Karen Joy Fowler used a true account of a psychological study done at Indiana University as the broad base for her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Her research uncovered the work of Winston and Luella Kellogg and their studies of language and communication. The novel could have been a simple straightforward tale of the dysfunctional Cooke family; it could have been a story about a psychologist whose children were observed by both their father and his graduate students for a period of 5 years. But Fowler chose to tell the story by starting in the middle reliving the trauma through the character, Rosemary. As the story begins, the reader finds that Rosemary has long suffered from the loss of her "sister" Fern when they were 5 years old. Rosemary's whole life has been affected by the loss of her sister and her inability to get anyone in her family to explain how it happened. The story is unraveled for the reader little by little with the introduction of characters who push Rosemary to remember exactly what happened to Fern when they were little. "Rosemary’s voice is achingly memorable, and Fowler’s intelligent discourse on science vs. compassion reshapes the traditional family novel into something more universally relevant." (Miami Herald) The author chose to write a sometimes heartbreaking novel, but the beauty of her writing style and her exquisite expressions; her use of words and phrases that were "perfect" for the storyline really made this an unforgetable story. In the end we are forced to face the reality that we are not perfect "human beings."
