Writing a response to this book might prove difficult for me because I guess I am not exactly sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I love how Rosoff is able to speak through Daisy by using a very modern, jaded teenager attitude towards all the events in the book. But on the other hand, I felt that the majority of the plot was very contrived and even confusing. I caught myself constantly criticizing how nonchalantly this huge war is breaking out in England without the enemy ever being named. I guess I really liked the beginning of the book because in very few pages Rosoff paints a detailed picture of Daisy, her father, Davina the Diabolical, her cousins, and her aunt. I also liked the end of the book due to its pastoral descriptions of nature and how things somehow work themselves out for the better. The middle of the book, though, is very messy and scatterbrained.
My dislike for this book might arise from the fact that I don’t think it is very realistic, but perhaps a younger reader wouldn’t think so at all. It would be a very teachable book because Rosoff has a unique way of characterization. Daisy has all the essential elements of a heroine, and is very strong, motherly, affectionate, and stubborn. Edmund isn’t necessarily a hero in my eyes, but rather the object of Daisy’s affection and a symbol for peace, serenity, and home. Edmund is rebellious yet traditional, somber yet witty, and strong yet light-hearted. A great quality in this book is how some of the less important characters really come to life without much effort on the part of the author; the reader must fill in the many blanks that Rosoff leaves us, which is good and bad all at once.
What I mean is that for a book to be good, in my eyes, the author must trust their readers’ imaginations – never explaining things away or using too much unessential detail – but yet an author must gradually set up a framework that gets larger and larger as the reader progresses. In How I Live Now, I found myself saying “Ok, this book is about this,” only to read another forty or fifty pages and realize that it is about something else. This could be a harsh and unfair appraisal on my part too, I realize. The author could have intended this affect, which would go on to symbolize how much a war can change an individual and a society.
One thing I would have liked to have from Rosoff is a little more internal dialogue from Daisy. The story is told through her eyes, yet most of the time the passing events are relayed vicariously without any emotional reaction. In the first twenty pages or so, I was excited to see how a girl from New York City would fit into a rural landscape in a different country, but was disappointed. I guess I have a special affinity to this urban/rural distinction since I am from a very small rural town and decided to go to Minneapolis for college. There are so many changes, differences, new perspectives, new people, new everything – but with Daisy this transition seems to be glossed over.
All in all, How I Live Now is very fast-paced and readable, but looking back I just see too many flaws in the plot and narration. I feel so snotty saying all of this because the book is powerful in and of itself, but I think the reason that I get so fired up about it is that it is ALMOST a great book. If someone were to ask me, though, what this book is about, I would probably have a hard time coming up with an answer.
Hi Jon,
ReplyDeleteYour reaction to this text was similar to many of your classmates', and you explain it well here. The question of its realism is an important one, and while I believe that Rosoff had her reasons for keeping much of the war in the dark (which worked for me), I understand readers wanting more of that detail in order to place the story in a contemporary context.
I like what you say about characterization. Rosoff is quite a master in this regard, I believe. And she does use minor characters to help us understand more about the main character, Daisy, and especially about this almost "other world" that she has entered into.
Jessie