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A review by kdawn999
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
4.0
This may be the most compelling premise for a novel I've ever come across (which is why I put everything else down to read it). The entirety is presented in the "meeting minutes" of an assembly of Mennonite women who, on finding they and their children have been drugged and raped for years by several men in the community, debate their next course of action. Oh, and this is based on actual events uncovered in a colony in Bolivia in 2008.
This novel does not take the most direct angle on the story. We have a male narrator taking the minutes and interpreting the events for the illiterate women, the women speak a dialect of Low German-Dutch-Prussian, and the women still want to adhere to their traditions and religion. The multilayered cultural removes make the narrative read slowly--while shocking secrets and details are revealed in an understated way.
It's about grappling to find a perspective on unspeakable trauma and how revolutions are created from conversations. I won't quickly forget this novel or learning about the events that prompted it. I'm interested in seeing the movie adaptation too.
This novel does not take the most direct angle on the story. We have a male narrator taking the minutes and interpreting the events for the illiterate women, the women speak a dialect of Low German-Dutch-Prussian, and the women still want to adhere to their traditions and religion. The multilayered cultural removes make the narrative read slowly--while shocking secrets and details are revealed in an understated way.
It's about grappling to find a perspective on unspeakable trauma and how revolutions are created from conversations. I won't quickly forget this novel or learning about the events that prompted it. I'm interested in seeing the movie adaptation too.