Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014The Million Copy Best-SellerRosemary’s young, just at college, and she’s decided not to tell anyone a thing about her family. So we’re not going to tell you too much either: you’ll have to find out for yourselves, round about page 77, what it is that makes her unhappy family unlike any other.Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the … the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone – vanished from her life. There’s something unique about Rosemary’s sister, Fern. And it was this decision, made by her parents, to give Rosemary a sister like no other, that began all of Rosemary’s trouble. So now she’s telling her story: full of hilarious asides and brilliantly spiky lines, it’s a looping narrative that begins towards the end, and then goes back to the beginning. Twice.It’s funny, clever, intimate, honest, analytical and swirling with ideas that will come back to bite you. We hope you enjoy it, and if, when you’re telling a friend about it, you do decide to spill the beans about Fern – it’s pretty hard to resist – don’t worry. One of the few studies Rosemary doesn’t quote says that spoilers actually enhance reading.
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The musings of Fowler’s savvy, coming of age narrator are so punchy and slick I was hooked from the beginning. She really hits her stride in this novel about a rather unconventional university family. “My father was himself a college professor and a pedant to the bone. Every exchange contained a lesson, like the pit in a cherry. To this day, the Socratic method makes me want to bite someone.” I laughed out loud, felt like I had just made a new friend and wanted all good things for this likeable heroine. Like life, that’s not what happens, but it’s a great story. Fowler’s voice is so sure and the narrative so true, it felt more like memoire than a novel.
I am completely beside myself as to how to write this review.
First, hands-down, this is an amazing work, so outstandingly original that at many points it seems like it must be a completely true story of a real life in all its inconsistent, annoyingly unsatisfying twists and turns.
Second, I wanted to take a baseball bat to the head of nearly every single character met in the book, up to and sometimes including Todd, which I suppose is the mark of a great writer to force the reader to feel such strong emotions. I wish I could do that. I think.
I nearly gave up in the beginning, so irritated by the college-age main character in her pseudo-intellectual, brainlessly self-absorbed stage. Of course once the story goes back to her childhood and Fern, I felt much more sympathetic toward her and her intelligent but criminally-stupid-in- many-ways parents, and even her brother who destroyed their mother and crushed his sister over [what I won’t specify in order to avoid a spoiler]. (I never softened toward the pathologically brainless Harlow; maybe I would if I heard her whole story as well, but I’m churlish enough to not want to.)
I think the point of the book may be how childhood traumas are rocks in ponds, and the ripples keep going in unexpected ways and for a long, long time–which is an excellent point.
(Disclosure: this is the same review I put on Goodreads, because in this particular case I couldn’t figure out how to say the same thing differently.)
I found this an unusual, curious book. Part family story, part animal rights tale, and a finalist for the Man Booker, its theme concerning the relationship of human beings to their natural environment and other species somewhat reminds me of Lab Girl and Overstory and a few of Kingsolver’s books.
[SPOILER ALERT] The story of an odd, academic family (the father is a professor) that adopts and raises a chimpanzee named Fern as one of the three children, it is told from the perspective of the “other” daughter, Rosemary, nearly the same age, so they’re raised as “twins” until Fern and Rosemary are around five years old. When Fern leaves, it wreaks emotional havoc on the entire family, especially the mother, who has a nervous breakdown, and the brother, Lowell, who becomes a fervent animal activist.
There is a piercing clarity to the language; Fowler has the knack of succinct, brutally frank observation and a delicately allusive style, drawing upon everything from Shakespeare plays to Schrodinger’s cat to convey Rosemary’s lived experience. I found myself underlining as I read, especially at the moments when I winced with sympathy or grinned wryly in understanding. One theme is the problematic nature of memory—what we remember and how that memory is overwritten or effaced. But to me, it seemed the large overarching theme is how rules and conventions govern the ways we communicate—including the inevitable failures and purposeful omissions (due to repressive social norms, say) as well as the misunderstandings that stem from talking too much or simply because words and gestures (for chimpanzees as well as humans) are not fixed in meaning. An early example: “One day, a package of junior-sized tampons was left on my bed along with a pamphlet that looked technical and boring, so I didn’t read it. Nothing was ever said to me about the tampons. It was just blind luck I didn’t smoke them.”
Another: [Father] told [his mother] he was running a Markov chain analysis of avoidance conditioning. He cleared his throat. He was going to tell us more. We moved to close off the opportunity. Wheeled like a school of fish, practiced, synchronized. It was beautiful. It was Pavlovian. It was a goddamn dance of avoidance conditioning. “Pass the turkey, Mother,” my uncle Bob said.
Another: No more politics, Grandma Donna had said as a permanent new rule, since we wouldn’t agree to disagree and all of us had access to cutlery.
The secret purposefully withheld from the reader (that Fern is a chimpanzee) is revealed around page 70; our narrator is very aware of the conventions of storytelling, which is (after all) yet another form of communication. An inveterate talker as a child, Rosemary explains that her father (who has tired of her long recitals) advises her to start a tale in the middle. She also leaves holes in the text: “My father made a crude joke … If the joke were witty, I’d include it, but it wasn’t.”
This was a quick, enjoyable read for book club. It is the first book I’ve read by Fowler, but I will look up her others.
What a great story. Beautiful and tragic all at the same time.
Growing up in the 70s, I remember reading and hearing about folks who tried to raise chimps as one of the family. Every one of those experiments failed. Why? In scene after poignant, heartbreaking scene, Fowler shows us what happened to her fictitious family. The toll that failure took on the kids who were raised with their chimp sibling is devastating. By turns, this novel made me laugh and cry. Fowler’s crisp and clear prose teaches us something about the dangers of anthropomorphizing.
A complex story about a deeply personal and transformative relationship between two sisters whose lives were separated. It made me laugh and cry and question our ideas of what family means.
One of those books that make you wonder what’s happening for a couple chapters until SUDDENLY you get it and then it all unfolds.
Witty and brilliant, heart-breaking, goofy, so many other things I can’t find the words for it. The less you know going in the better, but even if you know the big secret going in (I did) it’s still a wonderful, powerful, utterly worthwhile read.
Excellent writing, great characters, awesome twist.
Read this books weeks ago, still can’t get it off my mind. Don’t want to reveal anything but do want to recommend it. Very well written, well composed, wonderful read. If you are considering it, do yourself a favor and go for it. There are many reasons it was shortlisted for Man Booker.
Clever, strong voice of characters.
Original story line with a fresh narrative voice. The underlying messages about the value of animal lives never felt like a lecture, rather a tautological truth that we simply needed to rediscover.
This book caught me completely by surprise – in the best possible way. It opens with Rosemary at college, trying to come to terms with the turmoil that is her family. What follows is a remarkable journey as Rosemary remembers scenes from her childhood that will eventually help her move forward. It’s very well-crafted. There’s a twist that’s not a plot twist so much as a revelation of something very obvious that’s been carefully hidden (to amazing effect!) by the narration. It’s a really marvelous book and it’s discounted today, so pick it up!!
Don’t read anything about this amazing book before you read the book itself–not even the copy on the back of the book!
A fantastic book. Fern is a chimp, and Rosemary is a child. But they are siblings – raised together – and then one day, Fern disappears. Then her older brother, Lowell, also vanishes. The story is told from Rosemary’s point of view, and it is heartbreaking and inspiring (OK, I hate to sound clichéd, but seriously, this was one incredibly uplifting book, even though I cried through most of it). Fern thinks she’s a human, and Rosemary sometimes acts the chimp – and they are both traumatized when they are separated. I’ve never read a story like this one – I loved it, and I’ll be looking up the author’s other books as well.
I loved this book! Great insights into family relationships and entirely original yet realistic.
An amazing read, such surprising turns, heart warming memorable characters.
Slow moving. Dysfunctional family.
I loved the title and did not expect a story that drew me in to an unexpectedly amazing story. I work with animals and the story brought forward many thoughts and fears about the lives of the animals I work with. Excellent.
I so enjoyed this book – superbly written with an engaging, funny, honest voice. I found myself thinking about it all day long. Even though some of the things that happened in the book were incredulous, it still felt real — like it was actually a memoir. Another book that challenges me to be a better writer at the same time as it intimidates the hell out of me. Great writing. Fowler is incredibly talented.