How I Live Now - Novel Review - TWU LS5623-20-Sum2012

Novel Review - how I live now Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. New York, House Digital, Inc., 2004. Digital. ISBN 0141318015, eISBN 0375890548. 192p. Moving to live with her cousins in England couldn’t be any worse than having to play nice with her father’s new family-to-be. Yet Daisy is surprised by how well she fits into her odd grouping of new family members. As war looms she draws closer to this group of cousins. While her aunt becomes trapped in another part of the country, violence arrives at the farm. A taboo love blooms even as the family members are torn apart by the conflict. It will take all of Daisy’s emotional, physical and mental power to survive the fight that follows to reunite with her family of the heart. As a winner of the Guardian Award, the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award and the coveted Michael L. Printz Award of 2004, much has been written and said about how I live now. The excitement brewing about this book was rewarded in its reading with both amazing and troubling aspects. The initial chapters were rather jarring and difficult to read. The style of stream-of-consciousness first person writing that hinges on excessively long compound sentences was difficult to fall into. I found myself struggling to be enveloped in the story-line as I was constantly trying to edit sentences in my mind. I understand the writer’s technique as a means of authenticating the teenage voice of daisy, the protagonist. Still, it made the book much more difficult to read. I would most certainly not choose this book for struggling or second language readers as trying to follow the story line would be very hard for them. An additional issue surfaced with the incestuous relationship of Daisy and her cousin Edmund. While the author worked to show that the relationship was non-traditional it is still the significant romantic enouncter of the book, and one which the entire story and its aftermath are predicated on. “The real truth is that the war didn’t have much yto do with it except that it provided a perfect limbo in which tewo people who were too young and too related could start kissing without anything or anyone making us stop…There was nowhere to go and nothing to do that would remind us that this sort of thing didn't happen in the Real World” (pg. 50). As an adult reader I can see where some concern might arise over this relationship being glamorized. Also of concern for parents might be Daisy’s devotion to an anorexic lifestyle which is only mitigated by the demands of fleeing from a war zone. These three elements can make the book a difficult read, or a difficult choice for adults to give to young people. As always, adults should thoroughly preview texts they that might be of concern before giving them to their children. Ensure the child is mature enough to handle the subject matter. The story line itself, the adventure that develops when the children flee the farm in the English countryside and fall in with various groups controlled by or running from the occupying forces, is an amazing tale. Determination, wits, special abilities and love and caring all surface as we follow Daisy and her younger cousin, Piper, especially. They grow into their abilities and Daisy begins to see how resilient she is when she takes on the responsibility of keeping Piper safe and reuniting the family. The story elements are satisfying enough to make this a very good read, however adults should again preview the text to ensure their young readers are mature enough and prepared for the violence, incest and adult issues that are infused through Rosoff’s award-winning story. Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. New York, Random House Digital, Inc., 2004. Digital.