Review by New York Times Review
IN A 2013 EXCHANGE that's become famous in literary circles, the novelist Claire Messud took to task an interviewer at Publishers Weekly who observed that she - the interviewer - wouldn't want to be friends with the protagonist of Messud's most recent novel and asked if Messud herself felt the same way. "For heaven's sake, what kind of question is that?" Messud responded. "If you're reading to find friends, you're in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn't 'Is this a potential friend for me?' but 'Is this character alive?'" For the most part, I agree with Messud, yet as I devoured Miriam Toews's latest novel, "All My Puny Sorrows," I thought that I'd very much like to befriend the main character. In fact, spending time in the company of Yoli, a 40-something woman alternately busy with the work of caring for various family members and screwing up her own life, was the main reason I loved the book. It's a testament to the entertaining voice, emotional acuity and quick pacing of "All My Puny Sorrows" that it doesn't become evident until about two-thirds of the way through how slight the plot is: Yoli has traveled to Winnipeg from her home in Toronto because her sister, Elfrieda, a brilliant and successful classical pianist, has - not for the first time - attempted suicide. Elfrieda, a.k.a. Elf, is now in the psychiatric unit of a hospital, and most of the book's suspense arises from the questions of whether she'll attempt suicide again and whether she'll persuade Yoli to help her. Many pages are devoted to the daily pattern of waiting out a family member's hospital stay: trying to extract information from doctors and nurses, trying not to let non-hospital-related obligations fall into disarray, hugging, crying, hugging while crying, procuring food and sleeping (usually not well). Such a synopsis would not, if I hadn't read the book, seem to me enticing, but "All My Puny Sorrows" is irresistible. The flashbacks to Yoli and Elf's childhood in a rural Mennonite community are vivid and energetic. In both the past and present, Toews (who is the author of six earlier books that have received significantly more recognition in her native Canada than in the United States) perfectly captures the casual manner in which close-knit sisters enjoy and irritate each other. The dialogue is realistic and funny, and somehow, almost magically, Toews gets away with having her characters discuss things like books and art and the meaning of life without seeming pretentious or precious; they're simply smart, decent and confused. It's Yoli who is the story's heroine, though she wouldn't believe it. Relentlessly self-deprecating, she explains that she "had two kids with two different guys ... as a type of social experiment. Just kidding. As a type of social failure." She is semi-amicably ending her second marriage and receives a text from her soon-to-be-ex-husband that reads, "I need you." When she texts back asking if he's O.K., he replies: "Sorry, pushed send too soon. I need you to sign the divorce papers." In contrast to her famous sister, Yoli is the author of an unremarkable Y.A. series called Rodeo Rhonda and is also trying to write a more literary novel, which she carries around in a plastic Safeway bag. She gets lost in the hospital's basement, has impulsive sex with her car mechanic and, when she gets a recorded phone call asking if her debt has become uncontrollable, whispers into the phone, "Yes, yes, it has," then hangs up. Per the Messud Doctrine, Yoli is bracingly alive, as is everyone with whom she interacts, even as the possibility of Elf's death looms over them. "All My Puny Sorrows" is unsettling, because how can a novel about suicide not be? But its intelligence, its honesty and, above all, its compassion provide a kind of existential balm - a comfort not unlike the sort you might find by opening a bottle of wine and having a long conversation with (yes, really) a true friend. Toews captures the casual manner in which sisters enjoy and irritate each other. CURTIS SITTENFELD'S most recent novel is "Sisterland."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 16, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
What makes one person survive a difficult life and another, with seemingly more gifts, feel the need to end it? Toews' (Irma Voth, 2011) latest novel tells a tale of two sisters raised in a family of outliers in a strict Canadian Mennonite community. The older sister, Elfrieda, a world-famous concert pianist married to a devoted, brilliant husband, has attempted suicide many times. Yolandi is a mess, with two children born out of wedlock, no substantive career, and a pending divorce, yet she manages to soldier on with a fierce sense of humor and hope. Yoli tries oh, how hard she tries to keep her sister alive. Much of the story has Elf in the hospital recovering from various attempts to kill herself, while Yoli pleads with her, badgers the staff, and tries to plan for a future. Toews writes with a sharp and piercing eye, offering characters and descriptions which are so odd and yet so spot-on that the reader has to laugh, albeit reluctantly. Though not exactly a happy book, it is one that deserves to be read.--Hoover, Danise Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Elfrieda's a concert pianist. When we were kids she would occasionally let me be her page-tuner for the fast pieces that she hadn't memorized." This sentence, in the voice of the younger Yolandi, crystallizes the dynamic of the two sisters in Toews's (Summer of My Amazing Luck) latest novel. While Elfrieda is the genius and the perfectionist, it is the practical, capable Yolandi on whom she depends. Over the course of this tender and bittersweet novel, Elf tours the world while Yoli stays put, has two kids with two different men but stays with neither of the fathers. It is Elf's debilitating depression and suicidal tendencies that keep the two urgently close as Yoli, for decades, does everything she can to help Elf ward off her psychological problems. The prose throughout the book is lively and original and moves along at a steady clip. Though there are some underdeveloped aspects (their upbringing in a Mennonite household, Yoli's experience of motherhood), the novel is a triumph in its depiction of the love the sisters share, as Yoli tries, just as when she was a page turner, to stay a few beats ahead. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Starred Review. Sisters should always want what is best for each other, but what if what one sister really wants is to end her life? This is the dilemma Yoli faces when her ethereal sister, Elf, attempts suicide. The beautiful Elf is a world-renowned pianist who's in a loving relationship and about to start an international tour, but having it all doesn't matter to her when she is drowning in despair. Yoli, as she rightfully points out, is the one struggling; she's twice divorced, with children by two different fathers, and after having achieved some success as a YA series author (though she has nothing like Elf's gifts), her career has stalled. But though she and Elf are close-the bond they forged while growing up in a conservative Mennonite town in Canada is central to the narrative-depression is hard to understand from the outside. VERDICT Despite the topic, this is not a dark novel. In fact, its gloom comes in the form of dark humor, and Toews (Irma Voth) does a wonderful job with her characters, none of whom are perfect, which makes them all the more real. It requires a talented author to take a serious subject and write such an engaging, enjoyable work.-Shaunna E. Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll. Lib., VA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Canadian writer visits her older sister, a concert pianist who's just attempted suicide, in this masterful, original investigation into love, loss and survival. "She wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other," Yolandi Von Riesen says of her sister, Elfrieda. Toews (Irma Voth, 2011, etc.) moves between Winnipeg, Toronto, and a small town founded by Mennonite immigrants who survived Bolshevik massacres, where the intellectual, free-spirited Von Riesen family doesn't share the elders' disapproval of "overt symbols of hope and individual signature pieces." Yoli looks back over time, realizing that the sisters' bond is strengthened by their painful memories. The girls' father baffles neighbors by supporting Elf's creative passions and campaigning to run a library. His suicide and absence from their adulthood make him even more important to his daughters as their paths diverge. Elf travels around Europe, emptying herself into Rachmaninoff performances; Yoli writes books about a rodeo heroine, feeling aimless and failed. Elf's husband appreciates her singular sensitivity as a performer, but this capacity for vulnerability dangerously underpins her many breakdowns and longstanding depression. Yoli's men are transient, leaving her with two children. Toews conveys family cycles of crisis and intermittent calm through recurring events and behaviors: Elf and her father both suffer from depression; Yoli and her mother face tragedy with wry humor and absurdist behavior; and two sisters experience parallel losses. Crisp chapter endings, like staccato musical notes, anchor the plot's pacing. Elf's determination to end her suffering by dying takes the form of a drumbeat of requests for Yoli to help her commit suicide. Readers yearn for more time with this complex, radiant woman who fiercely loves her family but cannot love herself. "Sadness is what holds our bones in place," Yoli thinks. Toews deepens our understanding of the pain found in Coleridge's poetry, which is the source of the book's title. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
