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What Members Thought
I was quite impressed with Karen Joy Fowler’s book about families and how they shape us into adulthood. The story “starts in the middle” by design and the opening “break-up” scene pulled me in. There is quite an ah-ha moment coming along regarding that scene and our protagonist’s behavior and the story had me hooked. I listened to this one, and the narrator did an excellent job with the humor and the sadness embedded in the story. It is an insightful work and well told. In some ways, it is a lig
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While very thought provoking and quite heartbreaking, and as something that I really did enjoy reading, I'm still not sure of its place or fit in the 2014 Man Booker prize group of nominees? I will be quite surprised to see it make the Shortlist.
There were many times when I thought of the siblings in the novel, The Family Fang, and there is a lot of thought provoking and heartbreaking (I know I used those words already) stuff here, especially surrounding the identity of Fern and the treatment o ...more
There were many times when I thought of the siblings in the novel, The Family Fang, and there is a lot of thought provoking and heartbreaking (I know I used those words already) stuff here, especially surrounding the identity of Fern and the treatment o ...more
There are a lot of layers to We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and the author is truly skilled at bringing things out in a clever, semi-circuitous manner – the unreliability of memory; the complexities of relationships between siblings, favoritism (or the perception of) from parents; how factors from early childhood can deeply impact later life – our actions and our persona.The author does this all by telling the story of Rosemary, who has some very deep seated issues – and as she’s the nar
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This was a fantastic read. I really enjoyed Rosemary and the manner in which she told her story - from the middle out. For some this out of order story telling may be disconcerting. But isn't that the way stories can be - taking tangents, filling in little asides and background information. I just think there is so much to ponder in this book. How we remember things as children, how memories are inaccurate or can be exaggerated over time, how we suppress the traumatic and how families try and pr
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Although I had trouble liking the neurotic narrator, I was fascinated by what had happened to her and her family, especially the one very special family member. All in all I never wanted to put this book down.
A truly unique story made accessible by an engaging and witty narrator, but it is Fowler's excellent writing that makes this book 5-star worthy.
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Jul 28, 2014
Debbie Hoffman
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Nov 16, 2014
Cindie
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Dec 07, 2014
Steph
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Dec 13, 2015
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Dec 30, 2015
Whitney
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Jun 19, 2016
Meghan
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Jun 26, 2016
Lynda
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Jan 02, 2017
Tobey
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Jul 06, 2018
Bonnie B
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Jun 15, 2019
Sandra
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Aug 28, 2020
Mira
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