Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is one of 2014's most memorable and lauded novels. Having received rave reviews across the world, it won the Pen/Faulkner in the United States and then became one of the first works by an American to be shortlisted for the Man Booker.
----more----
Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke, an introverted college student drifting through life.
Slowly, she reveals that her isolation springs from her unconventional upbringing. Her
father is an animal behaviourist, her mother is traumatised, her brother has
gone Awol and her sister, Fern, has vanished entirely. The implication that Fern’s disappearance lies at the heart of her dysfunction is explained in a beautifully judged twist, not so much in the tail as the head.
I talked to Karen on the day We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was published in the United Kingdom. She was in suitably celebratory mood, sipping prosecco as we discussed (in part one):
Episode 30 - Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life - Part 3
Episode 29 - Hanya Yanagihara on Kids, Convention and the Queer Tradition
Episode 28 - Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life - Part 2
Episode 27 - Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life - Part 1
Episode 26 - Anna Smaill: Part 2
Episode 25 - Anna Smaill Part 1
Episode 24 - Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 3
Episode 23 - Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 2
Episode 22- Hanya Yanagihara: The People in Trees - Part 1
Episode 21 - Hanya Yanagihara 2014 on Book Groups
Episode 20 - Tom Drury Part 3
Episode 19 - Tom Drury on the Internet
Episode 18 - Tom Drury Part 2
Episode 17 - Tom Drury on Light
Episode 16 - Tom Drury Part 1
Episode 15 - Tom Drury on Music and Memory
Episode 14 - Amit Chaudhuri Part 2
Episode 13 - Amit Chaudhuri Part 1
Episode 12 - Brian Turner Part 4
Episode 11 - Brian Turner reads Ferris Wheel
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Just So Stories
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends