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A Boy of Good Breeding
by
Miriam Toews
From the acclaimed Giller Prize Finalist and Governor General's Award Winner comes her delightfully funny and charming second novel about life in Canada's smallest town.
Paperback, 248 pages
Published
March 28th 2006
by Counterpoint
(first published 1998)
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Miriam Toews is from Winnipeg, the great Canadian city that has given the world John K. Samson / The Weakerthans, and Marcel Dzama. Besides being from Winnipeg this book could be set in a Canadian cousin town to Donald Harington's Staymore; oh and she also writes in such an effortlessly feeling kind of way that Harington does, which is also a good thing. The book is also quite funny, and the little girl in the book made me really smile in almost every scene she was in. So unlike most books I lik...more
Who else but the author Miriam Toews could place a story in the "smallest town in Canada" where nothing interesting could ever possibly happen, and make the story interesting. She conjers up a collection of idiosyncratic personalities loaded with foibles and obsessions, and then proceeds to make them believeable and, if not loveable, at least interesting.
Never before in history has a small town mayor had to concentrate so mightily of such trivial details in order to maintain the town's populati...more
Never before in history has a small town mayor had to concentrate so mightily of such trivial details in order to maintain the town's populati...more
Toews is one of my favourite authors, but this may be my least favourite of her books, so far. It is humourous and clever, and it kept us entertained during our drive to Kelowna and halfway back, so I'm not saying it's a bad book. Far from it. I still gave it a 4-star rating. It's just that I didn't relate to the characters quite as much as I have in other books. That may be due to "reading" it in audio format, although the reader was excellent.
This book is set in Canada's smallest town--a disti...more
This book is set in Canada's smallest town--a disti...more
If ever there was a novel that emulated the saying "it's not the *destination*, but the *journey* that counts" (lol thanks djordje) then this novel would surely be it. Behind the main characters obsession of meeting his dad, whom he believes is the prime minister of Canada, lay the smallest Canadian town: Algren. While the plot is propelled with the wonder and curiosty as to what will happen when and if Hosea meets his father, at the end of the novel it becomes clear that although the aforementi...more
Aside from the the fear of what further horrors I would find among the pages of this library book (my first discovery being a bogey!) I was eager to keep turning the pages. Towes' writing is natural and easy, and the premise of the book was fun - a mayor needing to keep the population of his town at exactly 1500 so that the Canadian Prime Minister (who he believes to be his father) will visit on Canada Day. That said, I did find the book starting to drag just a little in the middle - but I think...more
This book is great, but I found one of the main characters, Hosea, so annoying that I hated it when I would get to one of his parts of the book. He wasn't a bad character, just a little crazy. And I kept thinking, "yes, he's crazy, we get it, now let's get back to the better characters."
There's basically two storylines, the one with Hosea, the mayor of the smallest town in Canada, and Knute a young mother who moves back to the small town with her daughter. Since this is Canada's smallest town t...more
There's basically two storylines, the one with Hosea, the mayor of the smallest town in Canada, and Knute a young mother who moves back to the small town with her daughter. Since this is Canada's smallest town t...more
The delightful goings on in Algren, Manitoba - Canada's smallest town (any smaller and it would be a village). A central theme is the mayor's efforts to ensure Algren remains the smallest, requiring him to keep track of every birth, death, return home, leaving town, almost death... M.T. wrote the book in 1998, then revised it in 2005. A perfect counter balance to "A Geography of Blood" a non-fiction history (people and the land) about the same part of the country.
This piece was mildly entertaining. The plot has not nearly the intrigue that the Troutmans comes with. Still, some of the dialogue is crisp and unique. There are an abundance of Canadianisms. I was very pleased and surprised by the ending. For a book that went from A to B to C, it got rather wacky when it hit X, Y, and Z. Throughout the book I found myself saying "Who Cares?" My interest in Miriam Toews' writing is 1 for 3; only a good average in baseball.
Jul 25, 2011
Nancy
added it
Very cute book. I wasn't sure about it at first, but in the end I really enjoyed it. It was light hearted, but true to life in many places--what the aftermath of a heart attack is on a family, when a couple gets back together after being apart, etc. I started reading it because it was set in Canada and I always am interested in a different view of the world, rather than just American. In the beginning the characters have somewhat of a cartoonish feel, but in the end the author makes them realist...more
I love Miriam Toews. She is a voice that can just tell the story the little bits that go through the characters' minds and then some but it never gets complicated. She reminds me of Anne Lammot that way but Toews has a comedic thread that keeps it a little lighter.
LOVE her!and am sad that she only has a few books but am happy that her next comes out this september
LOVE her!and am sad that she only has a few books but am happy that her next comes out this september
This is the exact archetype of a book that I would rate 3 stars. I don't regret reading it and enjoyed it to a certain degree but probably wouldn't have read it if I'd known. That is to say that I think my time reading could've been better spent. The book is enjoyable, but not particularly memorable. Homey but not overly cheesy.
This book is funny and entertaining, but I still prefer Toews's first two more serious books. While highlighting the daily lives of the characters in a small town in Canada, the author also addresses questions of identity and parentage in a light way. Many surprises occur as the mayor tries to keep his town's population at exactly 1,500.
Toews always manages to create characters with whom it is easy to empathize.
Nothing overly serious here, just a nice little story about
a small town, a mayor with an obsessive personality, and everyday people
struggling to deal with relationships, life, death, and a dog who is his own man....errrr....dog.
Nothing overly serious here, just a nice little story about
a small town, a mayor with an obsessive personality, and everyday people
struggling to deal with relationships, life, death, and a dog who is his own man....errrr....dog.
read her other books- much much better than this.
Ms Toews can capture the quirky small town character very well.....
but the rest is just kind of blah.
thats it....just kind of blah.
and it didn't make me miss Manitoba at all - or any of the mennonite boys that I knew back then.
Ms Toews can capture the quirky small town character very well.....
but the rest is just kind of blah.
thats it....just kind of blah.
and it didn't make me miss Manitoba at all - or any of the mennonite boys that I knew back then.
A strange book about the mayor of a small town who is obsessed with the town remaining as Canada's smallest town at a population of 1500 so that the Prime Minister (who he suspects is his father) will visit on Canada Day. I enjoyed the characters but wasn't blown away by the book.
So far I'm REALLY enjoying listening to this story--it's so quirky, and well written. The voice artist is very good, and I look forward to listening to another installment every time I drive somewhere.
I really liked this book. Totally not what I expected after having read, and not really liked, A Complicated Kindess (several years ago). I'd like to read her other books now, too.
I really liked this book. Totally not what I expected after having read, and not really liked, A Complicated Kindess (several years ago). I'd like to read her other books now, too.
This book was a little slow. Like Toews' other book, I loved that it was set in small town Manitoba, the characters are quirky and realistic, but I didn't identify enough with the main characters to really get into it. The ending was cute.
In a small town in Canada, the eccentric mayor tries to keep the population at exactly 1500 so his town will win the "small town award," of a visit from the Prime Minister, for the mayor thinks he may be his father. This is a humorous, good read.
3.5 really, if that were an option. It's less absorbing than A Complicated Kindness, but entertaining, quirky and full of interesting characters. Plus it mentions A Music Man in passing, which almost pushed my rating up to 4.
Excellent story, great characters and Canadian setting. The "story within a story" is intriguing and the entire plot keeps you guessing until the end. Excellent audio book from the CBC.
another gem from toews. it is a picture of a few weeks in the characters lives. no distinct beginning or ending. the whole point is just to get to know the characters.
Algren, where the sky is the color of tolet bowl cleaner and staying the smallest town in Canada is the mayor's number one priority. This book will make you smile.
There was something quirky and enjoyable about this book, and I'm not really sure what or why...Does that even make sense? A good read, anyway.
I love Mariam Toews writing...not her best, but I read Complicated Kindness first, and you can see how much she has grown as an author.
Miriam Toews best book! The characters are so vivid, I felt like I knew them. Read three pages, and knew I was going to love it, and I did!
2 1/2 hours in to listening and I'm stopping. It's just moving too slow and the story isn't good enough to put up with the language.
Set in rural Canada, Hosea Funk is determined to keep his town as the smallest town in Canada, with a population of exactly 1500.
The storyline is endearing and laugh out loud funny at times.
The storyline is endearing and laugh out loud funny at times.
Not quite as wonderful as her other books, but quirky. I always feel like I know MT's protagonists.
Not my favourite Toews book - The Flying Troutman's is still the best. This was a good book though, i was completely immersed in the story. I was so sad at the end though...
Not as good as Toews other books but still decent
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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...
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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May 25, 2010 02:28pm
updated May 25, 2010 03:42pm