Today Will Be Different
From the bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette
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3.0 • 16 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Eleanor Flood knows she's a mess. But today will be different. Today she will shower and put on real clothes. She will attend her yoga class after dropping her son, Timby, off at school. She'll see an old friend for lunch. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action - life happens.
For today is the day Timby has decided to pretend to be ill to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day surgeon Joe has chosen to tell his receptionist - but not Eleanor - that he's on vacation. And just when it seems that things can't go more awry, a former colleague produces a relic from the past - a graphic memoir with pages telling of family secrets long buried and a sister to whom Eleanor never speaks.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you read Where’d You Go, Bernadette, you’re already familiar with Maria Semple’s offbeat sense of humour and razor-sharp observations about modern domestic life. Today Will Be Different is the story of Eleanor Flood, an animator who worked on a cult TV series called Looper Wash—about a crew of ponies with attitude—and is now languishing as a stay-at-home mother of one in Seattle. A chain of unwelcome surprises launches Eleanor on a madcap quest to uncover why her surgeon husband’s been lying about his whereabouts. We were thrilled to tag along for the ride.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On the fateful day she decides to be her "best self," Eleanor Flood cult-famous cartoonist, mother, wife, cynic spirals from one catastrophe to the next. Her day quickly turns hectic when her son, Timby, comes home sick from school. Hoping his father might help, Eleanor instead begins to suspect her surgeon husband is having an affair when his receptionist acts cagey. Eleanor's ego is bruised when she realizes an underling she fired years ago is now a famous artist, she dodges calls from her publisher about a long-passed deadline for her graphic memoir, and, finally, she suffers what may be a concussion after crashing headfirst into a sculpture. The latest from Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette?) is a sharp, funny read, and the author injects quirky elements drawings, a comic book, photocopies of poems to add another layer of enjoyment. Though Eleanor is snarky, her troubles and growing calamities are engaging. Some of her encounters are a bit too convenient, and the trope of a "day from hell" makes for shallow interactions between characters, but Semple augments these first-person antics with third-person sections that dig deep into Eleanor's past, finding particular resonance when telling the story of Ivy, the sister Eleanor feels she has lost to a wealthy husband in New Orleans. In the end, the novel wraps up too neatly, but the ride is consistently entertaining.
Customer Reviews
Bernadette was better
2.5 stars
Author
American novelist and screenwriter. The first half to two-thirds of her previous book 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?' was a mixed-media delight, but things lost focus from there. Still, well worth reading.
Plot
As with Bernadette, the setting is Seattle. Like Ms Semple herself, protagonist Eleanor Flood has moved there from elsewhere and is dissatisfied with life, yet determined "today will be different." Once a figure to be reckoned with in New York, Eleanor is trying to lead a simple (s distinct from semple) uncomplicated life. She's learning about poetry from a private tutor, trying to accommodate the whims and anxieties of her neurotic child Timby. Fortunately, she has her rock of a husband to lean on, or has she?
Writing
Ms Semple writes very engagingly with good pacing and there are some funny passages, but I got bored and gave up somewhere between half and two-thirds of the
way.
Bottom line
Serves me right for reading chick lit. Bernadette was better.
Female
Very annoyed this book is so short! Took a while to get invested in the story and then the author pulls the plug. It feels as though the second half of the book is missing!