Maria Semple: Today will be different (2016)
259 pages
English language
Published Aug. 19, 2016
Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action, life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office -- but not Eleanor -- that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret. A hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.
Eleanor is hard to warm to at first, but she’s a character I can deeply relate to (perhaps regrettably so). As Semple’s journeys of discovery go, this isn’t the strongest, but her characters are as uniquely enticing as ever, her observations are always incisive, and it makes for a fun read.
It's not bad, but I can understand why this book has been panned.
By the author of "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" this book starts with a quirkiness similar to WYGB? - but it then digs itself into a rut, mainly because the protagonist is exhausting. She's like your overly-neurotic friend (we all have one) who can never get her life together and is a pain in the ass to make plans with.
That said, the author shows some solid technical skill in spinning a tale that covers a lot of ground while limiting it to one day of the character's life. I'd probably only recommend this book to people who haven't read Semple's other book and who live in Seattle.
