Laurie Frankel's "This Is How It Always Is"

Laurie Frankel writes novels (reads novels, teaches other people to write novels, raises a small person who reads and would like someday to write novels) in Seattle, Washington where she lives on a nearly vertical hill from which she can watch three different bridges while she's staring out her windows between words.

Here Frankel dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, This Is How It Always Is:

Listen, obviously Meryl Streep could play anyone — she’s the premier talent of her generation and all that — but after her comments at the Golden Globes this month and her plea that we use art for action and reaction, I’d give anything just to get This Is How It Always Is into her hands, never mind the fantasy I’m having that she cameo as the wry, smart, full-of-perspective, moral-heart-of-the-piece grandma. Please?

Otherwise, this is a book about a family with five kids so a great vehicle to introduce a bunch of talented newbies. The youngest child begins the story as a boy, transitions to being a girl, and lives as both for a while. It would be great to get a young transgender actor to play that part or maybe a couple of them as the child ranges from birth to age ten over the course of the story. The movement to have transgender actors play transgender characters is a good one, and this would be a great opportunity to introduce an up-and-comer.

Learn more about the book and author at Laurie Frankel's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue