Today Will Be Different

Genre: Fiction

I gave this book ***

This is the story about a single day in the life of mother, wife, and artist, Eleanor Flood. The story begins, “Today will be different. Today I will be present. Today anyone I will speak to I will look them in the eye and listen deeply. Today I’ll play a board game with Timby. Today I will initiate sex with Joe. Today I will take pride in my appearance…change into yoga clothes only for yoga…Today there will be an ease about me…Today will be different.” How do I LOVE this beginning let me count the ways!? How many times have we all started our day wanting, hoping, working towards a better us, only to have it all fall apart sometime during the day? Soon after dropping her son, Timby, off at school, Eleanor gets a message telling her that she’ll need to pick him up as he’s not feeling well. Grudgingly, she picks him up and takes him on a lunch date with a former employee, finds out her husband (a hand surgeon) told his staff that he’s on vacation and then spends much of the rest of her day looking for her husband, with Timby in tow. Throughout the day we learn about her strained relationship with her sister, her job as a cartoonist and generally about her life. Eleanor’s day ends with similar words as those she used in the beginning of the story, but with a slightly wiser tinge. But, still, you get the feeling that tomorrow she’ll start the day in the exact same way.

Semple’s characters are funny, quirky, charming and smart. Eleanor is the every-woman who struggles with life but does it with panache and a sense of humor. The events that transpire throughout her day are so outrageously bizarre that it made for an odd story that was mostly amusing. I found this book light and thought it made for a good summer read.