Miriam Toews: A Canadian Treasure
Toews, who lives in Toronto, was at the Toronto Reference Library Monday night to discuss her award-winning novel, All My Puny Sorrows. Warming up the audience was Alix Hawley, whose debut novel, All True Not A Lie In It, is available this month. Toronto Star Books Editor, Deb Dundas, was the interviewer for the evening.
When the doors opened, guests hurried in to select their seats, shedding their winter coats, hats, and mittens. As they took sips from their glasses of wine, music by Louis Armstrong played in the background. The atmosphere had a subtle buzz of excitement that built as the evening progressed.
Hawley started the evening, reading a provocative passage from her new book, set during the American Revolutionary War, about pioneer Daniel Boone’s life. Before she started, she raised a cheer for public libraries “Hurray for libraries and kindly librarians,” and confessed to the small crime of having never returned a National Geographic magazine she borrowed that ultimately inspired her book.
Following Hawley’s reading, Dundas and Toews took the stage.
All My Puny Sorrows, winner of the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and a finalist for the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize, has received international acclaim. Author Nicholas Hornby praises Toews as “an extraordinary talent” and the Washington Post says, “In the crucible of [Toews’] genius, tears and laughter are ground into some magical elixir that seems like the essence of life.”
The book is about two sisters: Elf, a beautiful, happily married, and extremely successful concert pianist; and Yoli, a twice divorced, broke mother of two teenage kids. Elf has been plagued for most of her life with mental illness and wants out, permanently. Yoli is determined to keep her alive. Toews, who often finds creative inspiration through her life experiences, wrote All My Puny Sorrows after her sister took her own life in 2010. Despite the sadness and humanity revealed in the novel, Toews’ fiction is peppered with some very tender moments and some funny ones, too.
“All I wanted to do was create something beautiful and artful and something that would resonate with people,” said Toews, in sharing how the experiences of mental illness and suicide in her family have impacted her work.
The conversation between Dundas and Toews covered a range of issues including mental illness and assisted suicide, fundamentalist societies and the pros and cons of growing up in a Mennonite community – and Toews expressed her viewpoint with confidence and conviction. When Dundas asked Toews what she thought about the Canadian government’s recent decision to take away the charitable status of the organization Die with Dignity, Toews said:
“[Stephen] Harper has his own Conservative agenda and it’s not good…It’s not assisted suicide, that’s for sure… He’s targeting certain agencies and organizations specifically. And we can see that if we pay attention. And so it’s up to us – it’s up to us to prevent that from happening…I know that what he does isn't going to prevent human beings for doing the right thing, ultimately.”
Despite the heaviness of these very real matters, laughter was shared through anecdotes. Toews’ mother – who was in attendance beaming with love and pride – joined in as Toews related her children’s worst childhood fear – aliens – and laughingly remembered her own – hell.
To date, Toews has written seven books including five bestsellers, and she is the recipient of numerous nominations and accolades, including:
- Canada Reads Canadian Best Sellers of the Decade 2010 for A Complicated Kindness
- Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work (2010)
- Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for The Flying Troutmans(2008)
- Canada Reads 2006 for A Complicated Kindness
- The Governor’s General Award and the CBA Libris Award – Fiction Book of the Year for A Complicated Kindness (2005)
Additionally, Toews has one film credit. She was the lead actress for the 2007 film Silent Light. The film won a number of awards, including the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and Toews was nominated for an Ariel Award for Best Actress.
Enjoy the on-stage conversation with Miriam Toews at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon on the library's YouTube channel.
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2 thoughts on “Miriam Toews: A Canadian Treasure”
I think it’s very creative and also inspire
A great inspiration for all women in the world