![]() ![]() In the Mennonite East Village, pianos are anathematised by a patriarchal community "rigged for compliance" from childhood, Elf rebels. Paradoxically, Yoli's life is a mess, but Elf is a concert pianist, beautiful, married to a lovely man and both sassy and original. Sisters Elfrieda and Yolanda, the novel's narrator, are the tumultuous children of a Canadian Mennonite community, "enemies who loved each other" – for while Yoli is pledged to keep her sister alive, Elf is determined to die. Can a work of mourning be a comedy? Uniquely, Toews (pictured below) has created a requiem with an antic disposition. Toews has acknowledged its autobiographical source: her father's suicide, explored in the biography Swing Low: A Life (2000), was followed by her sister's 10 years later. Its compulsive readability is all the more remarkable since the story issues from such a dark place in the author's heart. ![]() I can think of no precedent for the darkly fizzing tragicomic jeu d'esprit that is Miriam Toews's sixth novel. ![]()
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