Review: Women Talking

Women Talking by Miriam Toews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The women in a Mennonite community must decide what to do when their rapists are being bailed out by members of their own village. August, whose is back after his family left the community when he was twelve, is taking "minutes" for the women while they talk over their options. Do they leave? Stay? Fight? They struggle with their faith, fear, and friendships. The decisions are made more difficult because they do not read, write, or even know where they are.

As I was reading this, I kept thinking that August was an unreliable narrator. It's a bit hard to read some of what he writes, due to lack of punctuation, but he keeps telling us he's writing as fast as he can. The sins of this community are far reaching, old, and numerous. There are some unanswered questions about Bishop Peters for me that I wish were clarified, but it's not his story. I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

View all my reviews