Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Reactions to the novel
Hello, students and faculty! In the comments, please let us know what your first impressions are of the book. Could you relate to the college-aged narrator? What aspects of the book surprised, delighted, or interested you? Please indicate which school you're from so we can see that our ideas are crossing the campuses!
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We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a very interesting story that has an underlying message behind it. It was hard to relate to the author because her life was so extraordinary. First learning that Fern was a chimpanzee and not a human was an amazing shock.
ReplyDeleteMoorpark College
I loved the book, I found it twisting my thoughts in the beginning and the shock of Fern being a chimpanzee really got me. Moorpark College
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ReplyDeleteSPOILER ALERT!!!!
ReplyDeleteA book with many themes Karen Joy Fowler's "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" is a story of isolation sprinkled with humor. Fowler's wit is what really keeps this book from being a really depressing novel and I would highly suggest it to anyone. It's an easy read that keeps the reader interested in defining what it means to be a person, an chimpanzee and a girl raised with an chimpanzee.
I thought this book was really interesting and I reccomend it to others to read it as well. I think this book could raise awareness about what really goes on in these labs. It's a good thing to know about the reality of these poor chimps. Karen was very down to earth and enjoyed her speech about her beliefs and the funny stories she told.
ReplyDeleteOnce I began reading the novel it was hard to put it down! Fowlers extraordinary ideas kept my mind very open and I was constantly prepared for new shocks after learning of Ferns true identity. Great novel with even greater ideas.
ReplyDeleteThis novel was one of the more interesting ones I have read. It follows a girl's journey throughout her life after her sister, who happens to be a chimp, disappears, followed by her brother's disappearance. Although the sequence of events made it hard to follow at times, Fowlers writing and witty sense of humor made it worth a read.
ReplyDeleteInitially, I was not hooked on the novel. But once Rosemary revealed that she was raised with a chimpanzee, I started to become engrossed in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I adored the unique storyline and I got attached to Fern. I thought the ending was cute, but I wished Fowler wrote more interaction with Fern.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler's talk at CSUCI. Her background about growing up in Indiana, how her father was a research scientist, and how she grew up in the labs studying lab rats and how she was haunted by the screams of rhesus monkeys really made the novel come to life for me in new ways.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Kaye