We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Rosemary is five years old and has just been picked up from Grandma Fredericka’s house after attempting to run away. The narrative jumps back to the year 1979. She realizes that the suitcase the airline returned is not actually hers. Rosemary finds it hard to believe that Lowell found her, but is convinced by the fact that he would not have used his real name. Rosemary ended up running away and attempting to walk all the way home to her parents’ house in Bloomington.Ī few days later, Ezra hands over Rosemary’s suitcase, which the airline returned while she was out he also tells her that her brother, “Travers,” came by and was looking for her. At the bar, Rosemary tells Harlow about a time when she was “shipped off” to live with her paternal grandparents, Grandma Fredericka and Grandpa Joe. Harlow offers to make it up to Rosemary by taking her out for a drink. Harlow explains that Reg kicked her out and she managed to persuade Rosemary’s building manager, Ezra Metzger, to let her in. When Rosemary returns home, she is shocked to find Harlow in her apartment. As Rosemary is preparing to head back to California, her mother tells her that she was considering donating her journals to a library, but has decided to give them to Rosemary instead.ĭuring the flight back to California, the airline loses Rosemary’s suitcase, which contain the journals. Rosemary’s mother’s family do not like Rosemary’s father, who is a psychologist and professor. They spend Thanksgiving with Rosemary’s maternal Grandma Donna, her Uncle Bob, Aunt Vivi, and cousins Peter and Janice. Rosemary’s family live in Indiana, and they do not discuss her arrest or any other contentious matters during the holiday. Reg comes to collect Harlow, and Rosemary is forced to call her father, who convinces Officer Hardick to drop all the charges against her in exchange for Rosemary promising to come home for Thanksgiving.

The girls are taken to the county jail and placed in a cell.

Rosemary throws her plate of food and glass of milk on the ground, and both she and Harlow are arrested. Harlow screams and throws a chair at Reg, who calls her a “psycho bitch.” Officer Haddick and other members of the campus police arrive and mistakenly approach Rosemary, thinking she was involved in the fight. One day, she is having lunch in the cafeteria when she witnesses a fight between a girl, Harlow, and her boyfriend, Reg. It has been 10 years since she has last seen her brother ( Lowell) and 17 since her sister ( Fern) “disappeared.” Rosemary is 22 and in her fifth year of college at UC Davis. Rosemary explains that she is going to “skip the beginning” of her story and “start in the middle,” which takes her to the winter of 1996.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler