Author Miriam Toews visits Alliston for ‘One Book’ finale

October 22, 2015 · 0 Comments

Last Tuesday evening, Canadian author Miriam Toews came to Alliston to meet with fans and answer questions about her novel, ‘All My Puny Sorrows’.
The book, one of five best selling works written by the author, was this year’s selection for ‘One Book One New Tecumseth’, a town-wide reading event that concluded with Toews’ visit.
According to a Globe and Mail review, which can be summarized in one word, “brilliant”, All My Puny Sorrows is the story of two sisters – Yolandi, the narrator, and a moderately successful author of rodeo-themed young adult novels, and Elfrieda, or Elf, a world-class concert pianist known for her Rachmaninoff, in much demand in the capitals of Europe. Yolandi lives in Toronto; Elfrieda lives in Winnipeg. Yolandi has two children; Elfrieda has none. Yolandi lives a happy enough life, though she’s down on herself for sleeping around, for not being as career-driven as she might be. Elfrieda wants to die so desperately that, at one point in the novel, she cuts her wrists and drinks bleach.
“AMPS, as Elfrieda abbreviates the Coleridge line that lends the novel its title, has been called a book about suicide. And fair enough: it is a book about suicide, and, as must be noted, a book drawn from suicides in Toews’ own life – those of her father and her sister. But it’s actually a book about what it is to be a sibling, and particularly about what it is to be a sibling to only one other sibling. It is one of the most moving and accurate representations of that complicated situation I have ever read,” said Jared Bland, editor of Globe Arts and Globe Books.
“Throughout AMPS, we are reminded that childhood was an ideal (and idealized) state – ‘I remember perfectly – or should I say I have a perfect memory,’ Yolandi relates, highlighting how we reshape our past – and that that ideal state has been degraded: ‘There was no freer soul in the world than me at age nine,’ she offers, ‘and … now I woke up every morning reminding myself that control was an illusion’,” Bland writes.
“All of which sounds rather grim, when you spell it out. But it isn’t, because this is a Miriam Toews novel, which are always delicate braids of sadness and humour. In this sense, and all others, for that matter, AMPS is her most accomplished novel yet,” said Bland.
Kim Burgess of the NTPL welcomed Toews to Alliston, and Vice Chair of the Library Board, Marylaine Canavan, was the emcee.
“The event was a smashing success. I believe we had 195 people attend,” Burgess told The Times. “We are beyond thrilled with the community support for One Book One New Tecumseth.”
Burgess interviewed Toews on stage, asking many of the poignant questions raised by readers throughout the past few months.
“I have to clear this up right at the onset of our chat…it’s a question that continues to come up from our patrons. A question that I try my best to answer, but one that I think our small town, very hockey-minded community, really needs to hear from you…Are you related to the famous, Canadian professional ice hockey player, Jonathan Toews?” asked Burgess of the author, began the interview –which ultimately led to more serious questions about the books main theme, suicide and doctor assisted suicide – with a chuckle. “I trust you can appreciate where the confusion comes from – same last name, he’s in fact from Winnipeg (as well).”
Burgess began her interview by saying, “We admittedly had some feedback from our patrons that All My Puny Sorrows is just so so sad. Maybe too sad. It was a hard thing for us in Reader’s Advisory to counter because so much of the subject matter and the story is heartbreakingly sad. That said, we would counter that although part of the story is sad… a great part is hopeful too. The story is also one of resilience and survival; how much the human heart can in fact endure and still carry on. Can you touch on that a bit?”
“The mental health care system in Canada is broken. The (former) Harper government didn’t share the views of many Canadians on doctor assisted suicide and I believe that discussion needs to be reopened, so people aren’t taking their loved ones to Sweden for help, or ignoring their requests (to choose when to end their own lives).”
“Yoli’s quote in the novel ‘she wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other’. For many of us this is the central conflict of the book. It forces us to examine what would you do for the person you love most in the world? Yoli struggles. How does a person resign themselves to accepting another’s choice? Is this a discussion about selflessness?”
“My biggest regret is that I did not help my own sister to die. She was lucid and sane. I knew that (but couldn’t help her to kill herself). She died violently and alone and if there was an alternative, I should have helped. We should be able to choose our own death if we’re competent to. We need to take better care of vulnerable people – that’s the mark of civilization.”
“Very timely subject matters in this book, of course, depression, mental health and assisted suicide, and by timely I mean only that for the first time these are more openly discussed. One of the reasons we selected this title as our One Book, even knowing it would be difficult, is because we believe in the power of literature to promote discussion. Do you have thoughts on this as well?”
“This book is just one small, imperfect offering and if it generates any kind of discussion that advances us as a civilized society than so be it.”
“My all time favourite line in the book is ‘the library is the corner stone of humanity’. Can you tell us about your childhood exposure to and adult experience with libraries. Do you have a Toronto Public Library Card?” asked Burgess.
“As long as I have one friend and a library card I will always be okay,” responded Toews. “And of course I have Toronto Library card!”
“And last but not least…what are you reading?”
“I am reading a biography on Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, a Russian poet, who committed suicide,” said Toews. “I guess I’m trying to come to an understanding of what it means to get to the point where you take your own life.”
Questions were then taken from audience members, who asked about her relationship with her father in childhood, and about her writing process.
“I write quickly and full-on,” said Toews. “I find writing exhausting, because I’m not just writing about these people, I am becoming these people in order to wrote their story. At the end of a day of writing I just want to get out of my pj’s and brush my hair.”
Toews also said that she enjoys people watching and listening, and keeps a notebook of sayings and phrases as she hears them for later use.
All My Puny Sorrows took her just two months to write. Full on, of course. Miriam says she’ll “go back to her little room again soon” to start her next book.
Next year’s ‘One Book One New Tecumseth’ selection has not yet been chosen, and library staff say they will take a much needed break and a deep breath before starting the selection process again.
About the author: Toews grew up in the small Mennonite Village of Steinbach, Manitoba, within a conservative Mennonite community. She now lives in Toronto, and has become internationally known as one of Canada’s most influential writers.
One of the One Book One New Tecumseth events for 2015 was a screening of the film ‘Silent Light’, a film written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, about a small Mennonite community in Mexico. Toews stared in the film and was also nominated for Best Actress at Mexico’s Ariel Awards for her performance.
Toews has a degree in journalism and spent a portion of her career writing documentaries.

By Wendy Gabrek

Photo by Wendy Gabrek
It all adds up – It was a full-house at the Nottawasaga Inn for the Honda of Canada sponsored ‘Meet the Author’ visit, the conclusion of ‘One Book One New Tecumseth’ for 2015. On stage, Canadian author, Miriam Toews, is interviewed by New Tecumseth Public Library Adult Committee member Kim Burgess on her book, All My Puny Sorrows – a book about suicide and the need to reopen the discussion on doctor assisted death.

Thanks for the great read – One Book One New Tecumseth author, Miriam Toews, is presented with a portrait of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (whose poem “To a friend together with an Unfinished Poem” inspired the title of the book) and a framed image of Sergei Rachmaninoff (whose song “prelude in g minor op. 23 no. 5” was featured in the novel), as well as a ‘One Book’ t-shirt by New Tecumseth Public Library Adult Programming Committee members Julie Fox-Snively (right) and Leslie Carrol (centre) at last week’s meet and greet with the Canadian author. Ms Toews is the author of ‘All My Puny Sorrows’, this year’s One Book selection, as well as five other best-selling novels, including ‘A Complicated Kindness’.