Growing Up Chimp: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler

Fast Facts

• Shockingly, inspired by the story of a 1930's scientist couple who tried to raise a baby chimpanzee side-by-side with their human daughter
• Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction
• Short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize
• Note: I tried to read The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which beat Fowler's book for the Man Booker last year.  Couldn't get past page 25.
• Kindle users like me (who also haven't read this post) can delight in not catching the cover art, and not reading the back of the book for the "spoiler" about the identity of protagonist Rosemary's sister, Fern
• 320 pages
• A definite recommend, though not an absolute favorite

The Big Reveal

You'll start off thinking that you're reading about a college student's rebellion phase and normal resentment towards her parents.  Relatable perhaps, well-written and often funny to be sure, and somewhat interesting - but wait for the twist.

Fowler drops in little hints of family dysfunction and mystery into the beginning of the book - which starts in the middle chronologically (a bit heavy-handed, but still a good structural device to keep the intrigue alive.)   Examples of Fowler's little hints, signaling that something is "off": siblings that keep disappearing, and family homes that keep growing smaller to accommodate the disappearances.  Rosemary being sent away to stay with her grandparents after some unnamed trauma.  Constant references to how chatty Rosemary was as a child, and her struggle to fit in with her brother and with social groups.  Growing up at a farmhouse that people assume has an electrified lawn.

I'll admit, the beginning of this book didn't exactly have me hooked - but keeping the delicious secret about Rosemary's family for the first 75 pages or so made the big reveal one of the best parts of the reading experience.  That is, if you didn't pay attention to the cover art or book summary before starting the novel (which I'd seriously recommend!)

Making Your Parents Look Like Pros

Rosemary's resentment at her parents is far more well-founded than that of most young(ish) adults.  It turns out that, in an effort to (as her mother puts it) make Rosemary's life "extraordinary", Rosemary's parents decide to raise Rosemary side-by-side with Fern, a chimpanzee, from when Rosemary is a few months old until she is five years old.

The goal, aside from giving Rosemary this "extraordinary" life, is to have graduate students at the university where Rosemary's father is a professor study Rosemary and Fern, like one big science project, to publish about the effect they're having on one another's development.  And of course, Rosemary's father hopes to propel his academic career to a level of achievement that will merit the New York Times writing a respectful obituary about him.

It's no wonder Rosemary thinks her parents are The Worst.  Even more appalling, though, are the real-life examples that Fowler provides during the novel, of other chimps raised as "human", and the difficult, depressing consequences.

At Last, the Beginning and the End

As previously mentioned, the story starts in the narrative middle with Rosemary's disorderly conduct arrest in college, related to her soon-to-be friend Harlow's animal-like behavior in a cafeteria.  College Rosemary's antics are, in my opinion, the least interesting part of the book.

The beginning section, which comes next, explains Rosemary's strange childhood, and the circumstances leading to Fern's disappearance.  This is the part of the novel that makes it worth the time and effort - and it is told skillfully and beautifully in vignettes and flashes of questionable memory, given that we are relying on the recollections of a traumatized adult, reflecting on her first five years of life.

Finally, as Rosemary confronts the effects of her early upbringing and tries to find her family and herself in the process, Fowler weaves in bigger moral questions about animal rights, animal treatment, and the ways that these topics relate to human rights and the people we lock away in cages.  

The result is a fascinating story that tackles important issues, and lingers long after the last page has been read.