You’ve all seen the hashtag. The kid didn’t get into the
gifted program. The furnace is on the fritz. Her vacation will be in Miami
rather than Paris. The housekeeper quit.
Enter Eleanor Flood.
In Maria Semple’s new novel Today
Will Be Different, a once-upon-a-time animator of a popular TV show is now
writing her graphic memoir and shuttling her 8 year-old son from private school
to make-up counter. She and her surgeon husband (with a side gig on the
sidelines at Seahawks games) have agreed on Seattle for 10 years for him and
then back to New York for 10 for her. In the meantime, her mantra is “today
will be different.” And the day of this novel is.
With her customary wit, quirky flourishes, and uncanny depiction
of the familiar, Semple has created another character, like Bernadette, that
will stay on your mind long after you’ve closed the book. Despite the (first
world) problems Eleanor encounters, her desire to do better and be better
resonates with thrilling (and depressing) accuracy.
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