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fromp's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
roseforemily's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Child abuse
jillianwolf's review against another edition
4.0
Irma Voth is a young adult who struggles with things she can’t control. Her husband, Jorge, is a drug dealer who is uninterested in her both as a wife and as a person. To Irma, the bigger issue between them is that Irma comes from a Mennonite background and things that she feels should come naturally to her as a woman and intuitively as a person about her surroundings just don’t. Jorge is a Mexican man, living in Mexico, who expects that his wife will be able to conform to societies standards and lacks a basic understanding of the world in which she became a person. To top it off, they live on her parent’s land and Irma constantly deals with the threat from her father that he will throw her out if Jorge, who is off dealing drugs, doesn’t come home and work the farm. Her younger sister, Aggie, constantly begs Irma to allow her to come live with her as things at home are getting worse. The bottom line? Young Irma has a lot on her mind.
The thin balance that Irma has managed to eek out is tested when a movie director comes to town and looks for a translator that speaks Dutch German. Irma needs the money, as Jorge is gone, and eagerly accepts the job offer. Her work on the film triggers a serious of events that lead to an uproar in the lives of everyone she holds dear.
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews is a strongly written novel about the ways that our life is a safety blanket and if we let go of the familiar how much we stand to gain and how much we can lose. Irma is a sympathetic character with stilted dialogue and I constantly found myself wishing that I could help her in some way, but realizing that she brought many troubles on herself. When Irma finally stands up for herself I found myself wishing that she could be more thoughtful and not make bad decisions, however, the bad decisions were consistent with her character as someone who was highly sheltered. My frustration does not make her an inconsistent character.
Overall, the book was a good read, though a little short. I was a little confused by the ending, as well as many of the laws in Mexico, I suppose, but otherwise, this was a good read. It’s not a fast read or a beach read, rather, it’s going to be a thoughtful one with a decently moving storyline.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the goodreads program in order to review it and share my opinion.
The thin balance that Irma has managed to eek out is tested when a movie director comes to town and looks for a translator that speaks Dutch German. Irma needs the money, as Jorge is gone, and eagerly accepts the job offer. Her work on the film triggers a serious of events that lead to an uproar in the lives of everyone she holds dear.
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews is a strongly written novel about the ways that our life is a safety blanket and if we let go of the familiar how much we stand to gain and how much we can lose. Irma is a sympathetic character with stilted dialogue and I constantly found myself wishing that I could help her in some way, but realizing that she brought many troubles on herself. When Irma finally stands up for herself I found myself wishing that she could be more thoughtful and not make bad decisions, however, the bad decisions were consistent with her character as someone who was highly sheltered. My frustration does not make her an inconsistent character.
Overall, the book was a good read, though a little short. I was a little confused by the ending, as well as many of the laws in Mexico, I suppose, but otherwise, this was a good read. It’s not a fast read or a beach read, rather, it’s going to be a thoughtful one with a decently moving storyline.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the goodreads program in order to review it and share my opinion.
andrewreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
jiscoo's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
4.5
no one does the teenage-girl-deadpan-humor-to-devastating-but-life-affirming-observation-about-humanity one-two punch quite like miriam toews. irma voth is going to live in my head for a long time.
danicareads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
floralfox's review against another edition
3.0
Irma Voth is a young woman that has immigrated from Canada to Mexico with her family to live in a Mennonite village. The novel opens with her marriage to Jorge, a local, and her father's rage that she has married outside of the Mennonite community. Her father demands and forces the young couple to live in another house on the family lot and work the farm, but he refuses to pay them and has shunned them so that nobody in the family may talk to them. Jorge, restless and sketchy, disappears for long bouts of time. Irma spends most of her time alone, and she is very uncertain of herself (to most questions she is asked during the entirety of the novel, she answers, "I don't know.")
Her little sister Aggie often sneaks away to talk to Irma, and her mother sends things along, so her relationships with the other women in her family aren't ruined but they are maintained secretly.
Irma's father is angry and upset that a movie director has come to shoot a movie about Mennonites in the village. Irma, who can speak German, Spanish, and English, ends up working as a translator on the movie. The script is written in Spanish, but performed in German by a German actress who is anxious and worried most of the time. Somehow, working on the movie gives Irma a sense of purpose that she hasn't had before (in one scene, from her childhood, Irma recalls going to the doctor because she believes she has died, but doesn't know how or why and can't determine if she herself is actually still alive). She wonders, “How do I behave in this world without following the directions of my father, my husband, or God?”
You think the movie-making business is going to be the main part of the novel, but is isn't.
Eventually we learn that Irma's father's history of abuse is long and dark. Aggie keeps coming to the set to visit and Irma keeps insisting she needs to go home. One night Irma hears her mother and two young brother singing (psalms, I think?) in the middle of the night and realizes what is happening. She rushes into the house, catches her father beating Aggie, and takes Aggie away from him to live with her. They are still in dire straits, though, with no money and with the threat that Irma's father is going to kick them out of the house so that another family can move in.
Irma's mother is pregnant again, and she gives birth to the baby without Irma's knowledge. Irma sells all of the drugs that her husband has been storing at their place to run away and get Aggie far away from her father. But her mother insists that she take the new baby girl, too. She knows that her husband is a violent misogynist and that she will lose this girl, too. She tells Irma to take little Ximena and she will just tell the father that she has died of a disease that requires a quick burial (he will believe it because it is not the first time one of their babies has died of this disease).
The second part of the novel follows Irma and Aggie in Chihuahua City finding a way to settle and survive, and we learn that the reason they immigrated to Mexico was because their father killed their older sister Katie and tried to present it to the police as an accident. They weren't buying it. A young, teenage Irma lied to the police to protect their father, and they disappeared into the night.
The novel ended a little abruptly to me and seemed to be juggling many different storylines, so I gave it 3 stars. I still enjoyed it because Toews is a uniquely talented writer, but I didn't feel like it was my favorite of her works.
Her little sister Aggie often sneaks away to talk to Irma, and her mother sends things along, so her relationships with the other women in her family aren't ruined but they are maintained secretly.
Irma's father is angry and upset that a movie director has come to shoot a movie about Mennonites in the village. Irma, who can speak German, Spanish, and English, ends up working as a translator on the movie. The script is written in Spanish, but performed in German by a German actress who is anxious and worried most of the time. Somehow, working on the movie gives Irma a sense of purpose that she hasn't had before (in one scene, from her childhood, Irma recalls going to the doctor because she believes she has died, but doesn't know how or why and can't determine if she herself is actually still alive). She wonders, “How do I behave in this world without following the directions of my father, my husband, or God?”
You think the movie-making business is going to be the main part of the novel, but is isn't.
Spoiler
Eventually we learn that Irma's father's history of abuse is long and dark. Aggie keeps coming to the set to visit and Irma keeps insisting she needs to go home. One night Irma hears her mother and two young brother singing (psalms, I think?) in the middle of the night and realizes what is happening. She rushes into the house, catches her father beating Aggie, and takes Aggie away from him to live with her. They are still in dire straits, though, with no money and with the threat that Irma's father is going to kick them out of the house so that another family can move in.
Irma's mother is pregnant again, and she gives birth to the baby without Irma's knowledge. Irma sells all of the drugs that her husband has been storing at their place to run away and get Aggie far away from her father. But her mother insists that she take the new baby girl, too. She knows that her husband is a violent misogynist and that she will lose this girl, too. She tells Irma to take little Ximena and she will just tell the father that she has died of a disease that requires a quick burial (he will believe it because it is not the first time one of their babies has died of this disease).
The second part of the novel follows Irma and Aggie in Chihuahua City finding a way to settle and survive, and we learn that the reason they immigrated to Mexico was because their father killed their older sister Katie and tried to present it to the police as an accident. They weren't buying it. A young, teenage Irma lied to the police to protect their father, and they disappeared into the night.
The novel ended a little abruptly to me and seemed to be juggling many different storylines, so I gave it 3 stars. I still enjoyed it because Toews is a uniquely talented writer, but I didn't feel like it was my favorite of her works.
jennaclaireclouse's review against another edition
4.0
First half was enjoyable but not gripping - second half had me fully in. Similar stream of consciousness, all dialogue writing as Fight Night but that book I loved.
emjay2021's review against another edition
5.0
This is a beautiful, spare book. I think Miriam Toews' writing is getting better with each book.
sofiamarielg's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, I liked [b:Irma Voth|10238952|Irma Voth|Miriam Toews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327953268s/10238952.jpg|15138964], but I did find my interest dipping significantly as I reached the halfway point of the novel. I had read [b:All My Puny Sorrows|18339630|All My Puny Sorrows|Miriam Toews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1416181263s/18339630.jpg|25892986] some years ago, which was brilliant and soul-wrenching. So, I eagerly picked this one up at the library, albeit I had been in search of [b:A Complicated Kindness|13374|A Complicated Kindness|Miriam Toews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434887050s/13374.jpg|970518] (which I later discovered had a waitlist in the high double digits). I liked Towes's characters, but most of the dialogue was semi-philosophical inanities. In addition, the big reveal/twist was easily guessed much earlier, which actually made me wonder if it was supposed to be a surprise at all? Something to ponder. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the juxtaposition of Mexican and Mennonite cultures, made all the more complex by Irma's underlying Canadian identity. It made for some very interesting observations.