61 pages • 2 hours read
This Is How It Always Is
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
This Is How It Always Is, a novel by Laurie Frankel, was published in 2017. It was a New York Times best seller, one of People magazine’s Top 10 Books of 2017, and a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick.
Plot Summary
Dr. Rosie Walsh is pregnant with her fifth son, Claude. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her writer husband, Penn Adams, and their four boys. At the beginning of the book, Rosie reflects on her sister Poppy’s early death and wonders if perhaps she has been waiting to give birth to a girl to replace the child who was lost. While in labor with Claude, all Rosie can think is “Poppy.”
Claude is a very intelligent child, crawling at six months and speaking his first word at nine months. At three years old, he decides he wants to be a girl. This desire persists into kindergarten, when Claude begins to wear dresses. Much to the chagrin of Claude’s kindergarten teacher, Rosie and Penn allow Claude to explore his evolving gender identification. The Walsh-Adams family muddles through Claude’s transition until Rosie treats a transgender patient in the ER who is suffering from injuries incurred from a hate crime.
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