Wednesday 13 January 2016

We are all completely beside ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler

We are all completely beside ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
I came into this knowing nothing at all about We are all completely beside ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler. It is often a good way to start with a book so that any unexpected twists or turns are unexpected. Having read a few reviews, I've discovered that many people don't go into this particular book like this, and already know about something that is revealed less than a quarter of the way in. 

I'm not going to actually go into what this thing is, if you don't already know, then it's probably better if you go into the book blind, as I did. Having said that, I'm not sure that it would ruin the book if you don't already know. Indeed, I was almost tempted to go back and read that first section again, knowing what I now know, perhaps another time.

This does leave me with a slight issue, how do I review a book without discussing one of the main themes and ideas? Vaguely I suppose.

I did really like this book, it addressed many ideas of family, relationships between children and parents, brothers and sisters. It even questioned what actually makes someone a brother or a sister. There's a lot more going on here, though, it looks at the impact your childhood has on you. How families hide things and don't talk about things and how this might affect the way that things are remembered. 

I'm struggling here a bit, as I said before, I don't want to give too much away about this, but that makes it really hard to actually talk about any of it. I think this might be a bit of a short review: I enjoyed it. It was thought provoking, an interesting read.


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