A short, sweet novel told from the perspective of a 9 year old about her Grandma, who is taking care of her while she is suspended from school. It is unlike Toews' other works, but it is cohesive and fun, I enjoyed the ride.

This moving and funny story portrays three generations of women trying to find love on their own terms. When nine year old Swiv is expelled from school for fighting, she starts spending her days with her frail grandmother who has an unconventional approach to at-home schooling. She tasks Swiv with writing letters to her absent father, who seems to have abandoned his daughter and pregnant wife—and in these letters, a book's worth of complex family history and present struggles is revealed. A bighearted novel with an undercurrent of sadness, with wisdom far beyond its 9-year-old narrator's years.

"Fight Night" by Miriam Toews has two of my favorite female protagonists in recent memory: foul-mouthed and irrepressible Swiv, the nine-year-old narrator whose father walked out on her pregnant mother, and Grandma, the redoubtable, frail yet larger-than-life woman who also lives with them and presides over a very unorthodox educational curriculum for Swiv after she is expelled from school. No simple plot summary, however, can convey how mordantly funny and at the same time how warm and wonderful "Fight Night" is. Miriam Toews is known for her autobiographical novels based on her childhood in a Canadian Mennonite community and the subsequent suicides of her father and sister, and--after her recent foray into more historical fiction territory with the superb "Women Talking'--she is back in familiar form with what amounts to a love letter to her mother, the "Grandma" of the story. It's tough to do this one justice with a review, chock full as it is of lines like, "[Grandma] compared impregnating Mom to creeping up to the edge of an active volcano that you accidentally thought was inactive," or, from Swiv after she experiences a particularly embarrassing incident with her mother, "I looked down at the sidewalk for things to kill myself with." And I haven't even discussed Swiv's mother, a force of nature in her own right. So just do yourself a favor and read it--it's that good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

I should preface this by saying that Miriam Toews is one of my favorite contemporary novelists and I was predisposed to love this book.

I found Fight Night and its main characters utterly charming. The story is following three female characters representing three generations of one family. It is, most of all, their character analysis as well as a deep dive into their entangled family relationships.

There is not much emphasis on the plot and as the book progresses, we find out more about the characters’ past, and they develop into rich and well-rounded characters. If you liked that aspect of Women Talking, you will adore this book.

In true Toews fashion, we’re following Canadian women with some connection to the Mennonite culture, with a lot of mention and alluding to suicide, in a literal and metaphorical sense.

In those ways, it snugly fits into Toews’ previous work. The most noticeable difference to me was how much emphasis there was on humor. I wouldn't be lying if I said that I laughed out loud on every page, and I greatly enjoyed untangling the secrets and mysteries of this family. There were so many scenes that felt like there were plucked from real conversation, and, as a result, the characters jumped off the page. The prose is gorgeous, as can be expected, and this book deserves all the praise it has got this year.

The only part where I thought the book was lacking was the ending. It felt rushed and, because of the on-the-nose foreshadowing, very predictable. For this reason, it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth but Miriam Toews remains my auto-buy author. I will be reading anything she comes out with in the future.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this advanced reader’s copy.

Swiv’s responsibilities go far beyond her years, and at times beyond her capabilities. At home, Swiv watches over her pregnant mother, her unborn sibling, and her grandma. When Grandma travels to California to visit family, Swiv goes along to help. Grandma is a exemplar for us all of living in the moment. She engages with everyone she meets, embracing the adventure as it happens, and Swiv is swept along for the ride.

Fight Night is an emotional roller-coaster, and a very, very funny book as well.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This just never really clicked for me as a narrative, though I enjoyed the dialogue particularly between Swiv and her Grandma - the way multigenerational wisdom was passed on, the openness across the three generations of women (there’s a scene where they’re all discussing sex that was so well written - full of humour and transparency, loved it!)

Fight Night is FANTASTIC! I'll be honest, I was unsure based on the cover and previous books. This is a truly unforgettable story with a narrator I will love forever. Fans of multi generational family stories should run for this book!

Swiv is our young protagonist and narrator is this quirky story of three generations of women. When the story opens, Swiv is writing her father a letter. We have no idea where he is, but this is Swiv’s version of a journaling. She lives with her somewhat flakey mother who is pregnant and trying to be a working actress, but of course finds it difficult while she is with child. Also living with them is her grandmother, who can’t hear, and is about to die any second according to Swiv, but you can find her trekking out in a blizzard to go to a book club meeting.

Swiv rules the roost, always taking care of her family. During the time period of this story, she has been suspended from school, so she makes herself even more present in her family’s lives. There is not a ton of plot to this story, but just understanding Swiv is enough for me. She is witty and so smart, she is delight, that I could have read so much more.

I did start reading the physical book, and it started a little slow, but switched to the audio version and I am so glad I did. The narrator really captured the humor that Toews was trying to convey throughout. It ultimately made the all the difference.

This was a delightful read that I thoroughly enjoyed. My only wish is that we could so many books with Swiv at the helm. She just might teach you how to fight.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fight Night is told through the unique voice of nine-year-old Swiv as she writes a letter to her dad who has disappeared from her life. She lives with her pregnant mom and her dying grandmother, Elvira.
This was my first experience with this author and I really enjoyed her writing, the humor and the family dynamics. As a mom, Swiv stressed me out! She was too young to have so much responsibility, anxiety, and to be swearing so much 😉, but I adored her at the same time. And Elvira? She’s hilarious. It was a roller coaster of emotions throughout, but there was a great deal of love in this little family.
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When I started this book, I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it - but I'm glad I carried on. It's narrated by 9-year-old Swiv and is written in a stream-of consciousness style (definitely not my favorite). I felt like I'd read similar stories before - Swiv is precocious (aren't all young narrators?), her grandmother is feisty (aren't they all in this type of story?), and Swiv's mom is hard but with a heart of gold (see my previous comments). But once I gave myself over to the writing style, I started to appreciate the story more. Swiv and her (very pregnant) mother live with her grandmother, and once Swiv gets suspended from school - again - Grandma takes over her education. I found myself highlighting a number of passages - either because they were funny or deep (or both). Thank-you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Ms. Toews for the ARC of this title.

Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Fight Night, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, is extraordinarily funny and is poignant and pensive as well. It’s a novel centered around suicide, a subject Toews addressed remarkably well in her magnificent All My Puny Sorrows that borrowed from her own experience with her sister’s suicide. It may be difficult to envision that a book with suicide as a prominent theme could also be whimsical and humorous, but Fight Night is just that.

Three generations of women: nine-year-old Swiv, her pregnant mother, and the novel’s star her 86-year-old grandmother Elvira have lost close family members to suicide and Swiv’s mother fears a genetic tendency will be their undoing. With precocious Swiv narrating the book as a letter to her absent father, Toews captures the unpredictable thoughts of a child regarding what could otherwise be a depressing subject.

Swiv has recently been suspended from school for fighting—something Elvira admires in Swiv. “You're a small thing,” Grandma writes, “and you must learn to fight.” Swiv is supposedly under her grandmother’s care, yet it’s Swiv who administers the nitroglycerin spray when her grandmother needs it and Swiv who goes to the pharmacy to refill prescriptions. Her grandmother is “teaching” her with one math lesson centering on the death of a man in their former church who abused his wife. Grandma poses the problem:

“If it takes five years to kill a guy with prayer, and it takes six people a day to pray, then how many prayers of pissed off women praying every day for five years does it take to pray a guy to death?”

The family, like Toews herself, and the women in her last novel Women Talking have been damaged by the misogyny of their Mennonite sect and the powerful man controlling it. Toews never tells the reader that Willit Braun is evil, instead, she reveals his deeds through Swiv’s observations and Elvira’s satirical comments about them.

It takes a while to acclimate yourself to Fight Night’s style, but once you fall into the rhythm of Swiv and her grandmother’s conversations and antics, the novel won’t let you go. When the book ends, you’ll feel a part of the family.

The Los Angeles Times calls Fight Night “the Ted Lasso of novels” and it is in that it’s packed with one-liners and is as the Times notes a reminder “of what’s worth fighting for.” It’s also similar because the comedy sits atop grief and trauma.

Summing it Up: Read Fight Night for a rollicking, imaginative tale with two impossible-to-forget characters whose wry dialogue belies the difficulties they face. Read it and every novel by Miriam Toews for a master class in subtle plotting, underlying themes that beg for discussion, and always, always a great story.

I just listened to an excerpt of the audio book and the narrator reads in a clear, no-nonsense voice. I feared they might make her sound cute. This would be a fabulous audio book.

Rating: 5 Stars

Categories: Fiction, Five Stars, Road Food, Sushi, Book Club

Publication Date: October 5, 2021

Watch an Interview with the Author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QXquHw2XrY

What Others are Saying:
Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-miriam-toews-new-novel-fight-night-pays-tribute-to-her-mother/
Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/miriam-toews/fight-night/
Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-10-06/review-miriam-toews-fight-night-is-the-ted-lasso-of-novels-for-better-and-worse
New York Times:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/books/review/miriam-toews-fight-night.html
Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-63557-817-1
USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2021/10/03/fight-night-miriam-toews-wise-wonderful-book-celebrates-women/5823997001/

Labels: Book Club, Fiction, Five Stars, Road Food, Sushi

Swiv is given the task of writing to her absent father about life in her house by her grandmother, Elvira, who is teaching her after Swiv was expelled from school. Swiv's mother is pregnant and in the later stages of her pregnancy. Three generations living under one roof make for interesting writing for Swiv. She writes in a rambling way which is both entertaining and endearing. Try not to laugh at times or not have a smile on your face during other times.

There is heart here, there is also a young girl wise beyond her years, who makes observations and has a close bond with her grandmother. There is a bit of goofy, zany actions which will entertain and have you shaking your head.

This is an endearing, quirky, and at times goofy book about family, their antics, their tribulations, and their bond.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Pros:
- Having a child narrator really pays off. Swiv reacts to the situations around her in a way that feels true. She doesn't necessarily understand everything that goes on (and her misunderstandings can feel both comical and poignant for the reader)
- Miriam Toews continues to be the best in the game at blending genuinely funny moments with hefty emotional moments.
- The story of this family of women and the fights they have to have in order to survive is a really great idea.

Cons:
- Fight Night feels predictable. I had a guess about where this story would go and I was absolutely correct.
- Unfortunately, I don't believe a lot of twists and turns this story takes. There's a section in the second half that felt fully unbelievable to me, especially how it leads into the ending (no spoilers).
- Fight Night is funny but feels lacking in the end. It was missing the emotional resonance of the previous Toews books I've read.

LoveMiriam Towes writing her latest book drew me right in.Imloved the wise snarky voice of the young child her interaction with her grandma and her mother.Her mother is pregnant there is depression in the family but also the strength of these women.Will be recommending.#netgalley #fightnight

There's something about Miriam Toews' writing style that just doesn't work for me. I so wanted to love "Fight Night" more. I really liked the characters. They were weird, eccentric, unique, and quirky which I absolutely loved, but the prose was just so messy and disjointed. Also, the text left out certain words which made for a confusing read. Interesting story, but just so-so for me.

Let me open by saying that if I could give Fight Night six stars, I would. In fact, I'd give it seven. I'm a big fan of Mirian Toews' work, and Fight Night is my favorite by far. Fight Night is absolutely, positively, unendingly hysterical (in both the mirthful and the teetering-on-the-brink ways) and is also dead serious. The only other books that have left me guffawing the way this one did are Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicholson series. (If you've read them, you know what I mean; if you haven't read them, get started as soon as possible.)

The novel is narrated in the voice of Swiv, a Canadian girl of roughly 10 years' age who has been suspended from school for her propensity to be unreasonably violent when playing King of the Hill. She also worries. A lot. About everything—and is never one to fail to think of a worse-case scenario. Her father is absent. Her mother is an actress in antifa theatre. She's pregnant. She's moody as hell. Swiv spends most of her time home with her grandmother, where they assign each other essays and watch Raptors basketball games, while Swiv endlessly picks up pills and books and hearing aid batteries and whatever else her grandmother drops and can't pick up for herself. Swiv's grandmother is a Russian ex-pat from a strict religious community. She takes great pleasure in talking about bowel movements, being naked, and her life, which seems to have been filled with one outrageous stunt after another—all of which leave Swiv paralyzingly embarrassed.

Spending time with this threesome is a crazy romp that pulls at the heart while moving from one moment of comic genius to the next.

You should read this book. Please read this book. Seriously. Read it. Buy a full case of copies and give them as presents for every occasion. If there is any justice in the world, Fight Night will be up near the top of the 2021 bestsellers list.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title; the opinions are my own.

I have always really enjoyed books narrated by children. I have also always enjoyed books about people who look difficulties in the face and laugh. This book combines both those things, and this is why I chose to read it. Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for making it available to me to read and review.

The story is entirely narrated by Swiv, a 9-year-old Canadian girl who was expelled from school for fighting. She lives with her pregnant mother and her elderly, but spirited grandmother, who has given Swiv the assignment of writing to her absent father about what's going on at home. And this is what she does. Center stage in the story is her grandmother, ever exasperating or embarrassing her; full of stories of life, love, pain, and death; always giving squeezes at just the right moment, and often more besides; and determined to live and die on her own terms.

Swiv is an adorable amalgamation of wise and innocent, with a touch of a dirty mouth, and really quite intelligent for her age. All the characters, even the most minor, feel like the real people one might meet in life. If like me, the reader will not want to put this book down, so as not to miss any of Swiv's thoughts. The close relationship between Swiv, her mother, and grandmother is extremely moving. I got a kick out of Swiv's thoughts to Gord, her unborn sibling. One can already sense that will be a close relationship as well; she'll be a good big sister. Grandma is full of wisdom. The book is chock full of laughter.

Although some of what happens, even reading the description alone, can be predicted, the path to reaching these points is unique and full of lovely sights. I literally ran the gamut of emotions with this one: I laughed, I cried, and I highlighted some of Grandma's wise words, and even some of Swiv's unexpectedly wise words.

This is one I'd highly recommend to fans of Fredrik Backman's 'My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry'. Really, if you enjoy Fredrik Backman at all, I feel like this is one you'd like. If you enjoy books about close family relationships, if you enjoy reading about elderly people who still have a real zest for life (a la Betty White), you'll enjoy this book and I would highly recommend it to all besides; it's a new favorite of mine.

I loved this book so much. The best part was the narrator, a hilarious and smart girl who is embarrassed by her free-spirited grandma and her mom, a strong woman coping with pregnancy and a family history of depression. It was so fun to be part of this family, to hear their stories, and to embrace their complexities. Although their lives were messy, each of the characters fought through life.

A story narrated by Swiv, a 9-year-old girl, shared through rambling thoughts she shares as she writes to her father. She’s wise in the ways of the world, but has stopped attending school because she has been made to feel like an outsider, a freak not only by other students, but by teachers, as well. As a result, she acts out, and is suspended from school.

Swiv’s mother is an actress, who leaves their home in Toronto for periods of time for her work, but Swiv’s grandmother is an almost constant presence. Swiv hovers over her grandmother, and is responsible for administering her medicine when her heart starts acting up. Swiv seens to be the most responsible person in her family. It isn’t that her grandmother is irresponsible, but she tends to be spontaneous, always looking for fun and adventure, despite her health issues. She looks at life as an adventure to be lived fully, whereas Swiv’s mother, who is pregnant, seems to be perpetually tense.

When her grandmother decides it’s been too long since she’s visited her family in Fresno, California, she convinces Swiv to book her a flight, which means that Swiv would be alone while her mother is working. Swiv ends up joining her grandmother on an adventure that seems like it’s destined to fall apart before they even leave the house for the airport, but they arrive safe and sound.

There’s a lighthearted, zany sense of joy at times, but this story explores all the emotions, from anger, fear, fighting our inner demons at others. All the natural human emotions, from heartbreak and sorrow to an overflowing of love that, ultimately, is the heart of this story.


Pub Date: 05 Oct 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Bloomsbury USA / Bloomsbury Publishing

"Fight Night" is a letter to her absent father, by a child named Swiv, (mostly, there are also interpolated homework assignments). Swiv is being made to grow up way too fast in a household with no boundaries and too much information. This novel is first-person full-throttle stream of consciousness, about a family of three generations of females who are facing significant mental and emotional challenges in a family that has already seen two suicides. They are in a continual fight to live life according to their own rules. Swiv has been expelled from school for fighting and has the full-time care of her grandmother, Elvira, who is quite a handful. Elvira is directing Swiv's very unorthodox education with classes such as Sudoku and Speed Cooking. Swiv's mother is a sometime actress who is frequently either having meltdowns or attending rehearsals while nine months pregnant with a baby they just call "Gord." Hold on tight for plenty of confusion, narrative distance, and outright hilarity as Swiv frantically tries to navigate her unhinged and unpredictable life.

I'd have liked it better if I had been able to make more sense of it, but it's a very accomplished piece of fiction. I predict this will be one of those novels that people either love or hate. Put me down in the love column.