A review by emilyinparis
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

‘Jorge said he wasn’t coming back until I learned how to be a better wife. He said it’s okay to touch him with my arm or leg or my foot, if it’s clean, when we’re sleeping but not to smother him like a second skin’

‘Aggie ignores all my advice, as though she were determined to live successfully’ 

‘Aggie and I met on the road between our houses and had one of our speed conversations. It’s a silly thing we do to make it seem like our imposes separation is not the source of continuous heartbreak’

‘She was a thimble-sized girl on the road, a speck of a living thing’ 

‘That night I took off all my clothes and examined my body. I had forgotten about it’ 

‘And I considered telling her that if thoughts and home were random patterns then actions were too, all actions, tender, desperate, lucid, treacherous ones and the promises we make and break’ 

‘But I guess that’s how the world works. How it sucks you in by being all beautiful just when you’re ready to leave’ 

‘Words of shame like I’m sorry about this mess and the smell and I don’t know why the hell I’m crying on such a beautiful summer day’ 

‘I fed Ximena. We looked deeply into each other’s eyes while she drank. I liked the heavy, warm weight of her in my arms’

‘What would Gustavo Mundo, the taxi driver from Acapulco, think about all of this? That losing all our month and material belongings was worth learning how to dance the tango?’

‘We had sunlight and traffic noise and breath. We had art. We had each other. We had ourselves. We had memories and we had lies. Those were the difficult-to-insure contents of our room’

‘I want to be forgiven. I want to be forgiven for causing the deaths of so many people I’ve loved’