how i live now
10 Jun 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: 2005 Michael L. Printz Award Winner, alternate reality, incest, war
how i live now by Meg Rosoff
Published by Wendy Lamb Books, New York, NY 2004
194 pgs.
Recommended reading age: 14 and up
VOYA rating: 2Q, 2P, JS
This is a modern day story that is a retelling of an alternate reality. It is part realistic-fiction, part war story and part “Flowers in the Attic”…
how i live now is the tale of a 15-year-old American girl who is really named Elizabeth but whom goes by Daisy. Daisy lives with her father, evil step-mother and the new evil step-baby sibling in the U.S. but has now been sent to live with her cousins and Aunt Penn in England. Daisy, who hints at a previous eating disorder prior to being sent oversees to England, surprisingly falls in well with her cousins. They live in a big farm. They are all unique individuals with unique characteristics. Aunt Penn has a hands-off approach to parenting but seems to love and respect her children. They all work together on the family farm. It doesn’t take long for Daisy to find herself feeling at home and fondly caring as much for her cousins and Aunt Penn as they care for each other. Daisy also finds herself immediately attracted to her oldest cousin, Edmond, and the two begin and obsessive an incestuous affair together. She also develops a special affinity for Piper, her young female cousin, and the two bond. Overall, Daisy finds herself happy with her cousins living on the farm and working together. Reports of bombings and an impending war seem to be happening more and more frequently but it all seems too far away for Daisy to be concerned.
Things change when one day Aunt Penn goes away and leaves the children at home alone. The “Occupation” begins. It is then that war officially breaks out and the mother is killed in an attack leaving the family to fend for themselves. Slowly the war gets closer and closer as Daisy, Edmond and the other cousins work together to provide for each other while preparing for the war to hit home. They even prep their barn so that they can safely escape and live there, hopefully under the radar from the military or enemy eyes. Eventually, through a series of events soldiers and other government related officials do begin to visit their home and before they know it, the cousins are separated and “Drafted” to serve for their country. Scared and feeling alone, Daisy and her cousin Piper are sent with one of their dogs to serve at a medical facility. Eventually they are able to escape, but not before enduring and witnessing horrible death and shootings as the war rages on.
Piper and Daisy escape and make a harrowing, long journey home in hopes of possibly being reunited with their other cousins. They eventually make it home and live out of the barn while only making pilgrimages to the main house for supplies. One day the phone rings in the main house and it is Daisy’s father who is finally able to contact her and bring her home. Although she doesn’t know it, Daisy’s beloved Edmond returns to the family farm only one day after she is taken away by her father.
The war ends and Daisy recovers at home in the United States with her father but returns to be with her cousins as soon as she is able. What she finds is that everyone has grown and has been hardened by war. Although she is reunited with Edmond, Edmond is not the same person. He is damaged emotionally and psychologically from the war and can’t forgive Daisy for leaving the family to go home with her father. Daisy, who by this time has matured well beyond her 15 years, has learned to accept that no one is the same after surviving a war and she knows to be patient with Edmond. She is content in just knowing that at least they are together, and that is enough. At least if they are together, eventually Edmond will come around.
