Canadian Author Challenge — September: Miriam Toews & Dany Laferrière

September authors:

Miriam Toews
Dany Laferrière

Back to general thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/209622

Miriam Toews (born at Steinbach, Man 1964) grew up in the Mennonite town of Steinbach, Manitoba. She provides a detailed description of life in this isolated, conservative religious community, and its impact on her family, in Swing Low: A Life (2000). Toews moved away from Steinbach as soon as she had finished high school, travelling and living in Montréal and then Europe. She returned to her home province to attend the University of Manitoba, where she earned a BA in film studies. She also completed a bachelor of journalism degree at the University of King's College, in Halifax. Toews has produced radio documentaries and has written for a number of magazines, garnering the 1999 National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Humour. (From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/miriam-toews)

For more information and full bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Toews

Dany Laferrière, né Windson Kléber, novelist, essayist, poet and journalist (born 13 April 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti). Winner of the prestigious Prix Medicis and the first Haitian, Canadian and Québécois to be elected to the Académie française, Laferrière has established himself as one of the premiere chroniclers of the immigrant experience and one of the finest novelists of his generation.

When his father, mayor of Port-au-Prince and then under-secretary of state for trade, went into exile, his mother, fearing reprisals, entrusted her four-year-old son to his grandmother in the seaside town of Petit-Goave. Laferrière, who grew up during the Duvalier regime, became a journalist and radio broadcaster and later immigrated to Canada in 1978 after a colleague, with whom he was working on a story, was murdered. His 2000 novel, Le Cri des oiseaux fous, was inspired by the crazy night he left his country without telling his loved ones.

Laferrière established a home in Montréal, where he worked in low-paid factory jobs while writing his first novel, Comment faire l'amour avec un Nègre sans se fatiguer (1985; tr. How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired, 1987), which was a surprise commercial success. The semi-autobiographical work, later used as the basis for a feature film, tells the story of a Black immigrant with little money and an attraction to white women. Laferrière immigrated to the United States in 1990 and now divides his time between Montréal and Miami. (From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dany-laferriere)

For more information and full bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dany_Laferrière

Lots of migraine activity lately, so I'll finish up with the bios another time. I'll be reading Toews' first book, A Complicated Kindness which I've owned since it was her only published book (i.e. pre-2008 and The Flying Troutmans). So, a new-to-me author. I can remember Dany Laferrière being a much talked about author here in Québec since my teens, when he published How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired in 1985, his first, and probably best know book, and I'll finally be discovering him for myself with his 2009 book, L'énigme du retour / The Return, which I have on audio and narrated by the author (in the original French).

What do you plan on reading this month? It's fine if you haven't picked up one of the previous authors yet—feel free to pick up any one of them at any time of course!

I have three Toews on my TBR pile, so I'll read one of them. Probably All My Puny Sorrows. I read Complicated Kindness when it was published (actually bought it in hardback). The protagonist has the same surname as me, and that's the only time I've met a Nickel in literature, so I was predisposed to like the book. Even better, I ended up loving it. Since then I read The Flying Troutmans, which was entertaining, and Irma Voth, which was disappointing (I may have expected too much from that last one).

I saw Miriam Toews at the Vancouver Writer's Festival when she was promoting All My Puny Sorrows. After hearing about the background for that book I couldn't purchase it so I acquired A Complicated Kindness instead. I plan on reading that for the challenge.

Sorry about your migraines, Ilana. I plan to jump back into the Canadian Author Challenge with All My Puny Sorrows. It has been on my kindle for some time now. I tend to forget about those books. Guess I'll have to tie a string around my finger until I get it read!

I've put a hold on A Complicated Kindness at the library. They don't seem to have any of Laferriere's work.

I am reading All My Puny Sorrows; which has been on my TBR for a long time. It is SO sad.

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

This autobiographical novel is about the narrator's relationship with her beautiful, talented, depressed and suicidal sister. Toewes is very articulate in describing the heartbreak of loving someone who wants to die; and also in describing the limitation of the mental health system, and how people with mental illness are blamed for their own illnesses. Good for me to read as I work in mental health, but so sad.

Another interesting aspect of the book is the description of culture. Toewes is from a Mennonite culture, which I am not all that familiar with. Toewes writing is quirky and funny, as in this description of the difference between her rich cousins and her poor cousins. She notes that in the Mennonite world, the male offspring inherit the resources, and the females, not so much:

"The sons inherit the wealth and pass it on to their sons and to their sons and to their sons and the daughters get sweet fuck all. We Poor Cousins don't care at all though, except for when we're on welfare, broke, starving, unable to buy cool high-tops for our children or pay for their university tuition or purchase massive fourth homes on private islands with helicopter landing pads. But whatever, we descendants of the Girl Line may not have wealth and proper windows in our drafty homes but at least we have rage and we will build empires with that, gentlemen."

A very powerful book, but I think I am looking for something light and cheerful as a chaser.

>10 banjo123: Great review, Rhonda, and it makes me want to steel myself and read All My Puny Sorrows. I'll see about getting a copy when I return to Seattle.

I hope the pain eases, Ilana.

>10 banjo123: Thanks so much for sharing that review here, Rhonda. I don't work in mental health, but I do live with mental health issues which I've been getting treatment for since early 2000 or so, and I've found I can sometimes read about depression and be fine with it, while some books are too difficult for me to deal with and actually push too many buttons, in which case I have to leave them be. I don't know which camp All My Puny Sorrows might fall into. In any case, I don't own that one, but DO have her first two books, A Complicated Kindness and The Flying Troutmans.

I see I've neglected the author bios up there and will have to remedy that, but since you bring up Toewes's Mennonite culture, I think I will read the wikipedia page on this topic before reading her books, to get a bit of an unbiased understanding first.

>11 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! I've been out of action here on LT lately... migraines are variable, but always present. The botox treatment I was supposed to receive this week has been put off for another TWO WEEKS (!!!) and in the meantime, I'm getting high a lot of the time thanks to the medical marijuana my doc has prescribed for me to ease the pain. So between actual pain and being high so much of the time, I'm not exactly being productive, as you can imagine! For some reason though, I've been posting compulsively on Facebook lately... go figure. A total wast of time, I know. :-|

Apologies to all for going so far off topic...

>11 EBT1002: One thing I forgot to mention about Puny Sorrows is that it is mercifully short.

>12 Smiler69: Ilana, I think you might do OK with Puny Sorrows, and I'd be interested on your take on her portrayal of the Canadian mental health system. But maybe better to start with one of her earlier books? The Mennonite culture is interesting. I think that it was better explained in Puny Sorrows than in Complicated Kindness, which I have also read, but it's been a number of years. I think that I found it a little hard to relate to. I have a friend who grew up Mennonite, but in the US, and her experience seemed more positive.

>13 banjo123: Rhonda, I have an uncle by marriage who was raised as a Mennonite right here in Canada. He self-published a book a number of years ago about his experiences growing up within that community, which he gave to all members of our extended family. I haven't made time for it yet, and I obviously should, as he's full of interesting stories at the ripe age of 80-something.

>14 Smiler69:Toews' s Mennonite experience reminded me of Winterson's Pentecostal experience in Oranges are not the only fruit. I think that there is a lot of cross-over between different extreme religions. And it's hard because if you come from that background, you can be happy to leave on one hand, but miss some of the positives on the other.

>14 Smiler69: Another book I've had on my shelf for a long time and really should get to! You're right about cross-over between extremists. Some of the same themes reappear over and over again. Makes me glad my parents (lapsed Catholic mother, lapsed Jewish father) let me decide for myself.

Finally did my job and posted the author bios. I'm not doing this challenge-hosting role justice... If anybody thinks they have time and energy to make this Canadian author challenge more lively, by all means raise your hand!

"If I squint across the room at Elf I can change her eyes into dark forests and her lashes into tangled branches. Her green eyes are replicas of my father's, spooky and beautiful and unprotected from the raw bloodiness of the world."

"It was the first time that we had sort of articulated our major problems. She wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other. We held each other tenderly, awkwardly, because she was in bed attached to things."

-All My Puny Sorrows. I am really enjoying this one. I love her writing style and that title is killer.

>17 Smiler69: Come on, Ilana! You can do it!!

>18 msf59: We can also count on you Mark to enjoy deeply depressing books! :-)

>19 msf59: Your confidence in me is very touching, my friend!

>20 Smiler69: LOL. I have to read dark, Ilana, to offset my sunny nature. Actually Toews balances this one very well. I do not find it depressing at all, although, obviously it deals with difficult subjects.

>21 msf59: to offset my sunny nature.

Yes, that's what I think about every time I see you raving about what you admit to be a gloomy or depressing book. Nature treated you kindly on that front, and we all benefit from the rays of light you emanate from that happy self. ;-)

>22 Smiler69: Aw, thanks, Ilana. I think we all emanate our own little rays of sunshine and that is what makes this place so special.

Toews can definitely be dark, but there's humour in her writing as well. And a clever subversiveness.

And I like this short article about her: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/miriam-toews-its-a-mennonite...

Enjoying the discussion about All My Puny Sorrows}. I loved that book and somehow it struck a chord for me about the judgement/acceptance that we do about other people's mental health struggles. I can see the comparison with the Winterson book too and the challenges in being in a strong religious environment. I want to read more Toews book especialy about her brother and father. One of my all time favourite books about Mennonites is The Blue Mountain of China by Rudy Wiebe. Funny,
>24 Nickelini:, I didn't find Toews book dark, I found it tender.

“Her big thing is going out beyond the wake where it's calm and she can bob in the moonlight far out at sea. That's her biggest pleasure. Our family is trying to escape everything at once, even gravity, even the shoreline. We don't even know what we're running away from. Maybe we are just restless people. Maybe we're adventurers. Maybe we're terrified. Maybe we're crazy. Maybe Planet Earth is not our real home.”

-All My Puny Sorrows

“Living with my mother is like living with Winnie the Pooh. She has many adventures, getting herself into and out of trouble guilelessly, and all of these adventures are accompanied by a few lines of gentle philosophy. There's always a little bit more to learn every time you get your head stuck in a honey pot if you’re my mother.”

- All My Puny Sorrows



^I finished AMPS. Yes, it deals with death and suicide but Toews balances it so well, with strength, smarts and wit, that she has created a very memorable and well-written novel. She is now on my Author Watch List.

Like my old pals, Mark & Donna, I will be reading All My Puny Sorrows for this Canadian Author read. I am all about depression so this should be right up my ally. Looking forward to beginning the book.

Wow, thanks Mark for your enthusiastic contributions! I'm very happy NOT to have that book right now as I could do with something a bit more cheerful...

I picked up A Complicated Kindness yesterday, and find myself almost half-way through it already. It's a grand picture of a young girl's life, but the Mennonite aspect of it, so far, at least, is almost irrelevant. It feels as though it could be any young girl raised in any conventional family--not terribly different from my own American Baptist cousins growing up at about the same time.

On another point, I see that Canada has lost a literary light---W. P. Kinsella has died, voluntarily at the age of 81. Perhaps someone to consider for next year's challenge?

>28 rainpebble: Big waves to Belva! Good to see you, stranger.

>29 Smiler69: I appreciate the CAC for giving me an opportunity to discover a new author. Smiles...

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2016/09/22/miriam-toews-wins-harbour...

Miriam Toews wins Harbourfront Festival Prize

Author Miriam Toews is the winner of the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize.

The Winnipeg writer, a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, was chosen by a jury that included Toronto Star books editor Deborah Dundas, CBC host Carol Off and International Festival of Authors director Geoffrey E. Taylor.

The jury cited Toews’ advocacy for the mentally ill and support for young writers in awarding the prize, and called her “an ambassador for Canadian writing and culture” for her appearances at book fairs, readings and other events around the world.

“I saw the list of writers who’ve previously received this prize and it is truly an honour to be counted amongst those titans, people like Alice Munro, Nicole Brossard, Helen Humphreys and Margaret Atwood,” Toews said in a news release.

The prize will be presented during the International Festival of Authors on Oct. 24 in the Fleck Dance Theatre, before the event celebrating the finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language Fiction.

____________________

I will start my September Toews as soon as I finish the slog-of-a-novel I've been reading all month. I think I will read Swing Low: A Life because it's been on my tbr pile longer than the other Toews I own.

>30 laytonwoman3rd: but the Mennonite aspect of it, so far, at least, is almost irrelevant. It feels as though it could be any young girl raised in any conventional family--not terribly different from my own American Baptist cousins growing up at about the same time.

Well it's not irrelevant if you're Mennonite. She captured a lot of that shit very well -- as evidenced by all the older Mennonites I know who read A Complicated Kindness and loathed it (loathing, in that frothy at the mouth way). But you're comment about conventional families and American Baptists is correct because there are just so many similarities. When I talk to people about being Mennonite and they are clueless what it means, I tell them the religion aspect is very similar to Baptists (although the cultural part can be very different).

There is a brilliant paragraph early in the novel that describes the geekyness of being Menno that had me in tears of laughter. I'd find it and print it out but my copy is in storage.

>33 Nickelini: "Irrelevant" was probably the wrong word...having finished the novel now, I still think she could have substituted Baptist (or Free Methodist or many other denominations) for Mennonite, and it would have worked equally well. I knew so many people whose religion dictated their dress, or activities, or food choices that I was always fairly comfortable with my simple Methodist upbringing that seemed to only forbid things that were actually against the law.

>32 Nickelini: Thanks Joyce for putting the information about Toew's new award, winner of the Harbourfront Festival Prize. I tried unsuccessfully to get my bookclub to read All My Puny Sorrows as I thought it was a gem but it was a no go, they said it was "too depressing!". Maybe I did a poor sales job but I was disappointed that we couldn't have a good discussion about such a very interesting and moving book.

>30 laytonwoman3rd: Many years ago I read W.P. Kinsella's books and I loved them. They were very funny and clever I thought.

>32 Nickelini: Thanks for sharing that here, Joyce. Congratulations Miriam Toews! I don't know that I'd heard of the Harbourfront Festival before, so I'll look it up.

>33 Nickelini: It sounds to me like you're speaking from personal experience, Joyce...

Looking forward to picking up my first Toews book, but am currently caught up in an excellent novel which is taking me a while to complete. Not a Canadian author, but I definitely recommend The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru for an amazing saga!

>35 mdoris: Sorry your bookclub wasn't more receptive to your suggestion. This is why we love LT, isn't it?

>36 Smiler69: Yes, Ilana lots and lots of love for LT!

>36 Smiler69: It sounds to me like you're speaking from personal experience, Joyce...

Indeed I am!

Currently half-way trhough Swing Low. The writing is clear and lovely, and some of the vignettes are wonderful, but I'm struggling with the structure. There isn't enough narrative arc for me. This doesn't seem to bother other readers though -- this book gets lots of 4 and 5 star ratings from its fans.

Just noting for others who, like me, wondered how you properly pronounce Miriam Toews' name. I never would have guessed that you say "Taves".

>39 laytonwoman3rd: You must not watch hockey. Chicago player Jonathan Toews' name is pronounced like Miriam's. He is currently playing on Team Canada in the world cup hockey tourney.

>39 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for sharing that interview Linda, she's lovely to listen to. I don't watch hockey either (can't stand it really, and yes, I AM Canadian!) and had no idea how her name was pronounced.

>40 raidergirl3: Ha! Good call. For me the problem was sort of the opposite. I grew up with relatives and family friends named "Taves" and was 8 or 9 when I learned their name was spelled "Toews," and thought that was pretty strange. We have a major roofing company in town called "Taves Roofing" and the owner told me he named it that when he got tired of people never saying his name right. That was before Jonathan Toews (and Miriam) though. Maybe he wouldn't change it now.

>40 raidergirl3: Do not watch hockey, nor football, nor baseball, nor wrestling, nor....well, you get the picture.

I just finished Dany Laferriere's memoir about the 2010 Haitian earthquake, The World Is Moving Around Me. As mentioned in his bio at the top of the thread, Laferriere emigrated from Haiti decades ago. He happened to be visiting the day the earthquake hit. Although our 24 hour cable news stations provided extensive coverage at the time, they didn't offer an insider's perspective like this.

>44 cbl_tn: That sounds fascinating. I will have to look for it.

Here's what I wrote about Swing Low:

Swing Low: a Life, Miriam Toews, 2005


Cover comments: the longer I look at this, the more I like it. The egg is symbolic to events in the story, so I like that too.

Comments: Swing Low is an unusual book in that it's a first-person memoir written by the narrator's daughter. Renowned Canadian author Miriam Toews grew up in small town Manitoba where her father was a popular school teacher. Outside of school, unfortunately, he was a sick man and struggled with bipolar disorder and eventually committed suicide. Toew's book honours his life and struggle.

I admit that I had trouble getting into the book at first. It seemed an aimless string of bits about his mental confusion, interspersed with bits about him hassling the nurses at the hospital. I was rather annoyed because I couldn't see where it was going, and couldn't figure out how the book earned so many 4-and 5-star reader reviews. But then it clicked, and I was entranced. Toews writes simple stories, vignettes, really, that put together tell the story of a kind, gentle, but very ill man. Her writing isn't fancy or show offy (in honour of her father's simple Mennonite traditions, perhaps?), but every page is filled with clarity and beauty. And sadness.

Note: her more recent novel, My Puny Sorrows, was influenced by her sister's suicide, which happened years after Swing Low was published. So much sadness.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: There is a Miriam Toews read happening this month on LT, and I have several of her books in my TBR pile. This one was the oldest.

Recommended for: readers who like books full of humanity and feeling.

>34 laytonwoman3rd: I still think she could have substituted Baptist (or Free Methodist or many other denominations) for Mennonite, and it would have worked equally well.

Toews may agree with you. From Swing Low: "If we were away on holiday the first thing I did when we reached our hotel was inquire at the front desk as to the whereabouts of the nearest Baptist church (a close enough facsimile of the Mennonite church) . . . p 126.

The difference I guess is that like Judaism, Mennonite can be either a culture or a religion (many Mennonites attend other denominational churches, people not born Mennonite can attend Mennonite churches, people born Mennonite can practice their cultural traditions but be an atheist or convert to Catholicism, for example). The cultural part results in things like Mennonite food and Mennonite names (Irma Voth being a quintessential example).

>47 Nickelini: Good point about the culture/religion thing. Of course, as a completely lapsed Methodist, I still celebrate Christmas with all the trappings myself.

I finished listening to The Return / L'énigme du retour by Dany Laferrière last night and it was breathtaking. The French audiobook includes a short interview with the author, which is something I always appreciate. I'm glad the CAC got me to finally pick up a book by this man. A beautiful writer, a great thinker, an important voice to discover. Will write more soon, if head permits. For now I'll go start up the October thread. Overdue, as always!

You are not the only one overdue, Ilana. I finally finished a complicated kindness by Miriam Toews. Nothing much seems to happen in the novel but it reveals a lot about life in a small Mennonite town and how a community can be cruel to its members; a cruelty that affects not only those it seeks to punish but their family as well.

Interesting discussion about the various religious sects up thread. I find the different religious teachings interesting and slightly scary just like I find small town communities.