Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Swing Low: A Life

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 315 ratings · 53 reviews

One morning, Mel Toews put on his coat and hat, walked out of town, and took his own life. A loving husband and father, a faithful member of the Mennonite church, and an immensely popular schoolteacher, Mel was a pillar of his close-knit community. Yet after a lifetime of struggling with bipolar disorder, he could no longer face the darkness that clouded his world. In this...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published September 6th 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published January 1st 2000)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster

Father Memoirs

4th out of 20 books — 4 voters

An Author and his / her Father

3rd out of 26 books — 8 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,071)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 06, 2011 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This had to be an incredibly difficult book to write. Miriam, the protagonist's daughter, tried to get into his head and recreate thoughts he might have been having. She began at the end. The prologue is Mel's end. He committed suicide at the age of 62. Having taught school for 40 years, sustained a marriage and a life, hiding mental illness through his work and church devotion, he ended his life before dementia took his mind.

The first few chapters confused me a bit. They were circular and diffi...more This had to be an incredibly difficult book to write. Miriam, the protagonist's daughter, tried to get into his head and recreate thoughts he might have been having. She began at the end. The prologue is Mel's end. He committed suicide at the age of 62. Having taught school for 40 years, sustained a marriage and a life, hiding mental illness through his work and church devotion, he ended his life before dementia took his mind.

The first few chapters confused me a bit. They were circular and difficult to follow. Apparently, Miriam's father not only suffered from being bi-polar but also had psychotic episodes. And, it would seem, a little bit of Fugue. Ergo, if he was getting lost in his thoughts, obviously the reader would, also.

About a third of the way through the book, I recognized a pattern. Mel was trying to link the events of the past few days to his life and had decided to start at the beginning. He recounted his childhood in his Mennonite community but also included his ancestral chain which hinted of depression, as well. Driven by guilt and shame which are linked to his upbringing and culture rather than religion, he becomes quiet when he can, robust when he needs to play a part.

At the same time, Mel is interacting with the reader and world. By world, I really mean his daughters and hospital staff. Mel is currently hospitalized while his daughters are working to get Mel help. But he has spent the past 62 years knowing how to answer questions and playing the part. His wife is exhausted and she needs help. Thus the interaction.

The book concludes with Mel's suicide, of course but the author offers a culmination of his life's work which is much greater than he believed and in direct contradiction of his last words to her; Nothing accomplished. As the author clearly points out in another chapter, regarding a different aspect, Mel laments that there are no windows in the house of Depression - only mirrors.

Through the internal dialogue and memories, the author paints a picture of a faithful Mennonite man, a father, a husband, a teacher, a sufferer of Bi-Polar Disorder, at times psychotic, other times clever and witty. Well connected and loved member of the community, he found it exhausting to live up to others' expectations (loved that nugget). He was a man of extremes and afraid of change.

Speaking of change, how many Mennonites does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: Change?

Not my joke, I got it from the book.

Objectively written for such a personal subject. Nice work!(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 12, 2010 Edith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, memoir

This was quite an amazing book. This (former Mennonite) gal is an excellent writer. In an unusual manner for a memoir, Miriam writes from her father's point of view; it took me a chapter or so to habitually think in the right frame of mind. When "he" writes about his state of mind (he was manic-depressive), it is actually Miriam writing what she surmised his state of mind might well have been. He was such a productive man in his manic phase, a 6th grade teacher, and yet when asked by his daughte...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 Clif Hostetler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

This is a memoir of a man (Mel Toews) who suffered from life long bipolar disorder, commits suicide, and then tells his story from beyond the pale (i.e. beyond the grave). Do I have your attention yet? Obviously he couldn't write his memoir after committing suicide. But his memoir did get written in his own first person voice--by his daughter. The very concept causes me to shutter from its haunted poignancy.

The day before his suicide his daughter, Miriam, asked him what he was thinking. His answ...more This is a memoir of a man (Mel Toews) who suffered from life long bipolar disorder, commits suicide, and then tells his story from beyond the pale (i.e. beyond the grave). Do I have your attention yet? Obviously he couldn't write his memoir after committing suicide. But his memoir did get written in his own first person voice--by his daughter. The very concept causes me to shutter from its haunted poignancy.

The day before his suicide his daughter, Miriam, asked him what he was thinking. His answer was, "Nothing accomplished." Her goal in writing this book was to prove him wrong. She did an admirable job. Miriam Toews used her skill as a writer to get inside his troubled mind to explain why he decided to end it all.

In the Prologue and Epilogue Miriam writes in her own voice. All of the rest of the book is written as private thoughts of Mel during the final days of his life while being hospitalized as a result of an apparent recent psychotic break. The narrative switches between current hospital scenes and recollections of earlier years. The reflections of earlier life are filled with interesting tales of growing up on a farm, delivering eggs, courting a wife, becoming a teacher, and rearing a family in the midst of private torment. The author's writing skills transforms accounts of a rather plain life into an interesting book; I especially enjoyed the account of a six week family trip to South and Central America. The descriptions of the current hospitalization experience contains elements of suspense by mentioning blood and killing his wife. But he's not thinking clearly, and his daughters assure him that his wife is fine and has moved to the City (Winnipeg). But the cause of his most recent admittance to the hospital remains ambiguous.

At age 17 Mel had been diagnosed with manic depression (as it was labeled then). The seriousness of his disease is indicated by the following advice from his psychiatrist:

"My psychiatrist had, when I informed him that I was planning to get married, expressed no small amount of shock and dismay. He told me that those who suffer from manic depression have a lot of difficulty making marriages or any long-term relationship work, and when I told him that I was also planning on becoming a school teacher, he almost hit the roof. The responsibility, Mel, the consistency, the patience, the endurance . . . all these things are extremely difficult to maintain with an illness like yours . . . won't you reconsider?"

Mel did not take the aforementioned advice and got married and became a teacher. One could say that he proved his psychiatrist wrong by maintaining a long marriage, raising two daughters, and having a long career as a sixth grade teacher. But it can be argued that the psychiatrist had a legitimate concern. Maintaining the external appearance of normalcy was excruciating work for Mel, and his family life sadly suffered as a result.

He says in the book that he had monthly appointments with a psychiatrist and took psychiatric drugs all his life which indicates that he must have been a compliant patient. However, the following quotation from the book indicates that he didn't fully accept the concept of Freudian psychology.

"Never, ever did I admit or acknowledge even to myself that I was sick. My lapses into depression, I felt, were due to a weakness in my character, and my disappointments and failures in life, thought they were rather typical of any average life, were what I felt I deserved. And so I resolved, with steely determination, to become a better human being."

Both of his daughter's were anxious to leave their home town of Steinbach, Manitoba as soon as they finished twelfth grade. Mel admits that he modeled a life that they apparently wanted to avoid for themselves. Miriam (the actual author) had very strong feelings on the matter as indicated by the following quotation:

"She [Miriam's sister] wasn't as quick as Miriam to denounce everything about this place as being backward, soul-destroying, hypocritical, or excruciatingly dull."

I considered this to be a biography. But I found the book in the library placed in the 616 Section (diseases, within section for medical sciences). It was on the library shelf next to other books about mental health and depression.

I learned much about Miriam from this book. I had often wondered while reading her novels how much of her writing came from personal experiences and how much was imagined by her creative mind. I think I can now find traces of her life's history in all of her novels. Her novels have creatively rearranged the characters and experiences of her life into a variety of settings. But it is no accident that almost all her stories somehow involve a strained father-daughter relationship. There's more I could say here, but I'm getting off the subject of this book.

My previously mentioned haunted poignancy became stronger when I recently learned that Miriam's sister, named Marj, committed suicide near the 12th anniversary of her father's death, at the same place and in the same manner. [LINK TO STORY] I told this story to some friends recently who instead of being shocked told me that they had known of similar occurrences in other families. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 03, 2011 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think this book is incredible! It is Toews's memoir of her father's life, published in Canada a decade ago but being released for the first time in the United States. It is written in her father's voice, a brave choice and very convincing. Her father, Mel, the book's narrator, lived with bipolar disorder since the age of seventeen. As the book opens he is lying in a local hospital that lacks a psychiatric staff, scrambling to write notes on a legal pad that will make sense of his situation and...more

like · see review

Jul 22, 2012 McGuffy Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Miriam Toews wrote the memoir of her father's life. She writes this from his perspective, in his voice. This is amazing, especially given his lifelong struggle with depression and bipolar disorder.

Mel Toews is much loved by his family and friends. He is also a beloved and popular teacher, as well as a devout member of his Mennonite community. From her father's viewpoint, we are able to see and feel depression and bipolar struggles. We experience his daily battle to balance illness with reality....more

like · see review

Oct 02, 2011 Lydia Presley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, memoirs, non-fiction

Original review posted here

Let me just say … I did not enjoy Irma Voth – the fiction novel that Miriam Toews wrote and I reviewed just a few weeks ago. So it was with some trepidation that I picked Swing Low up off my shelf.

I was blown away.

Seriously, this book was nothing at all like Irma Voth. It was clear, concise, and a beautiful tribute to her father. Miriam’s voice, as she speaks from her father’s point of view, is crystal clear, heart-breaking and filled with love. I never once got the se...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 03, 2012 Darren Tang rated it 3 of 5 stars

Swing Low: A Life. The title says it all, doesn't it? An autobiographical novel written in the first person through a third party persepective. This novel had no climax, no twists, no turns; it was simply the catharsis Toews uses in order to better understand her own fathers suicide. Although the novel delves deep into depression as a clinical disease, there are moments and emotions that stand out. Love. His marriage to his ever loving wife is something that should be rejoiced. In the end, this...more

like · see review

Oct 15, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

I won a copy of this book through a giveaway on Goodreads. At the time I received it, I couldn't remember having signed up for it, or why I might have, although after having read the back cover description it seemed fitting that I should win this. I too lost my father to suicide, and Miriam's writing mirrored a lot of what we went through, things my dad said (or didn't say). That same helplessness, the feeling of not being good enough, or not having done enough for the people in his life, was so...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 15, 2011 Erica added it · review of another edition

We're publishing this in pb in the US this fall, coinciding with the publication by harper hardcover of miriam's new novel. I read a complicated kindness a long time ago and always meant to read more of her work. Swing Low is an interesting hybrid--ostensibly, it's a memoir of miriam's father's depression. But though it's written by miriam, with the exception of the first and last part it's written from her father's point of view. Before I started, I thought that this would be off-putting or har...more

like · see review

Sep 08, 2011 Jennie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own, to-review, non-fiction, read-in-2011, read-in-september

I appreciate the different perspective this story brings us – the inner mind of a manic depressive as he spirals towards suicide. I felt his confusion and desperate desire to be someone other than who he was, yet I found myself skimming the last half of the book. The book was full of emotion, regret and longing but for me it just got lost in the presentation. There were no quotations and it felt as it if the book was one long never-ending paragraph. This was probably intentional, a way to show t...more

like · see review

May 07, 2010 Dnicebear rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really needed this book. It's the life story of a Mennonite man who suffered from manic depression. His daughter wrote it after he, somewhere around age 60, lay down in front of an oncoming train and died. She must have poured over her father's copious notes as well as re-lived many incidents in her own life and then got into her father's skin so well you'd think he wrote it. Once I got to the end I was left hanging because, while it is the man's story, I was closely attached to the mother and...more

like · see review

Sep 07, 2012 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobio-bio-memoir, library, e-books, 1000-b4-40

I've been trying to think of a way to describe this book. I think the only thing I can really say is "profound".

Basically, the book is a recounting of Mel Toews' life, written by his daughter, but from his point of view. It is a graceful story of growing up, dating, getting married, becoming a school teacher, and having kids all in a small, conservative Mennonite town. But it is so much more than that!
Mel suffers from bipolar disorder (then called manic depression). In the present of the book, h...more

like · see review

Oct 01, 2012 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading Darkness Visible led me to this book. I'd read Complicated Kindness but didn't know about this memoir. I resisted the narrative structure for a page or two. It's a first person narration, told from the point of view of Miriam Toews' father, though of course, written by Miriam Toews. But she calls it a memoir because she's done all she can to embody her father, to stay close to the facts and to an honest conception of how he experienced things. Once it was rolling though, I didn't think a...more

like · see review

Sep 08, 2011 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-memoir

Going into Swing Low, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve read memoirs, but never about someone other than the author. That sort of book, I’d always assumed, was called a biography. But Swing Low is certainly not the latter. Toews has written her father’s story through his own eyes, as she pieced together and imagined it herself.

The resulting portrait is of a deeply complex man: a Mennonite husband, father, teacher and friend who adored his job and family but struggled daily with bipolar disorder...more

like · see review

Mar 29, 2012 Dot rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dot-s-booklist-2012

I expected to find this book sad or depressing but that was definitely not the case.

The subject matter of this memoir is a serious one. The author writes about the life of her father, Mel Toews, who was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder as a young man, and in spite of this disability, went on to become a respected and well loved elementary schoolteacher, father and member of the Mennonite Church in Steinbach, Manitoba.

Mel seemed to be able to channel his mania into being a creative schoolteacher,...more

like · see review

Jan 27, 2012 Anna Penner rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a fantastic book. The writing was lovely, and provided such detail and insight into a life that was both beautiful and incredibly sad. It was impossible to have anything but sympathy for the man it described, and difficult to remember that the words were not his. I can only read this book as a loving and brave act by his youngest daughter, the author, to understand her father and continue his story.

like · see review

Jun 01, 2012 Gloria rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is about Miriam's father, who suffered from manic depression most of his life. Yet, he was a very successful school teacher for many years, putting much energy and creativity into his lessons in a small school in Steinbach, Manitoba. The book is written in a very interesting way, as if her father is telling the story while in a hospital room after a nervous breakdown, near the end of his life.

like · see review

Feb 15, 2012 Mandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I can honestly say that this is the best book I have ever read.
The brutal honesty in which the author examines her father's life is at times a joy and a heartache to read. This book has taught me so much, about mental illness, but more about life in general. Everyone should read this book. I guarentee you will not be untouched by it.

like · see review

Aug 06, 2011 Amy added it · review of another edition

Toews assumes her father's voice in this, I guess you'd call it a memoir of his life with severe mental illness. I kept having to remind myself that it wasn't actually written by him. Tremendous insights into the life he lead and the situation he finds himself in at the end. Very beautifully written.

like · see review

Dec 29, 2010 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Miriam Toews gives voice to depression like no other. Wow wow wow!
So many times I had to stop reading to just have a good cry.
Favorite quote form the book: "there are no windows within the dark house of depression through which to see others, only mirrors".
Powerful book, perfectly and honestly written.

like · see review

Sep 25, 2012 HKd rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A remarkable book; dark, depressing, full of love and of pain. I have no idea how his family dealt with him, it must have been so difficult and painful but his wife's love for him and his daughters' acceptance? forgiveness? is very apparent. Not an enjoyable book but one I am glad to have read .

like · see review

Feb 25, 2012 Mojgan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mel’s story ended with him taking his life. Mel struggled with life. He struggled with eggs. But for me what stood out the most was his struggle to be good. Mel felt that the struggle to be good was the purpose of life. Certainly of his life.

I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to read Swing Low. I think for me, my struggle in life is also to be good. For the past year I’ve been pre-occupied with not getting by. With being happy. But it just makes sense to struggle for goodness. I wake up eve...more

like · see review

Mar 17, 2012 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian-authors

Wow! This is powerful. A memoir of Toews father's and family's life. Very personal but beautifully told. I couldn't put it down.

A balanced way of presenting manic depression and all that it can entail for an individual, family and society.

like · see review

Nov 05, 2011 Kyla rated it 2 of 5 stars

It is the story of her Dad's breakdown - told from her Dad's (imaginary) point of view. I kept flipping ahead to see if the conceit was dropped and once I concluded that it was going to continue the whole way through - returned the book to the library.

like · see review

Oct 18, 2009 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a great book. Toews' strength really is her creative nonfiction, and this is very creative nonfiction -- a memoir of her father, written by her in his voice. It's the remarkable story of a man trying to recollect the events of his life during a nervous breakdown. Toews is careful with her father's life, writing in a voice that is somehow simultaneously his and her own. One really gets to feel like Mel Toews was a kind and even happy person, despite his lifelong battle with depression. H...more

like · see review

Jul 26, 2010 Suzy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not something I would have picked on my own, but John got it from the library and I gave it a try. Turned out to be very good. A very interesting take on her father's life, written by Miriam but in her father's voice.

like · see review

Dec 16, 2011 Joey Comeau rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommendations

Miriam Toews has written a book about her father's life and suicide. She has written it, however, as a novel, and in the first person from his perspective. It is completely unsentimental and yet beautiful.

like · see review

Mar 10, 2013 Courtney Coover rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a task of love to write this book and tell her father's story! The book will make you laugh and cry but also shares the story of her father's mental illness with profound dignity. With grace Miriam Toews uses her father's words and life view to share his strengths and struggles and has her own story as his daughter waiting in the back row.

like · see review

Oct 03, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just fantastically sad and brilliant. I love Miriam Toews and I feel so awful for her family to have lost her father at a relatively young age (63-ish?) to suicide. She writes from his point of view after sorting through his many years of notes as an obsessive recorder and manic depressive. I could not put this down.

like · see review

Jan 13, 2011 Irene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I adored Miriam Toews' "A Complicated Kindness" and the movie that was made from her book "The Flying Troutmans", so I was interested to read this book, which is a biography of her father written from his first person perspective. Not the usual biography. He took his own life in his early 60's after a lifetime of living with bipolar disorder. Towards the end he was hospitalized and during this period he found it helpful to recall episodes from his past, which his daughter wrote down. After his d...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 35 36 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (11)

More editions...

Genres

Non Fiction

20 users

Autobiography > Memoir

14 users

Biography

7 users

Cultural > Canada

4 users

Biography Memoir

2 users

Literature > Canadian Literature

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

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

More about Miriam Toews...

Books by Miriam Toews

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Swing Low: A Life

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Swing Low: A Life

“Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.” — 33 people liked it

“She was becoming sad. There is no joy involved in following others' expectations of yourself” — 18 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Swing Low: A Life
avg rating	preview: Swing Low: A Life Goodreads rating: 4.07 (315 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10884247-swing-low?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327953471l/10884247.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10884247-swing-low?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Swing Low: A Life by Miriam Toews[/url]

Swing Low: A Life

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website