National BestsellerWinner of the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for FictionShortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for FictionShortlisted for the Reading Women Award “This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real-life event, could be right out of The Handmaid’s Tale.” –Margaret Atwood, on Twitter“Scorching . . . Women Talking is a wry, freewheeling novel of ideas … . Women Talking is a wry, freewheeling novel of ideas that touches on the nature of evil, questions of free will, collective responsibility, cultural determinism, and, above all, forgiveness.” —New York Times Book Review, Editor’s ChoiceOne evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women-all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in-have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they’ve ever known or should they dare to escape? Based on real events and told through the “minutes” of the women’s all-female symposium, Toews’s masterful novel uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women claiming their own power to decide.Named a Best Book of the Year ByTHE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Notable Books of the Year) * NPR.ORG* THE WASHINGTON POST * REAL SIMPLE * THE NEW YORK TIMES (PARUL SEHGAL’S TOP BOOKS OF THE YEAR) * SLATE * STAR TRIBUNE (MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL) * LITHUB * AUSTIN CHRONICLE * GOOP* ELECTRIC LITERATURE * KIRKUS REVIEWS * JEZEBEL* BUSTLE * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY * TIME* LIBRARY JOURNAL * THE AV CLUB * MASHABLE * VOX *
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This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real-life event, could be right out of The Handmaid’s Tale.
In October 2019, I attended a fundraiser for the Brooklyn Library. After a donation, I was invited to their annual event in one of the most beautiful libraries in the area, where I met readers and authors both from Brooklyn and nearby communities. As a gift, I was permitted to choose 1 free book from all the nominees included in their annual awards. I chose Women Talking by Miriam Toews because of the summary shared by the editor when this book was mentioned. I knew nothing about it, but given the cover had a quote from Margaret Atwood, I thought it’d be a perfect choice. I finally had time to read the book yesterday after family left from a Thanksgiving vacation in NYC. Let’s discuss it…
The book is based on a true story, but heavily fictionalized. A man takes minutes for women in a religious community who have all experienced something brutal at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, or other men in their community. The minute-taker interjects with his own feedback, and the novel is broken into a few sections: 1st day of meeting, night after the meeting, 2nd day of meeting, and the resulting actions. The meetings in question were private among the women, so they could decide what to do about the men who’d harmed them. What an intense topic!
This review was difficult to write, as I initially wanted to comment on how terribly these women suffered, and how I wanted to kill the men myself. Then, I realized, this is a review of the book, not the action. For the suffering alone, I’d give the women 5 stars for their strength and courage. As a book, I settled on 3.5 stars… rounding down because I think the format hurt the tone overall. The entire goal of the book is for the women to decide among 3 choices: Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave.
On the positive side, the writing style and imagery are great. I could feel the pain in the words, or lack of words. When the minute-taker translates from one language to another in order to write down their memoirs and emotions, seeing his reaction versus their reaction was quite poignant and troubling. The characters are vivid and encouraged a wide range of emotions in me as a reader. The tone and concept are heartbreaking and stoic, in a good way — when it should be.
On the negative side, I felt the story lacked some power and plot. It’s weird to acknowledge that issue, but… the first half is when the women sit around discussing the incident. Not that I wanted to truly experience the violence, but I felt that in order to pull in more passion and hatred, we needed a brief opening scene of the attack to set the tone. Otherwise, it was just random women chatting from a different culture, and we as readers didn’t have a connection to them yet. By 50%, the men show up. This is where I felt the book begin to pull me in… there was conflict. The men knew they were talking. Would they attack? Would they believe the women were just knitting a blanket and not planning an escape or counterattack of their own?
I understand it’s not a typical story with suspense, but it could’ve made the message a little tighter. Also, the different style of dialog, since it was thru a translator and a minute-taker, made for a weird read to me. I couldn’t easily sit / connect / absorb like I do with a traditional novel. I got past it, and I really invested in their decision… then the story just sorta ends with what they plan to do. So… it wasn’t a great match for my reading style, but I recognize the value in the literary approach and the merit in the actual writing. For the proper reader, it’ll glow. For me, it was an average story that didn’t quite reach what I hoped it would…. so, 3.5 stars rounded down a bit. I would read more by the author too.
Elegant, unique, hard-hitting look at a community of women dealing with trauma. Inspired by a horrific episode from real life, Toews takes a humane, intelligent and creative approach to explore the limits of human forgiveness, action and resilience. Must read.
In a format I’ve never read before, a meeting minutes-style with everything said written down, including a few thoughts from the man helping them, August, this narration is quite unique and interesting once you are used to it. Don’t let it deter you!
The piece flows mostly linear with a few backstories, including August’s. After finding out women and girls in their colony are being drugged and raped, the women must choose:
1. Do Nothing.
2. Stay and Fight.
3. Leave.
These women are illiterate. A few can manage to write their name. They have been oppressed and controlled by the men in their colony for far too long. Some even question if what the men say in the Bible is actually what is written in the Bible.
I found myself arguing and debating with them, while discovering bits and pieces of their religion and its influence in their decision. All the while, in the back of my mind, I wanted to scream, cry, and fight for the women in Bolivia that this actually happened to in real life. There’s a little prologue about it at the start of the novel. (Seven men were sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping more than 100 women.) What a sick, horrible thing.
What will these women decide?
An astonishment, a volcano of a novel with slowly and furiously mounting pressures of anguish and love and rage. No other book I’ve read in the past year has spoken so lucidly about our current moment, and yet none has felt as timeless; the always-wondrous Miriam Toews has written a book as close to a Greek tragedy as a contemporary Western novelist can come.
The true events this novel are based on were so upsetting I wish they were fictional. The author has turned these events into a thoughtful and affecting novel and created a varied cast of characters whose courage and capacity for love will stay with you long after you finish the book.
Based on a true and harrowing story of a small Mennonite village in Bolivia where women were being drugged and raped by men in their community, this book transports us to a hayloft where a group of village women meet to decide whether to stay and attempt to reform the men (and raise the boys with a proper moral sense) or to leave the village. Their scribe Augustus Egg (note the feminine connotation of the last name) takes the minutes. Very little “happens”–aside from the momentous decision that will upend their most fundamental beliefs about women’s agency and choice. As the women debate, the conversation proceeds discursively, repetitively, realistically. Points are made, rejected, remade; feelings and fears surface, disappear, and resurface. In case my review does not make this clear, this is not a page-turner or a plot-driven book–but it is a provocative tale about gender, power, and language.
Wow. Every book club should read this. So much to talk about and unpack.
I won’t lie, this book was hard to read, but that’s only because of the topic it covers and that it’s based on a true story, which is hard in itself. So if you can get past that, which some people understandably can’t, it’s a great read. Not a page turner, and yet it kept me engaged throughout, and when I put it down, my mind was always wondering about it, chewing on the story, the characters and their relationships together, and mostly, on the decision they have to make. If you like books that keep you thinking and giving you the feels long past the time you put it down, absolutely read this book.
Very boring
I did not finish this book. Too many characters too soon. I also could not find the characters relatable or likeable.
unreadable. Sorry to have bought this book
A revolutionary tale based on the aftermath of true and horrific events. Women Talking is a contemplative read that begs the reader to step out of her own life and experience and consider a life where you can’t read, you can’t write, and are discouraged from having any independent thought.
The conversations the women have about language, love, faith, and most importantly, what is right and necessary to do in the wake of the crimes committed against them is compelling and heartfelt. You will laugh and rage with these women. And when the clock runs out on their need to make a decision, you’ll fear for them, as well as hope for the possibility of a new and better life, no matter how unlikely that life seems to be.
There’s so much more to say about this book, if you want more of my thoughts, check out my full review at https://www.charlenecarr.com/women-talking-miriam-toews/
I get that one of my fave authors likes this book . But for me it was simply a terrible trigger. These women have lived all their lives in religious terrorism and they have no hope. Not sure how this is uplifting or entertaining in any way. It was the made up part of something terribly not made up. I finished it in case there was something I was missing about my assessment but nope. It had no resolution, no good idea, no solving. Just sad, awful, terrible lives in the name of “god”. Just yet another story of men who use women. Absolutely no thanks.
I really didn’t enjoy reading the book
Amazing, unexpected conversations from unworldly women about their options
Using only a limited setting, Toews manages to create a vivid world and complex characters.
Really tried to get into this book. No luck
The Mennonite women who must decide whether to leave or stay in the community develop a cohesive strength. The ending continues the ambiguity felt by them in making this hard decision.
I found this book very boring. Not sure how one who is not a Mennonite can make any sense of it.