We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

I really didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected to given the rave reviews it has received. It started off well enough as we are introduced to Rosemary's dysfunctional family. We are told that her brother, Lowell and sister, Fern have disappeared from her life and this has led to her mother having a complete breakdown from which she never really recovered. As a result of her siblings' disappearance, Rosemary has never felt able to talk about them with other people and has never been able to develop friendships. Intriguingly, we begin to suspect there is something different about Fern and that this is the cause of the family's collapse.

Once it is revealed to us why Fern and Lowell vanished, I had difficulty believing that the family would be affected so devastatingly. Rosemary was only five at the time and it seems difficult to believe that she would be unable to relate to others and go on to make friends and lead a normal life. When she does eventually make a friend at college she is annoying and highly unstable so seems an unlikely choice for someone seeking a conservative life. I also failed to accept the mother's extreme distress and found it difficult to believe that Lowell would react in the way he did.

For me the second half of the book was too long and could have been better focused. I understood the family's desire to find Fern but couldn't accept the premise that their lives had to be subjugated to that. Overall, I thought the idea behind the book was interesting but the delivery was somewhat flawed.