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Dec 30, 2011

Athira rated it:

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...

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Sep 12, 2011

Tamara rated it:

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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Sep 28, 2011

Geetha rated it:

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:

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 More...

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Sep 14, 2011

Corinne rated it:

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-ye More...

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Sep 10, 2011

Becky rated it:

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 More...

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Sep 09, 2011

Nadia rated it:

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 More...

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Aug 04, 2011

Jaylia3 rated it:

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-y More...

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Jun 14, 2011

Andrew rated it:

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...

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Jun 10, 2011

Steven rated it:

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
" More...

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May 27, 2011

Nicola rated it:

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 Menn More...

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May 19, 2011

trishtrash rated it:

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 More...

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May 17, 2011

Pooker rated it:

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...

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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 thei More...

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Nov 19, 2011

Clif rated it:

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 i More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Catherine rated it:

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 h More...

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Oct 20, 2011

Dot rated it:

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 filmmaker More...

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Oct 13, 2011

Esther rated it:

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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Sep 08, 2011

Asheley rated it:

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...

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Aug 24, 2011

cheryl rated it:

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 ignorin More...

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Aug 22, 2011

Donna rated it:

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: More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Ashley rated it:

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.

W More...

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Jul 15, 2011

McGuffy Ann rated it:

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 o More...

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Sep 15, 2011

Patty rated it:

Irma Voth is a young Mennonite woman from Canada whose family moved to Mexico. She is married to a Mexican man named Jorge who is a rather absent man. She has a very annoying younger sister named Aggie. A somewhat famous movie director comes to her middle of nowhere existence to film a movie about which I never understood the concept. In fact there were many things in this book about which I never understood.

It is written in Irma's voice in a very stream of consciousness way. Topi More...

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Dec 14, 2011

Jacqueline rated it:

Toews wrote one of my all-time favorite books, A Complicated Kindness, which truly made me laugh out loud and weep like a child. Irma Voth is pretty darn good too, but the story is less compelling. It feels a little too Hollywood. It's just not as subtle as A Complicated Kindness. Also, without spoiling the book, I found the events in Mexico City to be comforting but pretty unrealistic. With that said, it quickly engaged me, and I spent time thinking and worrying about Irma, the 19-year-old narr More...

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Oct 13, 2011

Frances rated it:

"Irma Voth" is set in a Mennonite community in Mexico and tells the story of a young woman's increasing estrangement from her strict father and her community, worsened when a film crew comes to their area and recruits Irma to help with their production. I had read "A Complicated Kindness" and "The Flying Troutmans" and enjoyed the family dramas heavily laced with humour. "Irma Voth" explores many of the same themes of youth struggling against traditional, More...

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Aug 17, 2011

Kathy rated it:

I think the rhythm of the book is a bit strange...or maybe it's poor grammar. The author seems to jump from one subject to another in the same paragraph. She also throws out the characters' random thoughts unto the page in a confusing manner.

In real life, people's thoughts often jump from one tangent to another, but it's a little unnerving when reading this style of narrative.

The characters themselves are well developed and interesting. They are characters that I do care abo More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Danielle rated it:

Growing up in Canada and moving to Mexico, Irma’s life is flipped upside down when she falls in love with a Mexican against the wishes of her domineering Mennonite father. Their sudden elopement results in her father requiring them to stay close to home under his watchful and scrutinizing eye. When her husband flees with little explanation she soon finds herself under the spell of a new life, one that involves movie cameras and a hope for a future far away. What results is something completely d More...

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Aug 29, 2011

Carol rated it:

This is a very strange book for me. I didn't really like the middle which dragged on and on and when I finally made it to the end, it was like a different person was writing. This book is like an old mattress with a big sag in the middle.

The main character, Irma moved with her family from Canada and continued to live as Mennonites in Mexico. Her father was unbearable, going into rages and rants easily and beating his daughters very hard. Her mother,
did not know how to get out More...

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May 12, 2011

Alexis rated it:

This book is one that really requires you to pay attention and think. The story unravels slowly and the author doesn't give you all the information at once.

The title character of the story is the narrator, Irma Voth, who is a 19-year-old Mennonite girl living in a Mennonite community in the Mexican desert. She is being shunned by her family as she married a Mexican guy when she was 18.

Her life changes when a film crew comes into the desert. She also visits with her sister More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)