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A Complicated Kindness (Paperback)

by Miriam Toews (Author) "I live with my father, Ray Nickel, in that low brick bungalow out on highway number twelve ..." (more)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 246 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (15 Jul 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0571223990
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571223992
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 358,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Guardian, 24 July 2004
A wonderfully acute, moving, warm, sceptical, frustrated portrait of fundamentalist religion.

Daily Mail, 23 July 2004
A delight from beginning to end ...liberating and defiantly joyful.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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First Sentence
I live with my father, Ray Nickel, in that low brick bungalow out on highway number twelve. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You'll laugh and you'll cry!, 4 Nov 2004
There is something very compelling about books like this one. The narrative voice of a 16 year old girl living in a strict religious community sees through all the hypocrisy right to the truth that seems to have passed the adults by. Nomi's take on situations is piercingly honest whilst the adults shamble around the issues citing dodgy religious creeds as their cure-all and completely unaware of the damage they are doing to their children.Thankfully Nomi has a mind of her own and we just revel in her rebelliousness.In places this book is stunningly funny in others unbelievably emotional.A highly recommended read.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars teenage kicks in God's country, 10 Aug 2005
By Is (Tokyo) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Complicated Kindness (Paperback)
Hey, this is great! I've stumbled on that elusive Graal of the bookshop...the great summer read! I almost gave up, especially after reading all those freaky recommendations in the Guardian and the Times: "Oh, this 700 page exploration of Mittel-European literary theory is just the thing for the holiday" or "I can't wait to start on these post-expressionist abstract poems". (Funny, I never do see those books turning up under the parasols).

Anyhow, if that's a bit heavy going for you, but you still don't see the point of reading some dull chick-lit in wonky typeface, then... ta-da!... "A Complicated Kindness" is just waiting to go travelling with you. It's a coming-of-age story set in a Canadian Mennonite community, a reclusive Christian sect similar to the Amish in its rejection of the modern world. Being a teenager is all about wanting to die from embarrassment on a regular basis, and being a teenager expected to live like a 18th century farmer is even worse. Miriam Toews was a Menno kid herself, so she knows her stuff. I really believed in the voice of her narrator, the dead-pan Nomi, who is trying her hardest to keep a sense of normality in a house that is falling apart.

The oppressive lifestyle of the Mennonites have proved too much for Nomi's mother and her rebellious older sister, both of whom have left the village without trace. Nomi's father, however, is unable to give up the religion that has formed him, while Nomi herself is just beginning to question the way of life she grew up with. In many ways, she seems like a teenager anywhere - the music, the boys, the tiny gestures of rebellion or poetry we all do in search of our identity... because this is not a dire book at all, though its theme of loss is what reviewers call "poignant". (I've always wanted to use that word, and now I have.) Somehow, in spite of the asceticism of the Mennonite lifestyle, Toews manages to capture that subtle thing called lust for life.

I'll have some of that, please!

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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Novel of the year so far..., 23 Jul 2004
By A Customer
Toewes's UK debut is bitingly funny, melancholy and wonderfully stylish, with a young female narrator - Nomi - whose voice rivals Holden Caulfield's for satirical edge. The real coup is Toewes's combination of humour with a palpable sense of her narrator's awful vulnerability in an adult world characterised by religious zealotry and wilful stupidity.

Forget Vernon God Little - DBC Piere is slow-witted by comparison, booker prizes aside. This coming of age tale is in a completely different league. The best new novel I've read all year.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Life in a Mennonite community
This was an interesting book written from the point of view of a young Mennonite girl who lives in a family of believers who are broad minded enough to allow their two girls to... Read more
Published 10 months ago by MaryAnne

5.0 out of 5 stars Nomi
Nomi, the narrator of this novel, is an amazing creation. Her wry, weary but spirited voice counters the bleakness of her situation in such a moving way, that I found myself... Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2007 by Georgie

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE THIS BOOK!
I thought this book was amazing, and I don't say that often. For me the dialogue is one of the best parts of the novel, after reading crap like my best friend's girl it was... Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2006 by Kate

1.0 out of 5 stars Betrayal
There's a theme of betrayal in this book. The teen-age narrator is abandoned by her family, and betrayed by piety turned perverse in the closed little world of her town... Read more
Published on 30 Jul 2006 by M. C. Sears

3.0 out of 5 stars An extraordianry gem
This book is extraordinary. The narrative is so unusual and refreshing that it is set apart from the rest. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2006 by Tom

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