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A review by kareimer
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
4.0
This book was one of a kind. It was particularly interesting for myself as someone with Mennonite heritage.
The good: as I said very unique - I’ve never read a book where the whole story is one meeting. The narrator made this format work as he wove in his own thoughts while also renaming somewhat an omniscient narrator. The book also gave me an understanding of a different form of feminism. I think it’s easy to forget that some women are still living in societies where they are viewed as objects to be used and given very little autonomy on their lives. It was inspiring to see the ways the women wove a sense that their treatment was wrong but also having few tools to change (no reading or writing) also the topic of religion was fascinating how they were dealing with reconciling the importance of religion to them with the fact religion has been taught to them by men and used to suppress their rights.
The bad: there was a lot of names and it was hard to determine storylines of individual characters. This was made worst as I was on an audiobook. Overall I kind of wish there was more on individual lives of the women instead of just a mob of voices debating.
The good: as I said very unique - I’ve never read a book where the whole story is one meeting. The narrator made this format work as he wove in his own thoughts while also renaming somewhat an omniscient narrator. The book also gave me an understanding of a different form of feminism. I think it’s easy to forget that some women are still living in societies where they are viewed as objects to be used and given very little autonomy on their lives. It was inspiring to see the ways the women wove a sense that their treatment was wrong but also having few tools to change (no reading or writing) also the topic of religion was fascinating how they were dealing with reconciling the importance of religion to them with the fact religion has been taught to them by men and used to suppress their rights.
The bad: there was a lot of names and it was hard to determine storylines of individual characters. This was made worst as I was on an audiobook. Overall I kind of wish there was more on individual lives of the women instead of just a mob of voices debating.