One Two Three

by Laurie Frankel

Dark ling - lovely word.

Mirabel’s voice is full of imagery

Why Nora bakes - or, not why she bakes.

Baking doesn’t involve water. Brilliant.

We all choose our deals with the devil… or life.

Pooh chooses Bourne bc as a Korean American in the 30’s-40’s, Bourne chose to make her part of it.

What stopped smelling like is what strikes Nora as the chemical was made.

Mab sorry for herself bc she’s jaded at 16.

Mirabel’s Comparing king Lear’s rough time to Nora’s. Notes that Lear created his troubles via “sinning” which has even been an option for Nora.

Author’s philosophy on rich often earning their problems versus all that the less fortunate get and are defenseless against.

Part of the perspective she means is If Mirabel can smile in the face of such soul-crushing constriction, my dead end doesn’t look so bad. But it is true I look for bright sides, not because I am an optimist by disposition, not because I don’t know any better—I do—but because I am so slow. It takes me so long to do everything I do. And if you go slowly enough, every moment of the day becomes its own journey, either its own triumph, which you get to celebrate, or its own failure, which you get to move on from”

“If you operate at speed, each word is not a victory, each swallowed piece of food or sip of water is not a conquest. If you operate at speed, you need bigger things to vanquish than a sentence or a muffin or a single line of King Lear. It’s not that slow is not also frustrating—for me, for Nora, for my sisters—but frustrated is what people are supposed to make their sisters feel, what teenagers everywhere are always provoking in their mothers. It’s not that slow isn’t painful, maddening, restrictive. It is all of those things. Plus it’s not like I have a choice. But slow is also one of the blessings”. Mixed blessing of being Mirabel’s and a reminder for me, Char…. Slow is ok.

“Can you stick out your tongue and talk at the same time?” Mab addresses the audience. She’s furious with Mirabel who won’t use what Nathan shared in therapy against Bolsom.

Apple tells Monday she hopes “you win tomorrow” bc she wants what’s fair. This is a striking revelation about Apple’s character after not much clarity about her.

“red poker chip if you want to rebuild the dam and reopen the plant and a green poker chip if you want Belsum to leave and never return.” This seems backward to me. Is CB it “green means go” for Belsum to go home? Bc I see green as indicating “go ahead, Belsum, fix the dam and proceed”. Confusing me.

Nora to Mirabel. Franke to us all: “I want you to know you can fight. I want you to know you should fight. You will be treated carelessly and cruelly, unfairly and maliciously, shortsightedly and selfishly in this world, and when you are, I want you to know you do not have to take it like you deserve nothing better and you’re powerless to protest. I want you to know you can win.”

““My only love sprung from my only hate!” (“ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!”” King Lear?

David & Goliath metaphor insults Mirabel’s sense of rightness. “suggesting, as it does, that if only you were more nimble or more right or more good, you would prevail. Suggesting, as it does, that you are destroyed not by other people’s shortsightedness, other people’s greed, or other people’s deciding you’re disposable, but by being yourself too slow, morally compromised, wicked, and weak. Goliath is not at fault in this story. Goliath is just a giant, following his giant nature, laid low by nothing more than a lucky shot.”

POETIC: “Mountains change, it is true. Grain of sand by speck of dust by infinitesimal layer by drop of rain by whisper of current by time by time by time, a mountain is worn” to change over time…

Frankel’s faith in youth. Young women move the story forward. “that is the old story, and we left that one somewhere along the path, forking off to where we are now, on our secret way in the night. It’s not our mother—our mothers, the last generation—who can fix this. They can’t. It is up to us now, the daughters, to move our town forward, to save us all, to tell a different story.”

LOL !!!Monday knows how to drive a backhoe bc she read all the manuals bc they are yellow… so she is saving the day… “we choose the one with what Monday helpfully identifies as a hydraulic hammer attachment on the back.”

LOLLING Monday character - so well crafted. and she breaks the tension. ““The books say all it takes is training, practice, and a careful touch,” Monday says confidently. “You have no training! You have no practice!” Mab’s voice goes the wrong direction. “Your touch is not careful!” “They are yellow!” Monday yells back. 😂😂😂😂