How I Live Now

Bibliography:
Rosoff, Meg. 2004. How I Live Now. New York. Random House Children’s Books. ISBN 0-385-746776-6.

Plot Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth, called Daisy, is leaving her life in Manhattan to live with an aunt and cousins she has never met. Her father’s girlfriend is pregnant, and Daisy is sure the baby will be evil spawn - - Damian she calls the unborn child. Daisy’s own mother died while giving birth to her.

Upon arriving in England, Daisy finds herself being picked up by her scruffy cousin, Edmond, “Now let me tell you what he looks like before I forget because it’s not exactly what you’d expect from you average fourteen-year-old what with the CIGARETTE and hair that looked like he cut it himself with a hatchet in the dead of night, but aside from that he’s exactly like some kind of mutt, you know the ones you see at the dog shelter who are kind of hopeful and sweet and put their nose straight into your hand when they meet you with a certain kind of dignity and you that from that second that you’re going to take him home? Well that’s him. Only he took me home.” (p. 3). Meg Rosoff’s use of capitalization and punctuation (or lack thereof) is unique and somehow makes the personality of young Daisy leap off the pages. The adolescent world, especially Daisy’s, does not follow conventional rules, and as such Rosoff throws conventional grammar out the window.

Daisy’s new family lives in an old house in the countryside. When she arrives she meets her other cousins, Osbert—the oldest, Isaac—who rarely speaks to humans but seems to have a special gift with animals, Piper—a girl and the youngest of the family. Aunt Penn is busy doing her Work, which later sends her away from the family to Oslow where she tries to fight the impending war. As Daisy discovers her new surroundings she is met with a sense of security and calm that she has never felt before. Daisy is soon aware that her cousin, Edmond is more in tune with her than anyone else has ever been. It soon becomes apparent that somehow Edmond is able to read her thoughts and feel her emotions. When Aunt Penn leaves for Oslow, Daisy and Edmond find themselves desperately in love with each other. Without adults, the cousins find themselves living in a kind of utopia with no rules, no school, just themselves and the beautiful countryside in which they live. They spend their days fishing, swimming, and basking in the sun. Things soon go from good to bad to worse when England finds itself under attack and at war. Provisions are rationed, roads are closed, and it is not long before the teenagers’ home is seized by the government and used as military barracks. The girls and boys are separated and forced to live elsewhere.

Separated from her teenage-cousin lover, Daisy’s desperation and despair is channeled into an effort to keep Piper and herself alive, and to somehow make her way back to the only family she has ever known. Daisy and Piper find themselves in survivalist situations, and witness horrible tragedies before they make their way back to their home in the country, which has been abandoned. Daisy’s father uses his connections to have Daisy sent home to America, and it is five years before the war is over and Daisy can go back to her cousins. When she does go back she finds Edmond forlorn and a shell of the being he was, having witnessed a massacre.


Critical Analysis:
Rosoff has written a very disturbing book; the reality of it being the most uncomfortable aspect. This book is set sometime in the near future in England. A war is raging between England and rebel covert fighters. The terrorist attacks including subway, train, and water supply attacks are realistic, and a fear we all live with. The realities of what life might be like in a war are frightening, “For instance, let’s say a kid gets appendicitis, or breaks his leg, there was no telephone to tell someone that the bone was sticking out of his thigh, no petrol to drive to a field hospital, if you happened to know where it was in the first place, and a big shortage of antibiotics if you did manage to get the kid to a surgeon somehow and wanted to make sure that he or she didn’t die of infection a week or so later.” (p. 84).

The character of young Daisy develops as the circumstances of her life necessitate maturity. In the beginning we meet a spoiled, melancholy girl from Manhattan, who has had trouble dealing with the death of her mother, and a father who has never related to her. It soon becomes obvious that Daisy is anorexic and has spent much time with therapists which she is flippant about, “I really tried to explain about at first not wanting to get poisoned by my stepmother and how much it annoyed her and how after a while I discovered I liked the feeling of being hungry and the fact that it drove everyone stark raving mad and cost my father a fortune in shrinks and also it was something I was good at. “ (pp. 42, 43). The first time we see Daisy softer and more vulnerable is when she is speaking with her Aunt Penn about her mother, “ …but I guess what you really want to know are the things you can’t ask like Did she have eyes like yours and When you pushed my hair back is that what it feels like to have your mother do it and Did her hands look serious and quiet like yours and Did she ever have a chance to look at me with a complicated expression like the one on your face, and Was she scared to die.” (p. 20). Daisy’s character adapts and responds to the circumstances in which she finds herself, ultimately keeping herself and her little cousin, Piper alive. It is through these tough times that we witness the evolution of Daisy from a spoiled New Yorker to a tough survivor, “And anyway, fighting back is what I’ve discovered I do best.” (p. 194).

Overall this Prince award-winning book gives a believable, if strange, plot. Despite the cousins in love, the survival situations that are depicted, and the seeming telepathy between Edmond and Daisy, the author has managed to make it all work. The author has taken our worst fears and innermost secrets and fit them into this teenager’s life, giving us all something we can relate to.

Review Excerpts:

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
From Publisher's WeeklyThis 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.)

Reviews accessed at:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Now-Meg-Rosoff/dp/0553376055/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195675169&sr=1-1

Connections:
Hautman, Paul. 2005. Godless. Simon Pulse. ISBN 1416908161.
Lynch, Chris. 2007. Inexcusable. Simon Pulse. ISBN 1416939725.