She ominously hints that the only reason she even came to college in California was because this was the spot the FBI had last seen Lowell. Rose has a very strained relationship with her brother, Lowell, whom she hasn’t seen she was eleven. An even more surprising event occurs when she goes to pick up the luggage from her landlord and she hears that her brother has been looking for her. Rose calls the airline trying to get her lost luggage. Harlow ends up leaving, but takes Rose out to the bar the next day to apologize. Much to her surprise, Harlow is waiting along with her roommate Todd. Unfortunately, she loses her mother's journals on the plane ride back to college. Rose is surprised by this because their family almost never brings up the past. Rose talks with her mother, who ends up giving Rose her personal journals. She goes home with them and is surprised to find that they have moved into another house. Although it has gotten better in recent years, it tends to come out during the holidays. Rose talks about how her father had a drinking problem in the past. Her mother’s side of the family dislikes her father because he’s an atheist, as well as a scientist. Her father makes her promise to come for Thanksgiving so they can talk more about the arrest.Īt Thanksgiving, Rose reveals how tense things are with her family. Thanks to her father and testimony from one of the cafeteria workers, Rose is released. Unsure of what else to do, Rose gets in touch with her father. Campus security is quickly called in, but they mistakenly arrest Rose and Harlow. Harlow starts to make a scene, throwing everything off the tables and flipping chairs. Without giving many details, Rose also hints at two other siblings.Īt the cafeteria, Rose watches another student named Harlow fight with her boyfriend, Reg. When they do speak, things are always tense. She’s on speaking terms with her mother, but she almost never talks to her father outside of family gatherings. Rose reflects on a strained relationship with her parents. Rose has been attending college in Davis California for the last five years, still with no idea of what she wants to do with her future.

Known as Rose in the book, she starts in the middle of stories because she finds those parts to be the most interesting. The story, as Rosemary states in the opening chapters, begins in the middle years of her life.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Fowler, follows Rosemary Cooke as she comes to terms with her past, her present, and her future.

We were all beside ourselves