idea this book is currently the darling of the literary world. Thank you to a previous guest who was generous enough to leave it.
The plot-line is refreshing because it's not linear or circular. It's a mess, and that's great. Who can reliably deliver their own narrative anyway?
UC Davis student Rosemary has never recovered from losing her sister as a child. The story haltingly comes out, and we eventually learn her sister was a chimpanzee and her father was a psychologist at the university in Bloomington. Graduate students and Rosemary's family were responsible for Fern's welfare. Rosemary tries to figure out what happened, and along with that, her older brother's disappearance when her sister left.
It's crazy and unique. We learn a lot about primates, but specifically, what it's like growing up alongside a chimpanzee. We learn how to interpret the research, as well as the actions of researchers. We grow in compassion through the art of storytelling.
General consensus: Can everyone please read this so we can discuss? It's engrossing and thought-provoking, even if the narrator can be a tad infuriating at times.
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