How I Live Now
by Meg Rosoff
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Book Summary Information
Author: Meg RosoffEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-11
ISBN: 0553376055
Number of pages: 194
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780553376050
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of How I Live Now
Book Review: from [...]
Summary: 3 Stars
At first I was hesitant to put this book in my CLW line up because it is not, actually, a book I love. However, after giving the matter some thought I've decided that even though I don't adore it, this novel does fit my basic "chick lit" guideline (strong female character in a book written by a female author) so it gets to stay.
"How I Live Now" is Meg Rosoff's first novel. It is a Printz Award winner (an award for excellence in young adult literature), the Branford Boase Award for a first novel, as well as the Guardian award for Children's Literature.
My only issue is with the last award because there is no way that "How I Live Now" could be considered a children's book no matter how the term "children" is defined. Some reviews on Amazon suggested this book for readers age twelve and up. Personally, I feel that is inappropriate for a wide variety of reasons (I concur with a review that place the book as more fit for fourteen and up if not older) but of course it depends on the child and their reading level. I suspect this is a book protective parents might want to preview, or at least research, if their household is one where an adult has to approve the child's reading material.
Okay, so now you're either totally horrified or completely fascinated and want to know more. Here's the plot: The novel starts when fifteen-year-old Daisy is exiled by her father and step-mother to rural England where she is sent to live with her aunt and cousins. Things begin to look up for Daisy (a narrator who is, at best, troubled) in England as she gets to know her extended family and gets some distance from the negativity of her life in New York.
That is, until the unthinkable happens. When unidentified invaders attack and occupy England Daisy's life (along with everyone else') is turned upside down. That's all well and good. But there's more to it than that. Daisy also begins a passionate, secret, relationship with Edmond--her cousin. That's right, incestuous.
I've thought about this plot point since reading the novel and I do see how Daisy and Edmond being in love was pivotal to the way things went down in the novel. But I still don't understand why they had to be related. There are so many other, simpler, methods of creating that kind of connection between characters than using incest. Appropriateness aside, it just doesn't make sense.
Other reviewers suggest this novel is written in the near future, but really it doesn't read that way. It reads like it's written now. That's what makes the plot so haunting. Unfortunately it's also what makes the plot seem contrived. Perhaps Daisy's reality is closer than I'd like to admit, but the war angle kept seeming unreal (not surreal, just not real). The absence of details, while maintaining the terror of the unknown, was also counterproductive in establishing an authentic enemy.
The novel is also written as continuous prose, meaning there are no formatting breaks for dialogue (although paragraphs do still factor). This isn't my favorite style for literature, but it does work with the idea that Daisy is literally telling readers the story.
I didn't love this book. The truth is, after writing this review, I begin to wonder if I liked it. But that isn't to say that Daisy (and her younger cousin Piper) are not strong characters. Daisy may not make decisions that many people would agree with, but she does act on what she thinks is right (or at least on what she feels she has to do).
The strongest part of the novel is the middle where the incest doesn't loom large and before the ending seems to cut everything short, much in the way resolutions can put a stop to events in real life. This middle ground focuses on Daisy and Piper trying to survive in a world they don't always recognize. The title, comes from this scenario as readers watch Daisy and the rest of the world adapt to life during (and after) the war.
And frankly, despite my criticisms here, Rosoff does have some really nice lines. She writes with a sincerity that makes you really want to believe Daisy knows what she's doing (in the sense that it makes sense) with Edmond, and with her earlier issues with Bulimia (see why I said she was troubled?).
In summary, there was a lot I didn't like about this book. Being unfamiliar with the other candidates for that year, I can't say if "How I Live Now" was the best choice for a Printz Award. What I can say is that Rosoff does have a way with words which may, in my view at least, be able to better shine in a novel that isn't quite so edgy.
I'll leave you now with a few of the quotes I jotted down after my reading of the novel:
"The real truth is that the war didn't have much to do with it except that it provided a perfect limbo in which two people who were too young and too related could start kissing without anything or anyone making us stop."
"I didn't seem to have that effect on anyone but it would have been a waste for both of us to be saints."
"I frightened myself. I became the ghost Piper was so scared of."
Summary of How I Live Now
?Every war has turning points and every person too.?Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she?s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.
As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it?s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy?s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.
A riveting and astonishing story.
From the Hardcover edition.
Possibly one of the most talked about books of the year, Meg Rosoff's novel for young adults is the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2004. Heralded by some as the next best adult crossover novel since Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, who himself has given the book a thunderously good quote, this author's debut is undoubtedly stylish, readable and fascinating.
Rosoff's story begins in modern day London, slightly in the future, and as its heroine has a 15-year-old Manhattanite called Daisy. She's picked up at the airport by Edmond, her English cousin, a boy in whose life she is destined to become intricately entwined. Daisy stays at her Aunt Penn's country farmhouse for the summer with Edmond and her other cousins. They spend some idyllic weeks together--often alone with Aunt Penn away travelling in Norway. Daisy's cousins seem to have an almost telepathic bond, and Daisy is mesmerized by Edmond and soon falls in love with him.
But their world changes forever when an unnamed aggressor invades England and begins a years-long occupation. Daisy and Edmond are separated when soldiers take over their home, and Daisy and Piper, her younger cousin, must travel to another place to work. Their experiences of occupation are never kind and Daisy's pain, living without Edmond, is tangible.
Rosoff's writing style is both brilliant and frustrating. Her descriptions are wonderful, as is her ability to portray the emotions of her characters. However, her long sentences and total lack of punctuation for dialogue can be exhausting. Her narrative is deeply engaging and yet a bit unbelievable. The end of the book is dramatic, but too sudden. The book has a raw, unfinished feel about it, yet that somehow adds to the experience of reading it. (Age 14 and over) --John McLay
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