Book Group: Oct Bonus Book - We AACB Ourselves discussion thread
21 watchers
Oct 2014
10:50pm, 17 Oct 2014
12,829 posts
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McGoohan
SPOILER ALERT!!! This is an extra bonus discussion thread for the October Bonus Book, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. DO NOT proceed if you haven't read it and don't want it spoiled for you! This thread is also intended for people who have already read Big Brother by Lionel Shriver or have started reading it and given up. Therefore I think BB is fair game for spoilers/discussion here as WAACBO is the bonus one. Fair? |
Oct 2014
10:54pm, 17 Oct 2014
5,806 posts
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Pestomum
Got it. Starting it tomorrow 
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Oct 2014
10:59pm, 17 Oct 2014
12,831 posts
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McGoohan
Anyway. So, the reason I was a bit torn which of BB or WAACBO to choose was that they both, in part, concern sibling relationships but from very different angles. In terms of WAACBO I'm thinking actually more about the relationship between the narrator and her brother than between the narrator and Fern. |
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Oct 2014
11:00pm, 17 Oct 2014
12,832 posts
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McGoohan
Oooh, don't read this thread Pesto. I nearly did a *big* spoiler there! I expect you'll fly through WAACBO though.
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Oct 2014
11:02pm, 17 Oct 2014
12,833 posts
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McGoohan
Poll wise this is scoring waaaaayyyy higher than BB.
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Oct 2014
9:40am, 18 Oct 2014
1,087 posts
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Lorraine
The way the narrator talks about all the 'family' relationships is very interesting. Both books look at 'family' relationships in different ways
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Oct 2014
9:57am, 18 Oct 2014
17,598 posts
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fleecilyFurman
I'm finding it interesting because the dad is an academic, she has a lot of sharp observations to make about psychologists and psychology I used to test my kids out when I was doing my child development module, I'm not sure that raising your kid alongside a monkey isn't a bit extreme though! I haven't finished, about halfway through so I better not look at this thread again.
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Oct 2014
10:57am, 18 Oct 2014
403 posts
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JenLov
WAACBO I especially liked the part on theory of mind and how this translated into everyday relationships. I think near the beginning I was concerned as to whether they would all find each other again but this became less important. I also think that research ethics of today make us cringe at the thought of raising a chimp alongside a child. I'd happily read it again in a few years. |
Oct 2014
12:37pm, 18 Oct 2014
18,993 posts
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Bintmcskint
Just finished this (literally 5 minutes ago) so going to take a while to think about it before leaping into a discussion but I liked it. I also appreciated not knowing the twist before hand. I do wonder what difference it would have made to my experience of the book had I known. |
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Oct 2014
8:59pm, 18 Oct 2014
17,603 posts
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fleecilyFurman
Read a bit more, but I need to avoid this thread! You might not all know, but the name Harlow is famous in psychology for monkey studies on maternal deprivation psychology.about.com I also have something to say about monkey impulsivity but I'm not sure what it is yet. How many quotes have people spotted? I have 'let the wild rumpus start' and 'if wishes were fishes' so far, there are probably lots more It's a very clever book.
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