Thank you to the publisher for the review copy. And thank you to the lovely Leilah Skelton of Waterstones fame for being very insistent that I read this one…
Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind.
Now her adored older brother is a fugitive, wanted by the FBI for domestic terrorism. And her once lively mother is a shell of her former self, her clever and imperious father now a distant, brooding man.
And Fern, Rosemary’s beloved sister, her accomplice in all their childhood mischief? Fern’s is a fate the family, in all their innocence, could never have imagined.
So where to start. Well lets start in the middle….hey its a thing. I was about halfway through this one when it struck me that I came seriously close to missing out on this novel entirely – hence the huge thanks to good friend Leilah for bringing it to my attention. Frankly my reading life has been greatly enriched by reading this beautifully written, utterly utterly brilliant and absolutely compelling tale about one rather unconventional family. Why are they unconventional? Well I’m not telling although I’m sure you could easily discover that prior to reading it. Please don’t. Just trust me.
This is Rosemary’s story first of all. She tells it in her own way and in her own time. While she does this you will fall irrevocably in love…with the girl, with the story, with the sheer perfection of the writing and the following things will probably happen. You will laugh. You will cry. You will want to skip to the end but don’t do it. You will want to re-read bits. Ok you can do that. You may find that it takes over your life and you will find Rosemary peering over your shoulder while you do the mundane, begging you to come back and find out what comes next…I could barely put it down but I forced the issue because I didnt want it to be over too soon.
Amazing characters, superb prose, storytelling genius and a healthy dose of irony, all wrapped up in a most profound and extraordinary fictional life – Don’t be like me and almost miss this one.
There is a lot to be taken from this book, it will make you consider things that perhaps you have never thought about before. It will make you question certain things but most of all it will give you a unique perspective on life, love and family. I have absolutely no hesitation at all in recommending this as highly as I recommend The Humans by Matt Haig. And that says it all right there.
Find out more here: http://karenjoyfowler.com/
Purchase information: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/karen+joy+fowler/we+are+all+completely+beside+ourselves/10125528/
Read it. Live It. Love it.
Happy Reading Folks!
I’d noticed people raving about this one on Twitter but hadn’t known much else about it. Your review has convinced me to find it and read it now, though. It sounds like I shouldn’t miss out on this one. Thanks for the recommendation, Liz!