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A review by laurarosenberg
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
5.0
This was such a beautiful, moving story, with such a beautiful, moving message. It’s outside of my preferred zone as a reader, because for whatever reason, books about nuclear families don’t appeal to me. That said, this book is about so much more than the twists and turns of suburban, upper middle-class mediocrity. It is the opposite of anything I could have anticipated. It’s about a family of seven, the youngest of which is a boy, Claude, who transitions (kind of?) to a girl, Poppy. Poppy has four brothers, each with their own personality and their own crystal clear voice (which change with time as the story progresses over the years), and two hilarious, loving, mistake-ridden parents.
I laughed out loud many times, I teared up several times, and I was constantly in shock of Frankel’s obvious talents. Her sentences are elegant and funny, with quick metaphors and unexpectedly touching analogies. The settings— rural Wisconsin, Seattle, and then Thailand— are presented so artistically that I could place myself perfectly on each page. Even more impressive, perhaps, is the way she weaves in an entire secondary story, in the form of a fairy tale of sorts, within the primary plot. Five thousand stars for Poppy.
I laughed out loud many times, I teared up several times, and I was constantly in shock of Frankel’s obvious talents. Her sentences are elegant and funny, with quick metaphors and unexpectedly touching analogies. The settings— rural Wisconsin, Seattle, and then Thailand— are presented so artistically that I could place myself perfectly on each page. Even more impressive, perhaps, is the way she weaves in an entire secondary story, in the form of a fairy tale of sorts, within the primary plot. Five thousand stars for Poppy.