Book Review: Irma Voth

The latest novel from Manitoba-born author Miriam Toews is at once a departure from previous works and a continuation of the themes and the voices that readers have come to expect.

The author of the 2004 bestseller A Complicated Kindness and 2008’s The Flying Troutmans continues to refine her powerful tone that transcends cultural and genre limitations.

Based in modern-day Mexico, but drawing heavily on the Manitoba Mennonite connection, Irma Voth begins with the tale of a 19-year-old woman, repressed by her father and the remote farming community in which she lives.

Irma has just been abandoned by her new husband when a famous filmmaker comes to the remote community to make a film about the Mennonite people.

Just like her marriage, Irma’s awkward involvement with the film production draws heavy disapproval from her father. But what at first seems to be a relatively innocent act of rebellion becomes much more.

The novel is quick to blur the lines between family drama, coming-of-age tale and murder mystery.

Toews delivers some heavy blows out of left field, but ties everything together with such skill that the gaps in Irma’s own memory seem to be the fault of the reader rather than the narrator.

Toews’s prose is light and natural to read, but dense and full of meaning. Many of Irma’s witty observations and interactions are laugh-out-loud funny while simultaneously fostering a sense of her ever-more-obvious dark side.

From the impenetrable father to the insane filmmaker Diego and the hippie protester Noehmi, Toews’s characters are full and believable, though a little outrageous.

Besides Irma herself, the most important and animated character is her sister, Aggie.

Wise beyond her years, but grounded by a feisty nature (she is only 13), Aggie becomes Irma’s sidekick and nemesis rolled into one. The complexity of this sibling relationship, and every other relationship in the novel, allows Toews to tell an engaging story in which characters rarely do what’s expected of them.

The novel is dark and often sad, but never depressing. Irma Voth’s persistent and sometimes crazy optimism infects the story that she relates.

Simply put, Irma Voth is a quick and exciting read – heavy on the wit and completely free of any filler.

Toews’s power to move her readers but set them down gently is alive and well.

Published in Volume 66, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 22, 2011)

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