Off Book: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Off Book is my rambling reactions to recent reads.
(SPOILERS for all book commentary posts)

Karen Joy Fowler's book is about three years old, but I'm just reading it now. I imagine it was popular in my hometown of Davis when it came out; it's fun to trace Rosemary's antics through the college town. But the appeal of the book is so much deeper.

My mom read the book first as an e-book, and therefore didn't know the major plot point that it's a story of a family that raised a chimp as a daughter for five years, and the fallout from when Fern is taken away. She said it was fascinating at her book club to see how different her experience was from those who read a physical book and saw the chimp on the cover and read the copy on the back of the book. Mom says she enjoyed the reveal, so she wrapped a copy up for me to give me the same experience. It certainly made the first third of the book tantalizing, and also let me experience the story as narrator Rosemary intends, hearing of her sister Fern before designating her "just" a chimp.

The book is about how we grow up revising the stories of our lives in our own heads, about how we came away from nature--this past, lost paradise of a rambling farmhouse and land, where animals are kin and the patriarchy is (only seemingly?) held at bay. The doubles--imaginary and real friends, dummies, sisters--and the title hint at the theme of knowing ourselves and others. It's about identity, how we find ourselves in others and make ourselves into who we are, and a basic nub of immutable identity at the heart of us.  It's about storytelling itself--a very human act--and it's entertaining as heck!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, a book worth buying, worth the shelf space. It's going to be a classic. Fan of Kingsolver's The Bean Trees will enjoy.

Pages and Stages

I'm writing this with my left thumb. And I am not lefthanded! My son just abandoned ship with regards to his lovely bed and sought refuge in the big bed. My right arm seems to be his life preserver right now. And that illustrates just what Pages and Stages is about. Writing. Parenting. Growing. Rookie, as I'll call him here, will not always need mama's arm to pass through the second stretch of night. For now, I'll assist him. And I'm learning as I write, and as I cling, adrift in darkness, to this little person. 

I trust the process of learning, of growth, of change. I've been here before. Big sister, Owl, spent many a night huddled in mama's arms. Now she remains in the kids' room, placidly sailing on her dreams. If she ever puts her book down and falls asleep.

Ah yes, the books. Books for Owl. I'm an expert on books through elementary school level now, thanks to my ceaseless looking for new reads for her. Books for me, and maybe you. I'd like to share what books guide me through my own rough waters, and hear from you as well. 

And books being born. Books emerging, books being carved out, word by word. I'm writing a few. Hopefully not with my left thumb. Although perhaps it's like standing on one's desk to gain a new perspective. Perhaps the child carried along through the night's writing is what gives it that new outlook. 

And maybe not books but shorter, if not smaller, pieces of writing. Blog posts and essays and poems. Maybe that I share here. Maybe that you need help with. Let's read and write and learn and grow. Sailing, together, on the infinite sea of words.