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We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
2013 · 310 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is literary fiction (literary family saga, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in a suburban setting, in the recent past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are family, identity and coming of age. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 310 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- prolific veteran
- Setting: place
- suburban
- Setting: time
- recent past
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- family, identity, coming of age
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
She’s Come UndoneWally LambShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The Lovely BonesAlice SeboldShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
Saint XAlexis SchaitkinShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
Demon CopperheadBarbara KingsolverShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
White OleanderJanet FitchShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, bittersweet ending
The book of evidenceJohn BanvilleShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
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