The last thing a bookworm with not enough time needs is another title for her TBR pile, but this past Sunday's New York Times highlights a novel that sounds like a must read:
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.
ALL MY PUNY SORROWS
By Miriam Toews
317 pp. McSweeney’s. $24.
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