One Two Three - Laurie Frankel

Laurie Frankel’s One Two Three is the story of a little Massachusetts town whose people were blindsided by the chemical company that came to town one day offering the moon (mostly in the form of high-paying jobs and civic infrastructure improvements) but ended up ruining everything it touched — including the town’s water supply and the health of almost everyone who lived there. Now, seventeen years later, Bourne is a community filled with disabled young people and memories of people who died way too soon.

“…one of the sad things that happens when almost everyone dies is there aren’t enough people left who remember why.”

One, Two, and Three are triplet sisters whose mother, Nora, was carrying them when the water turned green. The girls have given themselves the numeric designations based on their birth order, and it’s what they call each other. And on a whim, their mother chose their names based on that same order: One got the one-syllable name Mab; Two got the two-syllable name Monday; and Three earned the three-syllable name Mirabel. It is through their eyes that we begin to understand the struggle that life in Bourne still is.

Everyone knows everyone in Bourne - mainly because practically no one new ever moves into town  — but the Mitchell triplets would be special in any town. Of the three girls, Mab is the one most likely to find a life outside of Bourne and she and her best friend spend every spare moment preparing to leave town for college. Monday, who has emotional problems, by snagging all the books discarded by the town library when it shut down, has become the town’s unofficial librarian, and an expert on finding just the right book for her patrons. Mirabel is wheelchair-bound and can speak only through a mechanical voice, but she may just be the smartest person in Bourne and everyone knows it.

The girls have never known a day when their mother has not almost singlehandedly kept a class action lawsuit against the chemical company active. It’s the only life they know, and it’s a life that they can’t imagine will ever much change. But after the unthinkable happens, they decide it’s time for them lift some of that burden from Nora. The Mitchell triplets are on the case now, and they are about to shake things up to the point that life in Bourne is going to change — one way or the other. 

Bottom Line: One Two Three is sometimes tragic and sometimes hilarious, but it is always entertaining. The Mitchell girls and their mother are the best thing about the novel, and the unique relationships between Mab, Monday, and Mirabel are unforgettable. This is so much a character-driven novel (even the “villains” are quirky) that the plot of the novel is almost secondary, and even though everything is fully resolved by the end of the story, it’s the characters that readers are likely to remember. If you enjoy novels by writers like John Irving, Allan Gurganus, or Pete Dexter, this one is for you. 

Laurie Frankel

Review Copy provided by Publisher