Quoting the review I read in Goodreads
with my own: TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, (No, NOT hilarious) heart-filled story
about reinvention, (NOT heartfilled,
crazyfilled) sisterhood, (They hated and
disappointed each other) and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former
selves to truly begin living. (You call
this living?)
I dreaded writing this review after loving Where’d You Go, Bernadette years ago.
The narrator is middle aged, Eleanor Flood. She is an animator, mother (Timby,
age 9) and wife of Joe. They live in Seattle. She is a miserable cynic who
loves her family but can’t stand them at the same time. She had a rough but
somewhat interesting childhood, and seems to have really lost her mind. She is
not just a little quirky, her manic
behavior is kind of scary. The story takes place in one endlessly long day. The
ideas come and go, scenes left dangling with little or no meaning. The numerous
characters are equally bizarre and their stories -even the meaningful ones,
like the scenes with her sister -leave the reader bewildered. The one and only
element I enjoyed was her drawings (animations) that depicted her childhood.
Maybe it should have been a graphic novel as Eleanor was meant to be working on
in the book. I am not a writer. I am a reader. As a reader, this was an
unenjoyable experience. I still recommend Bernadette.
And I look forward to more work from Maria Semple, with my fingers crossed.
Haha! That Goodreads review is hilarious. I have this on hold at the library in case I decide to see for myself all the crazypants everyone is talking about.
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