This is a book I have been hearing about everywhere since its release two summers ago. At first I wanted to read it – Miriam Toews’ book All My Puny Sorrows is a favourite of mine – but then when I heard what it was about I wavered. I find it difficult to relate to the type of religious community depicted in this book, and I have trouble making myself want to. Add in the specific theme of systematic rape of most of the women (and young girls – including a toddler which made me so angry I could barely keep going) and it’s a tough one for me. But I got it in my BookTube Prize selection, so I had to try.
I wasn’t wrong in my misgivings. This was a hard book for me. I have little sympathy for child abusers, or men who think women are lesser beings. This book is full of both. And yet it is also full of resilience, forgiveness and determination. The women we meet here have almost no power at all, they are completely vulnerable to the men in their community and homes, and have no recourse when they are treated poorly. But they are not beaten. They do not give up hope, nor do they allow their lack of power to dictate their outcomes.
The book is beautifully written. Toews has a rare skill for capturing subtleties in her characters that make reading her books a rewarding experience. As conflicted as I was about willingly entering this world, she made it worth my while.
That said, I didn’t agree with all the choices she made. I understand that the story was being noted down by a man because the women didn’t know how to write. But nothing says the story couldn’t have just been witnessed by the reader rather than someone within it having to write it down. I had trouble with these women’s story being told by a man, even if one who is seen by the rest of the men as being like a woman. They have been robbed of all power by men, and even their story wasn’t allowed to be theirs. That was difficult to me, even though I understand why she made that choice. Add to which I didn’t really like the male scribe and didn’t need his infatuated commentary.
All of this left me feeling quite torn in terms of assessing this book. The writing was brilliant. The story was told well, and definitely captured the restrictions and vulnerability of its characters. But I didn’t love the format and it’s not a story I wanted to step into. In the end I’d say that because the book was executed so well, it deserves praise, even if it’s not a story I particularly liked being part of. It’s another that I’d recommend if the premise appeals to you, and wouldn’t hesitate to say that Toews is an incredibly talented writer!
Based on actual events that happened between 2005 and 2009 in a remote Mennonite community where more than 100 girls and women were drugged unconscious and assaulted in the night by what they were told (by the men of the colony) were “ghosts” or “demons,” Miriam Toews’ bold and affecting novel Women Talking is an imagined response to these real events.
The novel takes place over forty-eight hours, as eight women gather in secret in a neighbour’s barn while the men are in a nearby town posting bail for the attackers. They have come together to debate, on behalf of all the women and children in the community, whether to stay or leave before the men return. Taking minutes is the one man trusted and invited by the women to witness the conversation–a former outcast whose own surprising story is revealed as the women speak.
By turns poignant, witty, acerbic, bitter, tender, devastating, and heartbreaking, the voices in this extraordinary novel are unforgettable. Toews has chosen to focus the novel tightly on a particular time and place, and yet it contains within its 48 hours and setting inside a hayloft an entire vast universe of thinking and feeling about the experience of women (and therefore men, too) in our contemporary world. In a word: astonishing. – Goodreads
Book Title: Women Talking
Author: Miriam Toews
Series: No
Edition: Hardback
Published By: Knopf Canada
Released: August 21, 2018
Genre: Fiction, Women, Religion
Pages: 240
Date Read: April 10-14, 2020
Rating: 7/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.60/5 (17,997 ratings)