'Today Will Be Different' is absolutely delicious black comedy
鈥淭oday will be different,鈥� Eleanor Flood tells herself in the mantra that starts both her day and Maria Semple鈥檚 new novel Today Will Be Different. With her last two novels, Semple appears to have pioneered a genre all her own: the warm-hearted black comedy 鈥� all the satire, none of the viciousness.
鈥淭oday I will be present,鈥� Eleanor goes on. (If only self-help and wish-fulfillment were synonymous.) 鈥淭oday I will take pride in my appearance. I鈥檒l shower, get dressed in proper clothes, and change into yoga clothes only for yoga, which today I will actually attend. Today I won鈥檛 swear. I won鈥檛 talk about money. Today there will be an ease about me. My face will be relaxed, its resting place a smile. Today I will radiate calm鈥�.鈥�
Spoiler alert: Eleanor never makes it to yoga. Instead the novel takes her on a day-long comic tour of Seattle, which fans of Semple鈥檚 hilarious 鈥淲here鈥檇 You Go, Bernadette?鈥� will have no trouble recognizing, down to the voracious blackberry vines.
Like Semple鈥檚 last novel, 鈥淭oday Will Be Different鈥� centers around a brilliant, artistically stymied woman who is the distracted mom of an observant, wary child. Eleanor was the artistic director of the cult animated show, 鈥淟ooper Wash,鈥� before her husband, Joe, moved them to Seattle. He鈥檚 spent the past 10 years being hand surgeon to athletes and Eleanor has raised their 8-year-old son, Timby. (About Timby鈥檚 name: It was going to be Timothy, but an iPhone autocorrected it and his parents were, unfortunately, amused.)
She calls her lack of presence 鈥淭he Mr. Magoo.鈥� 鈥淭he ghost-walking, the short-tempered distraction, the hurried fog. (All of this I鈥檓 just assuming, because I have no idea how I come across, my consciousness is that underground, like a toad in winter.)鈥� Her ultimate coping mechanism is 鈥淭he Trick,鈥� so labeled by a psychiatrist who 鈥渉anded me back my check and wished me luck.鈥� (鈥淚鈥檝e been to nine shrinks in twenty years and I鈥檓 still like, 'Wait鈥� what?'鈥� Eleanor tells readers.)
The Trick, she explains, is simple 鈥� and will be familiar to many readers: 鈥淚f I see you about to criticize me, I leap in and criticize myself ... so afraid of rejection that I turned every interaction into a life-or-death charm offensive.鈥�
The Galer Street School is back, and still terrifying parents and readers with its 鈥渆mbrace of everything.鈥� Seattle is still a ripe comic target. 鈥淸A] new month, a new condo higher than the last, each packed with blue-badged Amazon squids, every morning squirting by the thousands from their studio apartments onto my block, heads in devices, never looking up.鈥� A visit to the Washington state fair gives off a doughy, 鈥減arolee vibe.鈥� Alas, there are no trips to Antarctica this go-round.
But there is poetry. In an effort to emerge from her fog, Eleanor memorizes a poem a week. This week is 鈥淪kunk Hour,鈥� by Robert Lowell. And embedded in the heart of the book is a 16-page graphic novel called 鈥淭he Flood Girls,鈥� drawn by Eric Chase Anderson in Eleanor鈥檚 detailed, 鈥渟herbet-colored aesthetic,鈥� that holds the clues to a long-buried family secret. Eleanor鈥檚 distractedness stems from heartbreak, which Semple wisely doesn鈥檛 laugh off.
Eleanor鈥檚 plans for the day get derailed by Timby, who fakes a stomachache to get out of school, and Joe, who it turns out has been skipping work all week without telling Eleanor. Eleanor, with Timby commentating from the back seat, takes off by car to find out what鈥檚 going on.
Having to wedge everything into about 18 hours is tricky for anyone not named Virginia Woolf, but the Seattle plot zings along nicely.
鈥淭oday Will Be Different鈥� slows a bit when Semple has to work in Eleanor鈥檚 memories of disastrous encounters with New Orleans鈥檚 high society at its most useless and lethally snobbish. This section understandably packs less comic punch, but also less emotional connection. A dinner party faux pas with a cachepot (apparently, something one puts things in) ultimately has less resonance than Eleanor's present-day encounter at a Costco sample table involving 鈥渂readed steak fish.鈥�
Eleanor is such a self-deprecating and confiding presence it鈥檚 hard to imagine that she could live 10 years anywhere populated without making friends. If you鈥檙e willing to suspend disbelief that far, 鈥淭oday Will Be Different鈥� is a witty delight. And, as another, vastly different heroine once remarked, tomorrow is another day. Eleanor might make it out of those yoga clothes, after all.
