By Cameron Woodhead
Today Will Be Different
MARIA SEMPLE
WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, $32.99
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple.
Maria Semple's follow-up to Where'd You Go, Bernadette? possesses the same manic drive and razor-sharp observational comedy as that bestseller. Today Will Be Different follows the harried inner life of Eleanor Flood, a former New York cartoonist who has settled uncomfortably into life in Seattle. Now a doctor's wife and mother to a make-up wearing son of primary-school age, she vows to chill out and become a better human being. But the world conspires against her personal transformation at every turn, from the familiar (her son's school is mega-ultra-supra-PC) to the totally bizarre (a biographical comic book surfaces that leads to a kidnapped sister). Semple has outrageous and endearing comedic gifts, and fans of her previous work will be delighted to find that her creative well runs deep as ever.