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Irma Voth

3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 · rating details · 1,263 ratings · 244 reviews

Miriam Toews' new novel brings us back to the beloved voice of her award-winning, #1 bestseller A Complicated Kindness, and to a Mennonite community in the Mexican desert. Original and brilliant, she is a master of storytelling at the height of her powers, who manages with trademark wry wit and a fierce tenderness to be at once heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny.

Irma V...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published April 5th 2011 by Knopf Canada

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Sep 03, 2012 jo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, kids, blew-my-mind

miriam toews is one of the best writers writing in english today. miriam toews is one of the best writers writing in english today. miriam toews is one of the best writing writing in english today. miriam toews is one of the best writers writing in english today. miriam toews is one of th ebest writerswritnnng in english today. miriam toews is one oft he best bwitnerwr writing in english today. miriam woetys is one of the bst writers wirting in english today. miriam toews is onweof the best bwri...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Athira (Reading on a Rainy Day) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: source-review, 2011, f-literary, fiction, source-own, personal-library

Mennonite Irma Voth had been kicked out of her home by her father when she fell in love with and married a Mexican man named Jorge. Her father arranged for them to stay in a nearby house, but Jorge was to work for him for free. A year later though, Jorge is tired of Irma and the whole arrangement and leaves. Around the same time, a film crew moves into another house nearby to shoot a movie about Mennonites. Irma's father isn't happy about it, and is especially angry when Irma herself chooses to...more Mennonite Irma Voth had been kicked out of her home by her father when she fell in love with and married a Mexican man named Jorge. Her father arranged for them to stay in a nearby house, but Jorge was to work for him for free. A year later though, Jorge is tired of Irma and the whole arrangement and leaves. Around the same time, a film crew moves into another house nearby to shoot a movie about Mennonites. Irma's father isn't happy about it, and is especially angry when Irma herself chooses to work for the film director. Soon, Irma's sister Aggie has also left home and wants to stay with Irma. One thing leads to another and Irma's father decides that Irma has to move out of her house and find her own stay. But Irma decides enough is enough and flees her home along with her sister, and tries to manage this new independent life.

I first read a Miriam Toews book - The Flying Troutmans - couple of years ago. That book dealt with a dysfunctional family, which was beginning to fall apart. There were elements of loneliness, sadness, family bonding and escapism lacing the book, and yet despite the heavy issues, the book was a quick read and funny at times. I don't remember feeling the urge to cry as I was reading the book, instead I felt a kind of closeness with the characters - the closeness you feel when you identify with the characters because they remind you of yourself when you hit the doldrums or felt aimless at any point in life. It was the kind of quirky sadness that everyone hits at some point - not a despairing sadness but more the-need-to-reconnect-with-self kind of sadness.

Irma Voth has the same elements. Although it's been two years since I read The Flying Troutmans, I could quickly see similarities between the two books. Both stories are as different as can be, but both tackle the same basic questions of a person's tendency towards flight in difficult situations, and how family can both be the bond holding them together and the wedge driving them apart. The characters are as usual dysfunctional and very human. Although Irma is the protagonist and the narrator, most of the secondary characters are well fleshed and lend their dynamic presence to the book. The Mennonite beliefs and ways of life was another big presence in this book. Although I was new to this denomination and reluctant to read anything with a huge religious element in it, I loved how easily and sometimes-hilariously Miriam Toews (a Mennonite herself) painted a vivid picture of the people of this faith.

As with The Flying Troutmans, I loved several of the characters that pass through the book - there are Irma and Aggie themselves, sisters, trusting each other, and yet always arguing with each other. There is the Russian-origin German actress, Marijke, who has her own huge baggage of issues that she drags all the way to the Mexican town, where the film crew is staying. The director, Diego, alternates between enthusiasm for shooting the movie and frustration at all the inevitable issues that crop up, both within the crew and from outside. When Irma works as the translator between Diego and Marijke, she easily feeds her own hilarious lines for Marijke to speak at each shoot. Then there are a whole host of minor characters - each one quirky enough during their brief appearances and whole enough to make those brief appearances memorable.

The second half of the book is set in an entirely different setting from the first. While the first half focused on the film crew, which served as the backdrop against which Irma’s family's dynamics played out, the second half was set in Mexico City, where Irma and her two sisters try to make their life work, away from their parents. Although Irma’s father is shown mostly as an adamant, over-protective and strongly principled man in the first half, we begin to see other shades of his personality in the latter half, through Irma’s eyes. Since Irma is rarely honest with herself and doesn't discuss what is bothering her, it takes a while before the reader catches on. There's a very ohmygodly bomb dropped in the second half that I never saw coming and made me feel overwhelmingly sad.

In classic Miriam Toews' style, the prose is quick and easy to read. Even though there is a lot of sadness and humor, the author doesn't infuse those sentiments heavily into her writing. The feelings of the characters are never discussed - the book is a first-person account written from the perspective of Irma, and yet, Irma rarely ever says if she is feeling happy or sad due to something. She only talks of what she is doing, or what someone else is doing - people's emotions aren't the principal focus. Miriam lets the characters' actions demonstrate the inner state of their minds. This is an interesting mode of writing because a character's behavior can be interpreted in so many ways or can be too complicated for a reader to analyze in the few seconds he/she reads that passage, but this works wonderfully here because there is no ambiguity in the meanings of what any character does.

Irma Voth is just as much a favorite of mine now as The Flying Troutmans is. Before starting this read, I was somewhat worried about how much this book will measure up to the successful image the other book has formed in my mind. But when I started and eventually finished it, I was thrilled that this book worked. It felt like revisiting an old favorite - and this has made me eager to check out her other books, and especially the book she wrote about her father, Swing Low: A Life.(less)

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Oct 07, 2011 Melissa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish

I really wanted to like this one. I truly did. The description of this novel, by new-to-me author Miriam Toews, sounded so different than anything else I'd read and seemed very intriguing.

Irma Voth is 19, married, and living in a Mennonite community in Mexico. With the exception of her younger sister, Irma is pretty much estranged from her family. A filmmaker arrives in town to make a documentary and hires Irma as a translator. Irma befriends Marijke, an actress in the film and ...well, that wou...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Tamara Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

Toews is a literary genius who writes with such a masterly command of the English language. A wizard of words! Her characters are always so complex and vivid despite her minimalist approach to writing. I found this story disturbing and quite sad, but she still managed to infuse it with her signature dark humour. Not my fave Toews book but it was a quick read and I would recommend. My fave line was the one about the protagonist sleeping in the barn like Jesus without the entourage or pressure to...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, truly-outstanding

I'm on a Miriam Toews kick right now. And wow. This book is the best yet. I hesitated a little in the first pages, realizing there were Mennonites involved (I'm not really interested in that aspect of Toews' oeuvre), but before long I was carrying the book everywhere I went, impatient to get back there, to Irma and Aggie, to the darkness and heat of the desert, and most of all to Toews' narrative voice. I don't know any other writer who makes me feel I am hanging out with a friend, a wise friend...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Patricia rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really had to force myself to finish the book. It was well written but I had trouble enjoying the plot. I thought I was going to learn about the Mennonites in Canada but I seriously hope this is not a good example of what our Mennonites are like. This book looks at one of the most dysfunctional families I ever could have imagined. The father is abusive to an extreme. The plot is about how Irma tries to escape her Mennonite life. A passage in the book which is describing a movie being made as p...more

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May 13, 2012 Beatnik Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

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The writing reminds me of a folk-art painting--rough, approximate, honest, vibrant. The author uses little punctuation and no quotation marks. There is little to distract from the characters themselves. It's like watching a slightly bleak independent film in which the characters talk about milking the cows in one moment and reveal their deepest fear in the next, with no explanation of the connection between the two. But then, life doesn't offer articulate...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Geetha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Irma Voth by Miriam Toews is set in a Mennonite Community in Mexico. The story centers around Irma, a Mennonite teenager and her family who have moved from Canada to Mexico. For the first 150 pages of the book the narrative meanders and does not seem to be going anywhere. At this point none of the characters are clearly drawn, no one seems to have a clear purpose and the story does not seem to be progressing but hang in there and you will be rewarded with a great story and a dramatic revelation....more

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Sep 20, 2011 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Raised in Canada, Irma Voth followed along placidly when her father packed the family up and moved to northern Mexico. After all, father was the leader and no one questioned his ways. If you were a boy in the Voth family, work was hard and watching the way father treated your sisters was harder. For some reason, Mr. Voth didn’t like women. His two daughters, Irma and Aggie could do nothing to please him.
Which is probably why, when she snuck off to the rodeo, Irma fell for the first boy who was n...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Corinne rated it 3 of 5 stars

When Irma Voth decided to marry someone who wasn't a Mennonite, her father's strange faith in a ruthless God required him to shut her out of his life. Having spent her early years in Canada, Irma has lived in Mexico since she was a teen and her life as a very young wife is harsh and unpredictable. She knows her husband Jorje is probably doing something illegal but he keeps going away and she really wants him to stay, so she doesn't push it. During one of Jorje's long absences, nineteen-year-old...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-fun

Irma, a young Mennonite wife living in Mexico is shunned from her family when she marries a Mexican man. Soon, a film crew shows up to make a film set her Mennonite community, and she start helping as a translator. As her marriage and family deteriorate, Irma starts to find herself through her interactions with the movie crew.

The first half of this book is very different from the last half. I almost gave up, until Irma and her sisters make a big decision and the story starts moving.

The book is...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Nadia rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I first started to read this book I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with it. I just could not get my head around Irma's narration - it was a bit off putting for me, because I didn't know what to make of her. However, I'm truly happy I kept reading, because Irma Voth has to be one of the most odd and interesting characters I've read in quite some time. She's nineteen, married and a Mennonite living in Mexico. Her husband, Jorge, has left her and now she is truly alone. She lives in th...more When I first started to read this book I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with it. I just could not get my head around Irma's narration - it was a bit off putting for me, because I didn't know what to make of her. However, I'm truly happy I kept reading, because Irma Voth has to be one of the most odd and interesting characters I've read in quite some time. She's nineteen, married and a Mennonite living in Mexico. Her husband, Jorge, has left her and now she is truly alone. She lives in the house next door to her parents' home - a house that was given to her and Jorge on the condition that they work for free for her father. Irma's dad, Julius, is unhappy with her, because she married a Mexican. She is no longer a part of their Mennonite community. In fact, Irma can't speak to her mother or little brothers or even her younger sister, Aggie. Luckily, Aggie likes to sneak away from home and visit Irma - she is always begging to come and live with Irma.

Life doesn't seem to be moving along happily for Irma, when suddenly a film crew arrives at the house next door (also owned by her father). They are setting up shop, because they are making a film about the Mennonite community. In need of a translator they hire Irma, who also agrees to cook and clean for them. She needs the money and needs people to talk with. Soon enough, Irma is enmeshed in this strange world of movie-making and is dealing with depressed actors, uncooperative weather conditions and budget cuts. She befriends Marijke the female lead and Wilson, whose confessed to her that he is dying. Things seem to take a turn when Irma's dad shows up and demands that Aggie return home or he will shut down production on the film - Aggie has been hanging around Irma and the crew much to the dismay of her father. However, after witnessing what happened to Aggie last time she went home, Irma decides to take things into her own hands. Deals are made, trucks are borrowed and flights are arranged. Irma, Aggie, and Ximena (or X as they call her) are on their way to Mexico City. Did I mention that X is Irma and Aggie's baby sister - she was just born and their mother begged Irma to take her with them when they left. What does that tell you about their family?

Now, I'm not going to write any more about what happens, because so much does happen in the book, before and after Mexico City. Its a story you need to read for yourself. Irma Voth is a character that will break your heart and make you smile at the underlying courage that glows from within her. She may be a bit off putting at first, but soon enough you will become so enraptured with her story that you wont' be able to put the book down. Miriam Toews has written an amazing book that is lyrical in tone and strong in plot points. Her characters are intriguing and strange. You will not be disappointed!(less)

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Aug 04, 2011 Jaylia3 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Set in a rural Mennonite community in contemporary Mexico, this latest book from Canadian author Miriam Toews is a poignant and dryly humorous coming of age story. I’ve enjoyed all of Miriam Toews novels and while this isn’t my favorite—that would be either The Flying Troutmans, which is funnier, or A Complicated Kindness, which deals more directly with the difficulties facing a teenage Mennonite—Irma Voth did keep me engaged enough that I read the entire book in 24 hours.

Nineteen-year-old Irma...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this tale of a young Mennonite girl marooned on a claustrophobic family compound in rural Mexico. At 19 she has already been through a lot, marrying a non-Mennonite Mexican guy called Jorge and getting ostracised by her family as a result, then being abandoned by Jorge. That’s before the novel even begins. As it progresses, she gets involved with a film crew who have rented the neighbouring house to shoot a movie, steals and sells drugs, and runs away to Mexico City with her younger si...more I enjoyed this tale of a young Mennonite girl marooned on a claustrophobic family compound in rural Mexico. At 19 she has already been through a lot, marrying a non-Mennonite Mexican guy called Jorge and getting ostracised by her family as a result, then being abandoned by Jorge. That’s before the novel even begins. As it progresses, she gets involved with a film crew who have rented the neighbouring house to shoot a movie, steals and sells drugs, and runs away to Mexico City with her younger sister Aggie and newborn baby sister Ximena.

In some ways it’s a very familiar tale of a young girl rebelling against a repressive, old-fashioned religious community. The father, especially, was very reminiscent of other crazy authoritarian fathers, for example the missionary father in Poisonwood Bible. Why are fathers with strong religious beliefs so often portrayed in fiction as crazy and authoritarian? It seems a little unfair. Admittedly I don’t have too much experience of extremely religious father figures, but I’m sure they’re not all crazy and authoritarian.

In any case, the slightly familiar taste of the story was counter-balanced by the freshness of the language. Virtually every description, even of mundane events and sights, is beautiful and evocative. The dialogue, too, is often sharp and witty, particularly when the two sisters Irma and Aggie are sparring. The dialogue often takes quite an argumentative form, but with a strong undercurrent of tenderness. The depiction of the relationship between the sisters relies heavily on dialogue, because the first-person narrative by the young, inexperienced Irma does not contain a whole lot of mature reflection. So the dialogue has to be very strong, and it is. The relationship between the sisters, on which so much in the novel depends, is strongly drawn and utterly convincing.

There’s a big secret in the family, which I won’t reveal here. Again it’s a slightly familiar theme, but it was handled well, and gave some extra resonance to the ending. The main interest for me, though, was in the early farm/movie scenes, the flight to Mexico City and the haphazard floundering around of the young, totally naive sisters in the city. And what held it all together was the wonderful writing, sounding a bit like a teenage diary and yet also managing somehow to be literary, often lyrical. Makes me want to read more by the same author – any suggestions?

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Jun 10, 2011 Steven Buechler rated it 5 of 5 stars

A must read for book lovers of either gender. Through the story we get into the mind set of a young woman dealing with serious issues and - as the book jacket says, "delves into the complicated factors that set us on the road to self-discovery and show us how we can sometimes find the strength to endure the really hard things that happen. It also asks the most difficult of questions: How do we forgive? And most importantly, how do we forgive ourselves?"

-from page 21
"I stood in my yard and notiec...more A must read for book lovers of either gender. Through the story we get into the mind set of a young woman dealing with serious issues and - as the book jacket says, "delves into the complicated factors that set us on the road to self-discovery and show us how we can sometimes find the strength to endure the really hard things that happen. It also asks the most difficult of questions: How do we forgive? And most importantly, how do we forgive ourselves?"

-from page 21
"I stood in my yard and notieced the lights on at my cousins' old place. The filmmakers had arrived. And then I heard voices and music and laughter and I had never felt more alone and strange in my life, which is something. I went back into my house and lay in my bed some more and tried to pray. God, I said, help me to live. Help me to live please. Please God, help me to live. God I need your help. I need to live. Please? I need help living. God. Help. I had never learned how to pray properly. It didn't make sense that God would require me to articulate my pain in order for him to feel it and respond. I wanted to negotiate a deal. I knew I wasn't supposed to talk to the filmmakers but wondered if it would be acceptable to observe them from a distance. I punched myself on the side of my head. What difference did it makewhat my father had said? I posed another question to myself. How do I behave in this world without following the directions of my father, my husband or God? Does it all end with me sleeping in a barn with cows and creeping around the campo spying on people from the roofs of empty grain sheds?
I got up again and went outside and crept along in the darkness towards the filmmakers' house. I leaned against the water pump in the side yard and watched while several guys unloaded a million black boxes from a truck and a car and a van and carried them into the house. All the lights were on and the filmmakers wer laughing and talking loudly and music was playing from somewhere inside. A dog was barking. In fact a dog was barking and running at me in the dark and it looked like his eyes were on fire and I could see sparks, flying out of them. I thought, well, I should run now, but I couldn't move, I was galvanized to the pump, and then I heard a man yell, Oveja, Oveja!
Which is how I met Diego, the director of the film."(less)

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May 27, 2011 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, no-longer-own

Reason for Reading: I adored "The Flying Troutmans" and wanted to try another book by the author.

Irma Voth is about a family who are Mennonites but ultimately that is not a big issue in the story; they could really be any very rural, backwoods type of people as the Voths are pretty much loners and there is not a lot of Mennonite community activities or lifestyle portrayed in the book.

The Voths are originally from Canada but one day they picked up and moved to a Mennonite Community in Mexico. The...more Reason for Reading: I adored "The Flying Troutmans" and wanted to try another book by the author.

Irma Voth is about a family who are Mennonites but ultimately that is not a big issue in the story; they could really be any very rural, backwoods type of people as the Voths are pretty much loners and there is not a lot of Mennonite community activities or lifestyle portrayed in the book.

The Voths are originally from Canada but one day they picked up and moved to a Mennonite Community in Mexico. They live remotely, on land where the father owns three houses. We meet Irma as her husband is leaving her. Irma has been shunned by her father because she eloped and married a Mexican. They live in one of his houses and work his land for free but he does not speak with them. Irma's husband comes back every now and then as he is involved in the drug trade and he keeps his "goods" in the barn. A famous Mexican director comes to the area and rents the third house on the property for his crew as he makes a movie about Mennonites. The father hates everything these people stand for but his youngest daughter becomes curious and sneaks away to watch them. Irma is offered a job as translator since she speaks German, Mexican and English, which she excepts, since she has no income and no husband now. The plan is to eventually leave the stranglehold of her father.

There is no denying that Toews is a beautiful writer who has a lyric way with words and can add a touch of wit to scenes where it is least expected. The story is a slow moving one, not one to be rushed, even though I did read it within the time frame of a day. I find it hard to review this book because I'm not ecstatic about the story but neither did I dislike it. I never really connected with the characters. I found the story interesting though perhaps a bit "high-brow" at times, taking itself too seriously. But I never once stopped enjoying the story though it took a long time to go anywhere. I preferred the second half of the book over the first. In the second half, Irma gets away from her father and moves to Mexico City where she learns a whole new way of live. And yet, through it all, she still yearns for the corn fields back home.

Irma herself is a character with many crosses to bear. She has the two men in her life, her father and husband, who have treated her unwell and yet she in turn has great guilt over something she has done to each of them in turn. Irma actually carries a lot of guilt for things she blames herself for causing and people she has hurt, starting with own soul. Irma learns who she is on this journey. Learns if it is possible to forgive herself and if it is possible for her to forgive the others as well. Certainly, a well-written, good read if not necessarily a gripping read. I'm still interested in reading the author's other books as I enjoy her writing style. (less)

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May 19, 2011 trishtrash rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age

Irma Voth is a convincing coming-of-age story, perfectly capturing the confusion of having a child’s questions while being forced to make adult choices without the answers. Irma Voth, Mennonite daughter, torn between compliance and rebellion, failed wife at nineteen, is a complex, beautiful character with an endearing wit and sharpness, whose immediate known world is both a comfort and a trap. When a movie-crew arrives to shoot a film about their way of life, she finds in them a catalyst for a n...more Irma Voth is a convincing coming-of-age story, perfectly capturing the confusion of having a child’s questions while being forced to make adult choices without the answers. Irma Voth, Mennonite daughter, torn between compliance and rebellion, failed wife at nineteen, is a complex, beautiful character with an endearing wit and sharpness, whose immediate known world is both a comfort and a trap. When a movie-crew arrives to shoot a film about their way of life, she finds in them a catalyst for a new set of decisions… she leaves the farm and her father’s tyranny, with her two younger sisters.

The guilt that infuses Irma’s life, and thus her decisions, is a harsh one but it is balanced adroitly with the book’s humour and character, and her ongoing quest to understand what she must do next. I found that I enjoyed getting to know Irma, her sister Aggie and baby Ximena as characters quite separately from enjoying them in the context of the story, which tells me that Toews is a consummate crafter of personality.

A small failing of the book was not fully describing the Mennonite lifestyle that Irma had grown up in – the reader gets a sense of their having moved around a lot, but that proves to have been driven by the plot – and having no prior information on the subject, I was left imagining something between Quakerism and general close-knit rural farming families. This leaves Irma’s father’s character somewhat without context, too – is he a product of his own upbringing, a stern man over-validated by the community in which he lives, a cruel man with a naturally despotic disposition? We are left trusting Irma’s point of view which is a) sparsely given and b) unreliable on this subject in a way that it is not in any other.

Where Toews really excels is weaving heartache and forgiveness without overselling either one. And in creating a character who I was sorry to leave behind once the book was finished. When a book is named after the principle character, he or she needs to shine to justify it, and Towes accomplishes this with light to spare.
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May 17, 2011 Pooker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canada

I've loved every book Miriam Toews has written. So, of course, I had to have this new one. At the same time, I was reluctant to read it. What if I didn't like it as much as the others? The book looked to be a little on the slim side. The jacket cover did not immediately appeal to me. I am one of those people who do judge a book by its cover. I judge by how the book looks to me, how it feels in my hands, the texture, the weight and probably a bunch of other little subconscious things. I can almos...more I've loved every book Miriam Toews has written. So, of course, I had to have this new one. At the same time, I was reluctant to read it. What if I didn't like it as much as the others? The book looked to be a little on the slim side. The jacket cover did not immediately appeal to me. I am one of those people who do judge a book by its cover. I judge by how the book looks to me, how it feels in my hands, the texture, the weight and probably a bunch of other little subconscious things. I can almost always tell when I will like a book without even first have read a word of it. I was not so sure about this one. The only thing it had going for it off the hop was that Miriam Toews had, so far, never failed me.

At first, I thought she might have this time. When I began, I had a hard time settling in, a hard time relating to the characters. Plus I've never been enamoured by the name "Irma". While I had a bunch of questions (why did the family move to Mexico, why did Irma's husband leave her), I wasn't sure I really cared if I got the answers. The book was, dare I say, verging on being a tad boring. And Irma seemed a tad simple-minded. Granted, I would assume she had been somewhat cloistered living in her Mennonite family and she was only 19 years old and it's been a long time since I was that age. But at first, the prose, written in the 1st person, with dialogue lacking in quotation marks, came across much like a much younger teenager's diary.

However, it was not long before I did come to care about Irma. In fact, I became quite fascinated with her. She became wittier, funnier and more defiant than I had first imagined. She embroidered "dangerous" words on the underside of her clothes. When she got hired on as a translator with a film crew, incredibly, she deliberately mistranslated the director's instructions to the German actress.

When, predictably Irma leaves her community, I applauded her decision to take her 13 year-old sister with her. Although, really she had no choice. Aggie refused to return to her father's home and Irma knew that Aggie will be beaten by their father if she did. But I wondered how on earth they would survive when, at the urging of their mother, the sisters take new-born Ximena with them. While I do think that the sisters' fortunes and misfortunes in Mexico City were a little too pat, Irma's eventual revelations and understanding of herself and her place in the world were powerful, and yet gentle, and entirely satisfying.

I even developed a fondness for the book jacket. I noticed as I read that the little silver stars twinkled now and then just at the periphery of my vision.

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Apr 03, 2011 Melissa is currently reading it

Was hoping to review this one for the website I was working for, but that might not be a possibility anymore.

Not a narrative style I'm accustomed to, Toews' protagonist - Irma - takes the first person and the prose is slightly disjointed.

The story so far follows a young Mennonite girl (Irma) living in Mexico with her devout family. She runs away and marrys the first boy she falls in love with, a Mexican (her father thinks he's a "narco" and is totally against their middle-of-the-night nuptials...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadiana

I really enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed all the other books from this writer.She has a unique style and this book fits into her style. The book starts with Irma Voth, A young Mennonite woman in Mexico who has basically been totally disowned by her family. She has gotten married to a young Mexican guy named Jorge and especially her father is completly furious about this (non-Mennonite). Jorge has left Irma and she is completly lost. Her father is threatening to kick her out of the house they...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Clif Hostetler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

To fully appreciate this book I recommend the reader first see this movie . The author played the role of the mother of the family in this movie. It is obvious that she has used her experience acting in this movie as the setting in which to place the first half of the story of this book. But this is a novel so there's no reason to consider this story anything other than Toews' imagination. (I have the DVD of the movie that I'm willing to loan out.)

The beginning of the book is set in a rural cons...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: quotation-marks-matter

No one will ever persuade me that it’s okay to write dialogue without quotation marks. But that’s the only negative thing I can say about this book, which caught my interest because of the intriguing premise of a novel about a girl raised in a Mennonite community in Mexico.

Irma’s authoritarian father moved the family to Mexico from Canada during her teenage years, following the loss of her older sister Katie. Irma rebelled and married a Mexican man, Jorge. When the book opens, Jorge has left ni...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Dot rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had been disappointed with Miriam Toews most recent book (The Flying Troutmans) so I embarked on this read with lowered expectations and was delighted to find that the author is back on form. I was completely captivated by the character of Irma Voth. Toews has returned to what she writes about best...the effects of living in a family dominated by a bigoted and powerful father. In this case, she sets her action in a Mennonite community in Mexico and weaves into the story a group of filmmakers a...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Esther rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, women, mennonite

Toews used her experience acting in Silent Light to great effect in this novel. Very wise overall to get multiple pieces of art out of an event. Irma does read similarly to Nomi, Toews' spunky Mennonite protagonist from A Complicated Kindness , but this does not detract from the storyline. After seeing the movie, it was intriguing to deconstruct what I assume is the same event, only fictionalized. Through the text, we are allowed farther inside the actors' heads; we can analyze how the act of...more

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May 10, 2012 Ilyhana Kennedy rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a strange story! Innocence layered between slices of a savvy desire to survive life in a disturbing fundamentalist community.
I found it difficult to reconcile the huge gaps in Irma's knowledge of the world with her sudden patches of even sophisticated sexual crassness.
This is an intelligent book, if the reader can read through rather than between the lines.
I felt quite some sadness for Irma in that she was unable to recognise that all the "sins" she acknowledged committing, were actually t...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Asheley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At nineteen, Irma finds herself married to a man outside of her religious group. She marries as much out of rebellion toward her father as she does out of love for Jorge, and for this her father ostracizes her and bans her family from communicating with her. As a result, Irma lives a very lonely life in a house next door to her family--always at an arm's length away but not quite able to interact with those she loves so much. After living like this for a time, and after Jorge begins to disappear...more At nineteen, Irma finds herself married to a man outside of her religious group. She marries as much out of rebellion toward her father as she does out of love for Jorge, and for this her father ostracizes her and bans her family from communicating with her. As a result, Irma lives a very lonely life in a house next door to her family--always at an arm's length away but not quite able to interact with those she loves so much. After living like this for a time, and after Jorge begins to disappear for days and weeks at a time, Irma learns that a movie is to be made in her community by a famous Mexican filmmaker. Irma's father becomes upset by this information and does everything he can do to not only stop the film from being made, but to stop Irma from having any part of it. This, of course, only strengthens Irma's resolve to make sure that the film becomes reality. Soon the stakes become dangerously high, as it is not only Irma's safety that is at risk. Irma has to make a huge decision that will determine the future for herself and her two younger sisters, and her decision could mean freedom or disaster.

The idea of a Canadian Mennonite community in Mexico sounded interesting and unlike anything I had ever read about before. This was my first experience with a work by Miriam Toews, and I am very excited to say that I enjoyed this book very much. The author definitely has a way with words--a way with making them sound beautiful and also a way with infusing humor into what could potentially be the slower, dustier areas of the story. There were several instances where I smiled to myself at Irma's sense of humor, because I found it ironic given the timing and pacing of the story.

I found it very easy to become emotionally attached to Irma as the protagonist of the story. Narrated in her voice, we are able to see things through her eyes as they are unfolding. As readers, we are not really able to gather much insight as to how she is reacting emotionally to events as they occur. Irma seems to be almost stoic in her storytelling; I wonder if this is the result of having a parent as strict as her father and not being allowed or encouraged to "feel" things in ways that I would consider normal or emotional. We are left to draw our own conclusions about what we think Irma is feeling, or to decide if maybe Irma doesn't really know how/what to feel.

I love the way each of the characters are written and developed. Irma and her sister, Aggie, change immensely from the beginning to the end of the book. This is fascinating and exciting to witness. Their interaction with each of the other members of the secondary cast of characters brings forth so many emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, resentment, embarrassment. I felt almost everything at some point during this book, to the point where I had to sit and think for a couple of days after I finished and take it all in. I have come to the conclusion that the longer I think about this book, the more things I find to like about it.

An interesting sidenote: the pacing of the first half and the second half of the book differed in a major way (in my opinion). The first half of the book seemed much slower-paced, but I understand that it was needed to lay a foundation for Irma's character and how she is learning to cope with her forced independence. Irma goes through a big transformation in this first half of the book--I almost became impatient with her constant reluctance and with her sadness. Pushing through that, though, Irma finds herself and her voice, which helps her when she has to make a huge decision that impacts herself and her younger sisters, thus changing their future. This big decision increases the pacing for the second half of the book. It picks up and becomes more exciting and fast-paced until the the story comes to an end.

I think I could talk for a long time of little details about Irma Voth--mostly things that I really liked. It is a fantastic coming-of-age story with a protagonist that I fell hard for within the first few pages. I despised her father and I was mad at her husband for leaving her alone. I also felt strong emotions for Irma's other friends and family. (I love when a book leaves me feeling this way.) In addition, the writing was lyrical and beautiful. I believe this would be a great choice for book clubs because there are plenty of topics for discussion hidden inside the story. I recommend this book to anyone who is open to a great story, particularly those who are open to learning about people who might live differently than they do. It is just a great, great book and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.(less)

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Aug 24, 2011 cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Irma Voth is one of the books I might have picked up on my own but gladly accepted as an advanced copy from Harper. I was not familiar with the author, although she does have another best-seller under her belt.

This is the story of a 19 year-old girl who was raised in a Mennonite community in Mexico but whose father disavowed her when she married outside the community. But, showing his controlling ways, he had her stay in a house he owned and work for the farm, while ignoring her and asking the...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, own

Everyone seems to include synopses, however brief, in their reviews, especially for First Reads; I don't tend to do that, if you wanted a book report, you could just read the blurb at the top of the page, I tend to be more interested in a critique of style or sense. Which is not to say that I never include such in my review, it is just not my tendency, so don't expect it here..... Since I began reading this, I have been wracking my brain to figure out where I've seen this writing style before: i...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I received this as an ARC from Goodreads Giveaways.

Irma Voth is the story of a Mennonite girl living in Mexico - when we meet her, she is married and living in a separate house on her father's land. The plot mostly revolves around a movie crew that has also moved into a house on her father's land to film a movie about life on a Mennonite campo. Irma serves as a translator for the lead actress who only speaks German, as task which her family nor her absent husband approve of.

While the story was a...more

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Jul 15, 2011 McGuffy Morris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Miriam Toews is a gifted writer. She has a way of taking broken lives, broken characters, and treating them with dignity and sensitivity. This holds true for Irma Voth.

Irma is a Mennonite who moves from Canada to New Mexico with her family. In New Mexico, Irma meets and marries a Mexican man. Her family disapproves, but allows them to live and farm a parcel of the family land.

The cultures are too different. While Irma is committed to her marriage, her husband is not. He has other things that he...more

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About Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer of Mennonite descent. She grew up in Steinbach, Manitoba and has lived in Montreal and London, before settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Toews studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of King's College in Halifax, and has also worked as a freelance newspaper and radio journalist. Her non-fiction book "Swing Low: A Life" was a memoir of her father, a vi...more

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Quotes from Irma Voth

“Do you feel that we can rebel against our oppressors without losing our love, our tolerance, and our ability to forgive?” — 3 people liked it

“Mennonites formed themselves in Holland five hundred years ago after a man named Menno Simons became so moved by hearing Anabaptist prisoners singing hymns before being executed by the Spanish Inquisition that he joined their cause and became their leader. Then they started to move all around the world in colonies looking for freedom and isolation and peace and opportunities to sell cheese. Different countries give us shelter if we agree to stay out of trouble and help with the economy by farming in obscurity. We live like ghosts. Then, sometimes, those countries decide they want us to be real citizens after all and start to force us to do things like join the army or pay taxes or respect laws and then we pack our stuff up in the middle of the night and move to another country where we can live purely but somewhat out of context.” — 2 people liked it

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