Booking It - "How I Live Now"

Though Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now was written in 2004, it remains one of my favorite books of all time. This book is so powerful because of the unassuming voice of the narrator, fifteen-year-old Daisy, and the casual but poignant observations that she makes.  Because of Daisy’s candid way of speaking, the reader is immediately able to relate, on some level, to the internal and external struggles that the characters overcome.

The story takes place in the near future — far enough ahead to make the setting believable yet contemporary enough so that we recognize our world. Daisy, a straight-talking New Yorker, has flown to England to spend the summer with her cousins, whom she has never met. Although Daisy comes from a background of upper-middle class privilege, she had a difficult childhood and has a chip on her shoulder because of that. Her mother died when she was born and her father remarried a few years later to a woman Daisy despises. Now her stepmother, Davina, is pregnant and Daisy feels that her father is shipping her off to her distant relatives (on her mother’s side) so that he can start his life over — with Daisy out of the way.

When Daisy arrives in England, the world is on the brink of war.  Her Aunt Penn is a politician working desperately to steer the world away from disaster. Aunt Penn is often not at home, leaving Daisy and her cousins to live on their own on their farm in the country. This world without adults gives the book that dream-like quality of childhood. Even when the war starts and Aunt Penn goes missing and all of the cell towers and internet go down, Daisy and her cousins feel safe and insulated from the rest of the world.

Yet war has a way of creeping in and finding them. As the story progresses, Daisy grows beyond childhood and becomes an adult. Little by little, Daisy takes control of what she can and becomes a mother figure for her youngest cousin, Piper, a sister to her cousin, Isaac and a lover to her cousin, Edward. The roles that Daisy takes may seem strange and even perverse (two fifteen-year-old cousins falling in love with each other, for example), but Rosoff writes with such beauty and Daisy’s voice is so straightforward that the reader is not repulsed at all — the progression of the events makes perfect sense.

Besides the power of the story, I loved the book’s voice, which is told through a continuous stream of thought in Daisy’s head. It takes a little getting used to, but this style is very striking at crucial times. As a fifteen-year-old, Daisy is caught in that strange time between childhood and adolescence. She sounds very childish at times, yet at other times, her maturity is astounding. For example, when describing her stepmother, Daisy says very bluntly, “Davina the Diabolical, who sucked my father’s soul out through his you-know-what.” But Daisy also has a very sweet side and looks out for her ‘family.’ She protects Piper and believes in her head that “the thought made me fierce and strong like a mother wildebeest and all of a sudden I knew where people got the strength to pick up cars with babies lying under them which I always thought was made up.”

The combination of the voice and the haunting essence of the story leaves the reader enthralled. Save this book for the summer — you won’t be disappointed. It won’t take long for the magical quality pervading throughout the novel to capture your imagination.