This Is How It Always Is Summary
Frankel, Laurie

This Is How It Always Is Overview

Laurie Frankel's novel This Is How It Always Is follows one family's transformation as a result of raising a transgender child. Rosie and Penn Walsh-Adams are relatively forward-thinking American parents who nevertheless react with anxiety and uncertainty when their son, Claude, begins wearing dresses and adopts a girl's name. Guided by their love for one another, the family gradually learns to progress from fear to acceptance and ignorance to enlightenment. The novel explores themes of theory versus experience, family versus community, and queer identities in an intolerant world.