Fowler's first-person narration is like a lucid dream. The protagonist, Rosemary Cooke, is caught up, but self-aware and conscious of various versions of the past and present. This is kind of a spoiler, but if you read the book jacket you'll find out the same thing--that Rose spent the first five years of her life with a chimp for a sister. The two (two months apart in age) were raised together until the chimp, Fern, was sent away.
As you'll see from the quotations I've shared, Rose is original and well-spoken, and likes librarians. While I was taken with the language, I was in a rush to finish the book. I don't know if that's just because I'm hoping to get to 100 books this year, and I've got just over eleven weeks left to read nineteen books, if I was in a hurry to get to Fangirl, which I checked out of the library on Friday or if We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves gets a little wearing.
Fair warning, as it turned out--kindergarten is all about learning which parts of you are welcome at school and which are not.
I can't believe that being called Fredericka my whole life wouldn't have taken a toll. I can't believe it wouldn't have mind-bent me like a spoon. (Not that I haven't been mind-bent.)
"When I get married," I say, "I want the wedding to be in a car in a car wash."
When I run the world, librarians will be exempt from tragedy. Even their smaller sorrows will last only for as long as you can take out a book.