Thursday, September 18, 2008

The Flying Troutmans

Miriam Toews is in town tonight for a reading organized by Laurie Greenwood's new venture, "Laurie's Book Company". Without Laurie's bookstore, Volume Two, around, readings have different venues. Toews is at "The ARTery", which is located at 9535 Jasper Ave. in Edmonton. Volume Two was always a really cramped spot, very cozy shall we say, so these other venues may be just fine! Free admission.
Toews is reading from her new novel, The Flying Troutmans, just out last week. This road novel begins with Aunt Hattie saying, "Yeah, so things have fallen apart." Hattie has returned from Paris to the Paris of the Prairies, Winnipeg (yeah, I know, Saskatoon is the Paris of the Prairies. What is Winnipeg then? Chicago of the North?). Hattie's sister, Min, is mentally ill. Min's two kids need looking after, with 15 year old Logan in trouble at school and 11 year old Thebes trying to keep everything together. At a loss for what to do, Hattie hits the road, kids too, headed to the U.S. with the vague plan to find the kids' AWOL dad.

Single mum, absent parent, mental illness, sad/funny - sounds Toewsian! The reviews are pretty great thus far. It did miss the Giller long list though - more about that another time.

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