Toews experiments with a child narrator here, but in a way that skirts preciousness, and showcases her trademark wacky sense of humor. Swiv and Mom and Gord and Grandma are such a lovable bunch of misfits -- but they're not-to-be-messed-with fierce. You'll root for them the whole way through. A feel-good, funny, madcap romp that spans Swiv's suspension from school, Grandma's last hurrah in sunny California, and the final leg of Mom's portentous play rehearsals and pregnancy.

Miriam Toews drops the reader into the mind and heart of a feisty 9 year old girl who lives with her struggling mama and her bawdy, fantastic grandmother. The three are fighting to thrive in circumstances that keep threatening to beat them down, but they don't crumple. Their love for each other and commitment to keep going frees them in spite of everything.

Some authors write with a consistent storytelling voice across all their work. Toews doesn't. This is a truly unique novel with an unforgettable cast of characters and, as Toews always manages to create, just the right amount of humor at just the right time. I loved spending time with Swiv, her grandma, and her mom!

Swiv is nine years old, precious and wise beyond her years.
She lives with her mother and grandmother in Toronto. Grandma’s health may be fragile—but she’s feisty-lively-and bluntly outspoken.
Mom is pregnant, an actress, and doesn’t know where the heck Swiv’s dad ran off to.

“Fight Night” had a touch of the same flavor as “My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry”, by Fredrik Backman….
‘Tad’ similarities.
Both books are charming - with heart endearing quirkiness.
But “Fight Night” is more bold-has more profanity-with a message: knowing oneself is serious business!
Fighting for oneself is serious business.
No getting pushed around in this family.

I thought it was great -funny as hell - with sentences that kept outdoing themselves page after page.
My only quibble is that at times there was ‘so much’ humorous-sarcasm … poking and pushing the envelope—with it’s witty prose — I felt like I needed a breather— in other words - the writing was slightly overkilling a great thing.
But…. my goodness Miriam Toews sure could keep the punches rolling.

“Alternating between the exuberant, precious voice of young Swiv and her irrepressible tenacious Grandma, Fight Night is a love letter to mothers and grandmothers, and to all women who are still fighting-painfully, ferociously-for a way to live on their own terms”.

“Grandma likes to tell Mom we’ve accomplished household tasks every day because Mom is having a complete nervous break down and a geriatric pregnancy which doesn’t mean she’s going to push out an old geezer out of her vag, it means she’s too old to be up the stump and is ‘so exhausted’ and when she comes home from rehearsals she’s all, god, what a mess, god you guys, what a dump,
you can’t poor fat down the drain, these pipes are ancient, you can’t overload the toilet with toilet paper, why are there conchigliettes everywhere, can’t you two pick up a dish or put this shit away or have you ever heard of ‘household tasks’? Mom’s
‘domestic’ freak-out is that she always has to put all the food that’s in the fridge at the very outer edges of the racks so that it’s entirely visible to
Grandma, otherwise Grandma thinks there’s no food because she can’t see it, and she doesn’t move things around to see the food in the back of the fridge and then she orders take-out or just eats ice cream or bacon or handfuls of cereal from the box. So now Mom lines everything up in a row on the outer edges of the fridge racks with labels like THIS IS LENTIL CHILI! EAT IT! THIS IS KALE SALAD! EAT IT!
Grandma doesn’t eat anything green. Not a single thing, ever.
“I’m not going to spend my last five minutes on earth eating rabbit food!”

“Grandma says Mom has a tiny bit of PTSD still, plus she’s searching. I asked Grandma what Mom’s searching for and she said, Oh, you name it. PTSD and searching don’t end when we are asleep. Mom and Grandma no things about each other that they just have to ‘contend with’ because that’s how it is. They don’t mind. They know each other”.

“What happened is we met a friend of Mom’s who is a director. Mom said oh god, don’t look now. Fucking kill me. I looked and saw a tall guy come walking towards us. Mom tried not to embrace him but he bent down to hug ‘her’ so then out of politeness she hugged ‘him’ for under one second and just with one arm barely touching him. She pointed at me and said, this is my daughter, Swiv. I waved. He said Oh! I thought you’d say son. Mom and I looked at him. Pleasure, he said. He nodded at me. Mom asked him how he was and he said he was involved in an epic struggle with his demons. Mom burst out laughing and said really? Wow! He said yes, more and more as I get older I am finding evidence that supports the fact that I am a tragic character. Mom laughed again. The director looked confused. He said, It’s not funny, really, it’s painful.
Mom couldn’t stop laughing. Then I started laughing at it too. The director frowned and looked away, down towards the far end of the park towards the offleash pit. Mom said she was sorry. The director said it was fine. He was trying to smile. Finally he left and Mom sat back down on the bench and watched him disappear. When he was far enough away Mom said of my ‘god’, what a douchepetard. She told me he had touched her all over—and she means ‘all’ over—during one rehearsal when he was trying to show her how to
‘simulate love-making’. She said he’s ‘banged every young actress in town and super talks down to everyone’.
Mom said we can’t afford therapy anymore even with a sliding scale and even with giving the therapist free tickets to the theater because
doucherockets like the tall director aren’t giving her roles anymore because she’s too old and because of Gord and also because he knows she’s got his fucking number. Now she has to addition for fucking tooth-whitening commercials”.
“But where’s Dad? I asked her. She said a bunch of things but basically she doesn’t know”.

The characters of “Fight Night”…. are champions. They defend, support, and safeguard themselves and their tribe!

Thank you Netgalley, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Miriam Toews