Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

7 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This really is a book of sorrows. Gives us a view of depression and determination and grief and resilience.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Self harm, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death

roozia's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Religious bigotry

kelly_may's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

mynameisvesper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

All my puny sorrows broke my heart. But also made me laugh and thinking about the essence of living… The story of two sisters: one desperately trying to end her life and the other equally desperately seeking to save it, is a hard story to tell. It is tragic. And yes, Toews manages to express the raw feelings surrounding and flowing through everyone involved, and still she does not let us sink in despair. Plenty of black humour and irony, the way that the narrator just jumps between her thoughts and memories, the comfort and sadness the characters find in music and literature, there is so much to take from this book. 
This all just felt honest, it hurt, it truly resonated with me- these little conversations we all had with family members in face of hardships, the impossible questions one asks themselves when a loved one keeps spiralling down, the frustration and fear when they are sick in the hospital, the way that grief comes and goes and how hard it is to move on (the passage about ‘shredding the guilt’ really struck me). 
Toews serves beautiful prose, so authentic and sincere it almost feels like eavesdropping. 

“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Medical content, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Death

rieviolet's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

After reading the blurb and some reviews, I started out with very high expectations, I thought I'd really get on well with the book. Honestly, I struggled to even finish it, when I put it down I was not very tempted to pick it back up. 

There were parts, here and there, that I liked but I felt as if the narration lost itself along the way; some sections I found very slow or just plain weird and nonsensical. 
I struggled with the writing style the most, I think it is just a case of it not being my cup of tea. I found it confusing, a bit all over the place, I could not get used to it, especially the way the dialogues were integrated into the text and not signalled by punctuation. 

Getting into it, I knew the book would deal with difficult and heavy topics, it's not as if I was expecting a lighthearted reading experience but still, it was a lot more graphic than I expected and at times unnecessarily so. If suicide is a difficult topic for you to read about, I suggest being kind to yourself and staying away from this book altogether.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Minor: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Cancer, and Murder

queersubtext's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

veggiestraw's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is beautifully written. The prose, while devastating at times, feels like a warm hug. There's stunning imagery of Canadian winter that immerses the reader in the main character's snowy home. The family dynamics are very well laid out, from the main characters children to her exes to her parents to her friends and more. It's a tragic story about the traumatic experience of loving someone who's only wish is to die. Her sister is a piano prodigy. To her, she has it all and always has. But illness doesn't choose who to fester in. It's written without quotations, which usually I would say disconnects you from the text, but in this case I believe it works quite well. The writing flows like the main characters thoughts. It's honest, real, and heart-wrenching. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Sexual content

As you probably read from the blurb, it does follow an ex-Mennonite family and throughout the book it discusses how that community treated them, even after they left.