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A review by corinnekeener
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
4.0
Miriam Toews, herself a former Mennonite, imagines a conversation among Mennonite women from the Bolivian colony of Molotschna in the aftermath of years of brutal nighttime rapes at the hands of men from their own community. Molotschna is a real community and the events that took place there did happen, the conversation that makes up the book, however, is fiction. The novel does not go into graphic detail about the crimes suffered by the women of the colony and instead focuses mainly on their decisions about their futures.
Women Talking is told as the minutes of covert meetings between several women from Molotschna as they plan to either stay in the homes they were attacked in or leave the only place they have ever known. What transpires in the meetings is sometimes frustrating - the way that meetings often are when they get off track - sometimes philosophical, sometimes heartbreaking, and often very empowering as you watch women who have been given little to no rights make room for themselves and prepare to take what they need.
Some of the writing is a little sloppy. I was often confused about timelines and details of events, and the choice to have the minutes taken by August, a man who can't keep his own thoughts out of the minutes, was sometimes distracting. But I still found the overall effect to be a fascinating examination of faith, human resilience, and resistance. It's not often a book allows women think and speak for themselves.
For more thoughts on Women Talking you can listen to episode 51 of The Bookstore Podcast at our website, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Women Talking is told as the minutes of covert meetings between several women from Molotschna as they plan to either stay in the homes they were attacked in or leave the only place they have ever known. What transpires in the meetings is sometimes frustrating - the way that meetings often are when they get off track - sometimes philosophical, sometimes heartbreaking, and often very empowering as you watch women who have been given little to no rights make room for themselves and prepare to take what they need.
Some of the writing is a little sloppy. I was often confused about timelines and details of events, and the choice to have the minutes taken by August, a man who can't keep his own thoughts out of the minutes, was sometimes distracting. But I still found the overall effect to be a fascinating examination of faith, human resilience, and resistance. It's not often a book allows women think and speak for themselves.
For more thoughts on Women Talking you can listen to episode 51 of The Bookstore Podcast at our website, or wherever you get your podcasts.