A touching and heartwarming story about three generations, but slow to get started. The audio version was delightful and is read by the author's daughter.

3.5 stars.

Written from the point of view of a nine-year-old named Swiv, Fight Night follows three generations of women – Swiv, her pregnant mother, and her eccentric grandma – living together in Toronto. Swiv is writing a letter to her absent father, in which she details the antics of her grandma and her day-to-day life during the third trimester of her mother’s pregnancy.

The book is written almost in a stream of consciousness style and is packed full of comedic moments. The humour was bordering on overkill for me, but luckily, it didn’t quite pass that line. I enjoyed Swiv’s voice, the absurdity of the situations she found herself in, and my time reading about these women. Fight Night is a touching story about family and love, but it isn’t one that will stick with me long term.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I just didn't love this. The voices are distinct, the characters are clearly drawn, and yet I kept feeling like "what is the point?"

Fight Night is a beautifully written narrative from the perspective of an 8 year old child, Swiv, who lives with her mother and grandmother. All of whom are struggling with elements in their lives: Swiv was suspended from school for fighting: her mother, a pregnant, single parent, grieving the loss of a beloved sister to suicide, and the grandmother, struggling with her health. The story is a heart-warming, at times, laugh-out-loud character study about the relationships between each of them, but specifically between Swiv and her grandmother.

I really liked this book while reading it, but having an opportunity to think about it a couple of weeks after reading it, i have come to love the incredibly heart-warming and tender relationship between Swiv and her grandmother. Miriam Toews has a remarkable ability to describe character with minimal physical description but with unforgettable personality. A beautiful story that will stay with any reader for a long time.

I really enjoyed this. The novel is written in epistolary format, mostly by letter as written by 9-year-old Shiv to her father, who left the family some months prior. She tells the story of her grandmother and her pregnant mom while peppering in some details about how she herself was suspended long-term from school for fighting—something that winds up thematic to the book.

Because the format is a girl describing events to her father, there are some stylistic liberties that are both taken and justified. A lack of quotations is a stylistic choice I find only works some of the time, and it worked for me here because Shiv is quoting the generalities of the conversation only, for the sake of describing them to her dad.

I started this book intending to read only 50 pages, and wound up reading almost the entire thing in one sitting. It's a character study in the way literary novels are; we are compelled by this family, we understand the journey they have already undertaken and slowly come to understand the journey they're in. It hit me hard; the only reason I didn't finish in one sitting because I thought it would be rude to keep sobbing while my partner was trying to sleep.

It is good. It hit hard. It's weird, and its stylings won't work for everyone. But it's exactly the kind of weird I like, and it ensures I'll be returning to Miriam Toews again, and soon.

Swiv is 9-years-old. She lives with her mother, who is in her third trimester of pregnancy, and her grandmother. Swiv is writing a letter to her dad, who has recently disappeared out of their lives. This is an assignment given to her by her grandmother after Swiv is expelled from school. The letter conceit is easily forgotten but it gives us an excuse to get deep into Swiv’s head and her perspective. She is just on the cusp of the age where she is beginning to be deeply embarrassed by the adults around her while still loving them intensely. With a very pregnant mother and an aging grandmother, Swiv feels it is her responsibility to keep everyone alive and make sure things run smoothly.

This is a story light on plot and heavy on character. Swiv, her mother, and especially her grandmother are all larger than life characters. Swiv’s mother and grandmother each have their own traumas and fears that they carry with them, things that Swiv is not yet entirely aware of.

In my opinion, it’s really the character of the grandmother who carries this novel. She is vivacious and eccentric. She knows she is closer to the end of her life than the beginning and lives accordingly, in spite of Swiv’s constant concerns. She is a woman who has a broad and vivd history, entirely believable even when we aren’t given the details. Readers of Toews’ work will recognize the Mennonite background that Elvira comes from. Where other books by Toews have focused on strict and traditional Mennonite communities, here we see a woman who has left beyond the restrictions and abuses of her former community so that our narrator, Swiv, knows almost nothing of what that environment can be like.

Another theme found here that is shared with Toews previous work (notably All My Puny Sorrows) is suicide. Both Swiv’s grandfather and aunt committed suicide, something that haunts Swiv’s grandmother and mother. In some ways, this is the fight that the title of the book references – a constant fight to stay in your own life, to battle against the forces that might bring you down, whether those are surrounding you or within you. Part of the fight, as we see through the mother and grandmother, is done on behalf of the children who may follow behind you.

Readers who love Toews’ work will find Fight Night very much in line with her previous work, full of new characters to love.

Energetic, creative and thought-provoking. It felt like it occasionally lacked a bit of consistency in the characters (a little more than seemed true of us humans).

To me, the essence of a good fictional novel is its ability to evoke strong emotion. In Miriam Toews' newest novel she gets to the heart of the struggles facing females across several generations. I love that she is a Canadian author and is bold enough to take on the challenge of using a child narrator in "Fight Night." This novel is not your typical multigenerational read, instead, it will make you laugh, cry and want to fight for what really matters in life. Swiv is a strong main character who shares her life story, at least her story thus far, in the form of a written assignment. I personally love how "Fight Night" has a child tell an authentic story about life, loss, love, and anger. It is so important for the youth of today to develop ways to express their emotions and work through everyday struggles. Positive mental health strategies are even more important as we learn to navigate a growing mental health crisis as a result of the pandemic. Writing can be an emotional outlet and Toews hones in on a very effective way of handling all the stressors that life throws at you. If you aren't entranced by all of the characters or find their experiences just too mundane or real, focus instead on the message behind the concept of this story. Focus on the benefits for everyday people to understand how to develop strategies to deal with loss, frustration, or anxiety. I find this both a timely and important read and would definitely recommend it.

I also want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Fight Night by Canadian author Miriam Toews provides the perspectives of three generations of women in the same family in a bitingly funny story about love, courage, and acceptance. Conveyed mainly through the viewpoint of Swiv, a nine-year-old girl who has been expelled from school for fighting, the story is told through a blend of present moment and flashbacks. The latter provide a deeper understanding of the characters and their complex relationships.

Toews provides us with colorful and unconventional characters. Swiv’s pregnant mother is an actress who seems to be constantly in battle with her stage manager. Though many of her friends and acquaintances have already passed away, Swiv’s grandmother Elvira is unafraid of dying and embraces life, refusing to remain shut in the house despite the difficulty of venturing out. Despite her many health issues, Elvira remains good-natured.

Swiv’s mother and grandmother are haphazardly home-schooling Swiv during the period of her expulsion, though not by any curriculum the Board of Education might approve. While not working on “assignments” she’s been given, or marking assignments she’s given other family members, Swiv assists with household tasks, including assisting Elvira with her needs.

Swiv and her grandmother, being at opposite ends of the age spectrum, are a study in contrasts. While Swiv is youthfully innocent and squeamish about topics like sex, nudity, and bodily functions, her grandmother has no such qualms. Yet they also have a lot in common. They are in league against Swiv’s mother, whose volatile temper sets her off on tirades at times. Swiv and Elvira also enjoy watching baseball and basketball on TV, and are enthusiastic fans of the Toronto Raptors NBA franchise.

Elvira’s occasional usage of basketball metaphors and her enthusiasm for watching the sport on television made her a refreshingly contemporary grandmother figure. She is an interesting woman, with one foot in the past (having lived most of her life in a town of “escaped Russians” under the tyranny of a man named Willit Braun), and one foot firmly in the modern world.

Swiv herself is a blend of innocence and cynicism. She wonders why her father hasn’t chosen to be part of their life, and worries that her mother’s eccentricities might be contagious. Despite her sometimes cutting observations, Swiv is a likeable and empathetic character. Her willingness to help her grandmother with her daily tasks is a redeeming quality.

Parts of the book are written as though addressed to Swiv’s absent father, while other sections provide advice to the unborn baby who is being carried by Swiv’s mother in a geriatric pregnancy. Though the gender of the baby is unknown as yet, the main characters refer to him/her as “Gord.”

Though the majority of the story is related from Swiv’s perspective, Toews also provides glimpses into Swiv’s mother’s, and Elvira’s, viewpoints through letters, dialogue recorded by Swiv, and other methods.

There is hilarity throughout the book in both the situations and the dialogue. Some of humor is perpetuated by Swiv’s naivete, and by the way her youth and innocence causes her to misinterpret or color some of what is going on. Elvira’s devil-may-care attitude and Swiv’s mother’s sometimes-jaded views, caused in part by her perpetual weariness as a result of her pregnancy, add to the humor.

But the book isn’t all “fun and games” as Elvira might say. Toews weaves in some philosophical observations about life, and the need to fight for what you want. Elvira discusses the way powerful men, particularly those affiliated with the church, had a stifling and negative influence on the members of the community she grew up in, replacing the joy of life with guilt. The stories she shares with Swiv underscore the importance of having the courage to be your own person.

The prose is powerful and well-crafted, which should come as no surprise. Toews received Canada’s Governor General’s Award in 2004 for A Complicated Kindness, and has penned several other novels, including All My Puny Sorrows and Women Talking.

Readers who favor a bang-bang plot may find that Fight Night moves too slowly for their liking. But those who enjoy appreciate cutting, witty, and sometimes dark humor with a dash of philosophical thought mixed in will find much to like here.

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

I loved it. I laughed, I cried, I felt all the feels.. Swiv is a nine-year old who carries around some big burdens. She cares for her spunky, sassy grandmother Elvira who laughs uproariously frequently, always finding the comedic in the absurdity of life. Written in a stream of consciousness style, through the eyes of this wise beyond their years child, it’s beautifully written.

Swiv is constantly exasperated by her “embarrassing” mother and seemingly cautionless grandmother, feeling like the only “serious” one in the family. We are treated to an inside look at the everyday shenanigans and capers of Swiv & Elvira, a true joy to read. There’s one scene involving an airport wheelchair, a ramp, and a Body Shop stand that I will be squirrelling away in my memory for when I need a little laugh. The characters felt real, despite Swiv being perhaps far beyond her years. I could really visualize Elvira and her vivaciously extroverted ways.

A family of fighters, finding peace & joy in the everyday despite their great losses. While the style of the book might be off putting to some readers, I think it’s well worth your time to spend a few hours with these characters. I walk away with an impression of hope.

If you’re in need of a heartwarming book, don’t mind shedding a few tears and enjoy embracing the absurd in life, Fight Night is an excellent choice.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House Canada, Knopf Canada and to Netgalley for a free e-copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Fight Night is available now!

I’ve always loved Miriam Toews and she’s an easy sell at our store because she’s so well respected. I loved how she tackled mental health in this book and the pull between generations.

So many thoughts swirling in my head as I write this review. But foremost is about a strong, loving woman who has endured much, and teaches so many life lessons to her grand daughter Swiv. I’m reminded of that quote that life is not a dress rehearsal and to find goodness in each day. The format of writing feels rambling but it is the voice of a young girl writing a never ending letter. It would be a wonderful book club selection. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.

DNF.
I can't work through Miriam Toew's stream of consciousness writing. I know she's a popular writer and one day I will accept she isn't for me and stop trying to read her books.

I love Miriam Toews’ characters. The point-of-view of 9-year-old Swiv who lives with her pregnant mother and hypertensive grandmother is funny and endearing. The novel is a letter to her father who disappeared. I really loved the way “big words” that Swiv learns from overhearing the adults are in italics - she talks like an adult, but she doesn’t understand everything she is saying.

Swiv worries that her mother will kill herself like her grandfather and aunt did. She worries for her unborn sibling, “Gord”. She worries that her Grandma will die. She looks after Grandma by cutting up paperbacks into a manageable size and picking up the pills she drops and putting on her compression socks for her. Swiv has a lot of responsibility for a child.

The same themes recur as in other Toews novels – religion, suicide, mental illness, family. Fighting in this book means fighting to live. For some people it is harder to be alive, and they have to fight. The author’s assorted peculiar characters, in all of her books, are always fighting. I can’t get enough of them. Did I mention that I love her characters so much.

Thank you for an advance digital copy of this novel. :)

Miriam Toews is a magician. She is able to create such beauty out of topics that are at their core actually quite sad. I absolutely adored Fight Night and I spent the entire read either giggling, howling or sobbing. There wasn't a single point in the book where I didn't have a smile on my face or a tissue at my eyes.

Nine year old Swiv is a precocious, hilarious, whip smart young girl who seems much older than she should. Some of this is because of circumstance - she has to play the role of physical caretaker of her grandmother, and emotional caretaker of her mother, but some of it is simply to make to book more fun. And although that was successful, it was the reason I couldn't give the book a full 5 stars. Despite my sheer enjoyment, not infrequently did I think - "there's no way a nine year would think/say/do that." And that issue came up often enough, that it did take away some of my enjoyment while reading. If Swiv had been only a few years older, the story would have been a bit more believable. On the other hand, maybe it was good to have a few breaks from the non stop emotional rollercoaster of the book!

Despite the minor believability issue relating to Swiv's age, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about family and love, in its many humorous, painful and challenging forms.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I had a hard time following this book and didn't enjoy it. Read about 70% then gave up. Will not post a review elsewhere.

The beloved author of bestsellers Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, and A Complicated Kindness returns with a funny, smart, headlong rush of a novel full of wit, flawless writing, and a tribute to perseverance and love in an unusual family.

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I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book through NetGalley.   It's been many years since I've read A Complicated Kindness and the description for Fight Night piqued my interest.  It was a 3 star middle of the road epistolary read with some poignant moments surrounded by a neverending story (think 4th grader telling you about a whole week at grandma's...)

The first half I found painfully slow and I wasn't connecting with the characters, and I just didn't see what the story was "all about." (Life, strength, the daily fight of human survival.) I'm by no means a childhood expert, but I come from a family with a million kids and have spent endless hours babysitting, volunteering in schools, running children's programs, and the voice of Swiv, wonderful as she was, felt "off" at times to me.

There were moments that stood out in their vivacity, wit, wryness, or pain. The climactic ending of the book brought some redemption to the story as a whole.  Overall, it was an exhausting, not uplifting, slow but okay read that I wasn't heavily invested in. I didn't love it, didn't hate it in the end.

Fight Night was a short, sweet read. It was about three women, living in a multi-generational home, and focussed mostly on Swiv, a precocious 9 year old, and her relationship with her grandmother - a sassy old lady who lives her life to the absolute fullest.

I really loved this one. I loved the voice of Swiv, the only reason I gave it four stars instead of five was because I think i would have liked it better if Swiv was just the narrator, told in first person, instead of her writing to her absent father.

The narrator is 9-year-old Swiv who lives in Toronto with her mother, who is in the last trimester of her pregnancy, and her Grandma Elvira. Having been expelled from school, Swiv stays home and her grandmother becomes her teacher. She gives Swiv a writing assignment: to write to her absent father. The book is her letter to her dad describing daily events and a trip she and Grandma take together. The other character of note is Gord; though they do not know the unborn child’s gender, they have named it Gord.

There is not much of a plot; instead, the focus is on the relationship between Swiv and Grandma. Though she has several health issues, Grandma lives with exuberance. She has not had an easy life and has experienced tragedies so she knows life can be painful, but she believes one should live joyfully and fight ferociously to live on his/her own terms. This is the lesson she wants Swiv to learn, and she teaches it to her through both action and word.

Grandma left an ultraconservative community under the control of a man named Willit Braun. Though the Mennonite religion and the author’s hometown of Steinbach are never mentioned, the author’s background does suggest she is referencing both. (She does mention the Disraeli Bridge in Winnipeg, and Grandma uses expressions like “Na Oba” which Swiv calls her grandmother’s “secret 57 language” but probably refers to Plautdietsch.)

Grandma is highly critical of the church in which she grew up. She describes how the church leaders, “all those men,” stole from followers "the imperative, the human imperative . . . to experience joy. To find joy and to create joy. All through the night. The fight night. . . . They stole our souls . . . they replaced our love, our joy, our emotions . . . They took all those things and replaced them with evil and with guilt. . . . replaced our tolerance with condemnation, our desire with shame, our feelings with sin, our wild joy with discipline, our agency with obedience, our imaginations with rules, every act of joyous rebellion with crushing hatred, our impulses with self-loathing, our empathy with sanctimoniousness, threats, cruelty, our curiosity with isolation, willful ignorance, infantilism, punishment!”

She tells Swiv that, “They took our life force. And so we fight to reclaim it . . . we fight and we fight and we fight . . . we fight to love . . . we fight to love ourselves . . . we fight for access to our feelings . . . for access to our fires.” She tells her, “You have a fire inside you and your job is to not let it go out.” To her unborn grandchild, she writes, “You’re a small thing and you must learn to fight.” Grandma acknowledges that sometimes people lose but what is worse is to lose “by not trying and not fighting. You play hard to the end, Swiv. To the buzzer. There is no alternative.” Of course, “Fighting means different things for different people. You’ll know for yourself what to fight. Grandma told me fighting can be making peace. She said sometimes we move forward by looking back and sometimes the onward can be knowing when to stop. . . . We all have fires inside us . . . Grandma said you pour so much alcohol on the fire inside you that it’s guaranteed never to go out.”

Grandma is an unforgettable character. She is so joyful, believing that “You can only die once so don’t die a thousand times worrying about it.” She tells a nephew that “Life is a failed mission! . . . We’re all gonna go crazy and die so just have some fun.” She laughs and sings and dances through her days. She “loves to talk about the body. She loves everything about the body, every nook and cranny. . . That’s life! she said. You gotta love yourself.” She uses colourful language, explaining, “It doesn’t matter what words you use in life, it’s not gonna prevent you from suffering.” She suffers from gout, trigeminal neuralgia, angina, and arthritis but says, “It’s only pain. We don’t worry about pain. It’s not life-threatening. It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer.”

Swiv is another memorable character. She is certainly precocious, though there is much she does not understand. Typical of someone her age, she is easily embarrassed by discussions of sex and bodily functions, topics both Grandma and Swiv’s mother often broach. Grandma talks to everyone she meets and has no concern about what people think of her antics, so Swiv spends a lot of time feeling embarrassed and pretending she is not accompanying this crazy old lady. Standing by chance next to a photo of a naked woman outside a strip club, Grandma “posed on the sidewalk in the same position as the naked lady in the picture with her knees bent a bit and her butt poking out and her hands on her boobs. I looked down at the sidewalk for things to kill myself with.” I felt some sympathy for Swiv but at the same time I envied her for having such a vivacious woman in her life. At the end of the novel, it is wonderful to see Swiv using some of the lessons her grandmother has been teaching her.

What is remarkable about Swiv, her grandmother, and her mother is that they are so supportive of each other. They are a team, and Grandma emphasizes that “We need teams. We need others to fight alongside us. . . . Lonely fights are the worst, she said. She’d rather lose a lonely fight. She’d rather join a losing team than win a lonely fight.”

There is much wit and humour. Much of the comedy comes from Grandma’s high jinks. When teaching Swiv math, she gives her problems like “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?” and “If I’m 5’1” now . . . you’re 5’4”, and if you’re growing at the rate of two and a half inches per year and I’m shrinking at the rate of one quarter of an inch per year, when do we meet on the chart?” and “If you’ve got a two thousand-piece puzzle of an Amish farm and you manage to add three pieces to the puzzle per day, how many more days will you need to stay alive to get it done?”

The book is described as a “tribute to perseverance” and indeed it is, reminding us that “what makes a tragedy bearable and unbearable is the same thing – which is that life goes on.” Since the world cannot “be counted upon [because] it pleased itself. Not much point in having special wishes” it is best to adopt the attitude that “So long as one could be alive, take part in it.”

This novel has all of the hallmarks of a Miriam Toews novel: memorable characters, humour, thought-provoking ideas, and a writing style where every word is significant. Like all her books, it is a must-read.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Miriam Toews does it again. With an uncanny knack for creating perfectly imperfect characters, living authentic lives and struggling with the often mundane aspects of daily existence, Toews offers a glimpse into a family of three strong women, fighting to get to the top of each day.

Swiv is the 9-year-old narrator, writing to her father, keeping him abreast of all of the goings-on within her family. Her mom is struggling to make it in the local theater world, while pregnant with "Gord", Swiv's soon-to-be sibling. Grandma is getting through each day, occasionally marvelling that she is still alive, and trying to prepare her family for her imminent death, preferably on her own terms. When Swiv is expelled from school for fighting, Grandma takes on the task of home-schooling her.

A delicious mix of humor and emotions, Fight Night examines the bonds of family, in the midst of loss and struggle. It is a story of survival, of closing ranks against a sometimes harsh and absurd world. But above all, it is a story of love, and the power of humor and human connection, to get us through each day. The narration in the voice of 9-year-old Swiv may not appeal to some readers, but a willingness to dig below the surface to unearth the gems that this story carries will prove fruitful and fulfilling. I truly hope this book will be offered in an audio format in the future, the possibilities are endless. And yes, I believe the upcoming literary award season may see this book gracing a few lists.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Knopf Canada and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to adding my preordered finished copy to my "keep forever and reread" shelf.