Fiction, Fantasy, and YA--How I Live Now

REVIEW: FICTION, FANTASY, AND YA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rosoff, Meg. 2006. How I Live Now. Farmington Hills, MI: Thorndike Press. ISBN 0786288787

PLOT SUMMARY

The story is narrated by a fifteen-year old anorexic girl named Elizabeth who likes to be called Daisy. Daisy’s father and “evil” stepmother send her from New York to London, Her cousin, Edmond, meets her at the airport. Daisy is fascinated by Edmond who smokes cigarettes and drives a car at the age of fourteen. She is welcomed warmly by the rest of the family, Aunt Pen, Piper, Isaac, and Osbert. The family lives in a house in the country with a variety of animals.

There is talk of impending war. Aunt Pen, a peace activist, goes to Oslo to help with peace efforts in the country. England is attacked and the borders are closed. The kids are left alone without adult supervision. In the beginning, the children enjoy the freedom and are not affected by the war. Daisy and Edmond are attracted to each other and give in to their endless hunger by having sex.

There is a rumor of an epidemic of smallpox. The country side is quarantined. Later, British Soldiers take over the family’s house, recruit Osbert, and send Daisy and Piper to live with a military family. Daisy becomes nine-year old Pepper’s protector and promises her that they will be reunited with the rest of the family.

Daisy’s telepathic connection with Edmond helps her survive the ordeal of the war. As she and Piper walk miles in the wilderness towards home, they eat wild mushrooms, watercress, and nuts. Daisy begins to enjoy food. “Somewhere along the line, I lost the will not to eat.” She ends her internal dialog by saying “What do you know? Every war has a silver lining.”

Daisy is forcefully brought back to New York by her father. After six years of war and closed borders, Daisy finally returns to England. Edmond has changed from a carefree teenager to a bitter and wounded man. “I have no idea how damaged Edmond is, I just know that he needs peace and he needs to be loved. And both those things I can do.”

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This is a controversial and contemporary realistic fiction about utopia and dystopia. The story also includes a clairvoyant touch. Some of the issues it deals with are independence, worthy accomplishments, and emotions that are important to young adults. The motif includes heroism, exploration, and possibility.

The psychic connection between Daisy and Edmond is revealed at the beginning of the book.

After a while I was feeling woozy and thought Boy, could I ever use a drink of freezing water to clear my head, and when I looked up Edmond was standing there holding one hand out and in it was a glass of water with ice cubes, and all the time looking at me with his almost smiling look and though I didn't think much about this at the time, I noticed Isaac looking at Edmond in a funny way.

The author describes Utopia in the eyes of the main character, Daisy.

So there we are carrying on our happy little life of underage sex, child labor and espionage when someone came to visit us, which, after weeks of Just Us Five kind of took us by surprise, to put it mildly.

The author realistically portrays most contemporary young teenagers’ indifferent attitude unless they are personally affected by a situation.

No matter how much you put on a sad expression and talked about how awful it was that all those people were killed and what about democracy and the Future of Our Great Nation the fact that none of us kids said out loud was that WE DIDN'T REALLY CARE.

The description of dystopia is found in the following paragraph.

Altogether I found nine men, three women and five children. One of the children was a girl, younger than Alby, still with her mother’s arms around her. The woman looked young, but like all the women[,] was fully dressed in dirty and bloodstained clothes so whatever funny business you expect in a war hadn’t happened here other than murder in cold-blood.

Daisy’s struggle with anorexia is never mentioned directly. Rosoff interjects hints here and there for the reader to infer.

This leaves me and Dr. Jameson all alone and while he’s looking me up and down I’m reminiscing about what a nice time I’ve had here in England completely free of doctors and what a crying shame it’s come to an end so soon, and after a little silence he says, How long has this been going on? And I know he’s not talking about the war and I hope he’s not talking about Edmond and me, so I say What? like I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

It is obvious from the above dialog, that the writing style may be appreciated by youngsters. However, it is exhausting to read the paragraphs without punctuation.

Teenagers will definitely enjoy reading this book. However, before using this book in the classroom or acquiring it for the library, the teacher/librarian should get approval from the selection committee, share book lists with parents and administrators, and have rationale prepared for choosing to acquire or use book in classroom. Finally, the teacher/librarian should set procedure in place in case concerns arise.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

BookList, 09/01/2004

Gr. 8-11. A 15-year-old, contemporary urbanite named Daisy, sent to England to summer with relatives, falls in love with her aunt's "oldy worldy" farm and her soulful cousins--especially Edmond, with whom she forms "the world's most inappropriate case of sexual obsession." Matters veer in a startling direction when terrorists strike while Daisy's aunt is out of the country, war erupts, and soldiers divide the cousins by gender between two guardians. Determined to rejoin Edmond, Daisy and her youngest cousin embark upon a dangerous journey that brings them face to face with horrific violence and undreamt-of deprivation. Just prior to the hopeful conclusion, Rosoff introduces a jolting leap forward in time accompanied by an evocative graphic device that will undoubtedly spark lively discussions. As for the incestuous romance, Daisy and Edmond's separation for most of the novel and the obvious emotional sustenance Daisy draws from their bond sensitively shift the focus away from the relationship's implicit (and potentially discomfiting) physical dimension. More central to the potency of Rosoff's debut, though, is the ominous prognostication of what a third world war might look like, and the opportunity it provides for teens to imagine themselves, like Daisy, exhibiting courage and resilience in roles traditionally occupied by earlier generations. -- Jennifer Mattson. Booklist, published by the American Library Association.

School Library Journal, 09/01/2004

Gr 8 Up –Daisy, 15, a troubled New York City teen with a distant father, a wicked (and pregnant) stepmother, and an eating disorder, is sent to England to stay on a rambling farm with her deceased mother's sister's family. It is made up of Aunt Penn "who always has Important Work To Do Related to the Peace Process" and her brood of children: Osbert, 16; 14-year-old twins Isaac and Edmond; and 9-year-old Piper. As the kids spend more and more time together, Daisy warms to them, beginning to tune in to a seemingly psychic bond that the siblings share. When Aunt Penn travels to Oslo, Daisy begins a sexual relationship with Edmond. At the same time, hostile forces invade England. Originally enjoying the freedom of a world that seems to have forgotten them, the cousins are inevitably separated, leaving Piper and Daisy to struggle across the countryside and rejoin the others. Daisy's voice is uneven, being at times teenage vapid, while elsewhere sporting a vocabulary rich with 50-cent words, phrases, and references. In addition, Rosoff barely scratches the surface of the material at hand. At times, this is both intentional and effective (the enemy is never named) but for the most part the dearth of explanation creates insurmountable questions around the basic mechanisms of the plot. There is no explanation of how a small force could take out all communications (including cell phones) and proceed to overrun and to control an entire country. Perhaps even stranger, the ramifications of psychic abilities and underage sexual relationships between first cousins is never addressed.–Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Libraries, Ontario, Canada School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication

Kirkus Reviews, 07/14/2004

Manhattanite Daisy, 15, moves to London to stay with an aunt and cousins she's never met. Without preamble or fanfare, an unidentified enemy attacks and war ensues. Her aunt is abroad on a peace mission, meaning that Daisy and her three cousins, with whom she forges a remarkable relationship, must survive almost entirely on their own. This is a very relatable contemporary story, told in honest, raw first-person and filled with humor, love, pathos, and carnage. War, as it will, changes these young people irrevocably, not necessarily for the worse. They and readers know that no one will ever be the same. The story of Daisy and her three exceptional cousins, one of whom becomes her first lover, offers a keen perspective on human courage and resilience. An epilogue, set six years after the conclusion, while war still lingers, ends Daisy's story on a bittersweet, hopeful note. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright 2004, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Publishers Weekly, 07/05/2004

This riveting first novel paints a frighteningly realistic picture of a world war breaking out in the 21st century. Told from the point of view of 15-year-old Manhattan native Daisy, the novel follows her arrival and her stay with cousins on a remote farm in England. Soon after Daisy settles into their farmhouse, her Aunt Penn becomes stranded in Oslo and terrorists invade and occupy England.

Daisy's candid, intelligent narrative draws readers into her very private world, which appears almost utopian at first with no adult supervision (especially by contrast with her home life with her widowed father and his new wife). The heroine finds herself falling in love with cousin Edmond, and the author credibly creates a world in which social taboos are temporarily erased. When soldiers usurp the farm, they send the girls off separately from the boys, and Daisy becomes determined to keep herself and her youngest cousin, Piper, alive. Like the ripple effects of paranoia and panic in society, the changes within Daisy do not occur all at once, but they have dramatic effects. In the span of a few months, she goes from a self-centered, disgruntled teen to a courageous survivor motivated by love and compassion.

How she comes to understand the effects the war has had on others provides the greatest evidence of her growth, as well as her motivation to get through to those who seem lost to war's consequences. Teens may feel that they have experienced a war themselves as they vicariously witness Daisy's worst nightmares. Like the heroine, readers will emerge from the rubble much shaken, a little wiser and with perhaps a greater sense of humanity. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) Publishers Weekly, A Reed Business Information Publication

CONNECTIONS

Use fiction fantasy books in the classroom to practice reading. Have a class discussion about wars and how they affect people.

Other similar books by Meg Rosoff

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