It is hard to describe the emotions that this story brings up. It made me laugh out loud, sigh, and sob. It made me long for that maternal compassion and unconditional love that only a grandmother can possess. I loved Grandma's character not just because she is so loveable but also because she reminded me of my own greatly missed grandmother.
Swiv is such a marvellous character! Her little moments of crippling anxiety is so relatable. Swiv is so well written that I could really feel a connection with her which blurred that divide between the reader and the character in the story - if that makes sense. It was like being transported back to adolescence and just trying to make sense, and sometimes even "fix", the weird, complicated, and emotionally fraught adults around you. All to say that I really loved this book and it will be a hard one to forget!

This ARC was kindly provided by NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada.

This was my first time reading a Miriam Toews book. I was excited. But sadly this just didn't work for me. It wasn't that I didn't connect with the characters I found the format, run on of sentences and other things that just didn't work for me.

Using the lens of a child we uncover the family dynamics of a 9-year-old girl, her mother, and her quirky old grandmother. Though it’s not new territory per se, I found the voice to make sense for the age while still managing to be pretty clever and surprisingly funny, in the way sometimes kids are; meaning they aren’t necessarily trying to be funny but their knowledge gap or disparity in age makes it so.

This lived up to my expectations, which is something, considering I am not wild about narratives framed like this unless they’re really short. It was engaging and thoughtful, believable, and heavy with an undercurrent of melancholy that feels true to the reckoning of age (many) old people seem to express. My family certainly does. When you begin to reach the age when life stops giving you things and starts taking them away, basically.

But it’s contrasted by the vivacious first-person narrative, so feels balanced well enough. If you’re particularly interested in the framing I feel many readers will click with this more than I did.

This was my first Miriam Toews book, and sadly, I just could not get into it. I have read great reviews for Miriam, and maybe this one was just was not my style.

I did not like the child narrator, the diary-like quality of it, complete with run-on sentences. I get that it was meant to be this way, but it also took away from the story and made it hard to read.

It was initially hard to figure out what was going on; what ethnicity are they, where are they living, what are the issues, why the heck is Swiv suspended at such a young age and taking care of her grandmother. But, oh, this is grandmother teaching Swiv something about life! Mama is a mess, as many of ours are, just trying to survive! Thank goodness for grandma and her ways!

The book was comical at times, thanks to the grandmother, and witty, as children are, gave me a few laughs and a some sighs.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy!

I adore Miriam Toews. She is insightful, funny and down to earth. Fight Night is not my favourite of her novels. I do enjoy the style she used for exposition, through the eyes of a child. Some wonderful moments. I would like to age as the grandmother in Fight Night, laughing and enjoying it all despite the hardships, reconciling with family members over time. This may have not been the right time for me to read this title - I found it profoundly sad. Thank you for the opportunity to read it prior to publication.

Although comedic, Fight Night is a touching story that shows the brilliance and versatility of Toews. She is an incredible talent.

The only thing I struggled with, and am unclear about, is why the choice to omit the quotations around the dialogue—this is a huge pet peeve of mine. I never understand why someone would willingly choose to confuse the reader. And who decides this? Is it the writer, or is it the editor? This is incredibly distracting and it detracted from what could have been an amazing story.

Toews is such a beloved author. Readers will be consumed by Fight Night, a smart, witty tribute to love that comes in the package of an unusual family.

Fight Night made me both laugh and cry. From beginning to end, I wondered if the author ever stopped to take a breath while narrating this story of three generations of women, each surviving their dysfunctional family life the best way they could. A unique writing style told mostly through the eyes of young Swiv who is suspended from school for fighting and continues to show maturity beyond her age as she takes care of her ailing grandmother and pregnant mother who is having a mental health breakdown. Highly recommended as a YA/Adult read.

Certainly not what I expected. While the story was interesting and elicited loud guffaws in parts, I had a hard time in the beginning coping with the "run-on" structure. It almost left me breathless as I read the girl's story about her family. If you are a fan of Miriam Toews, you might enjoy the book.

I guess I have been living under a rock as this was my first Miriam Toews book. I knew of her but have never picked up one of her books.

This is a heartwarming (and heart breaking) story. I loved Swiv and her grandma right at the start of this book and my affection for them grew as the book went along. Grandma's stories were epic and she gets up to some serious antics in this book that made me cheer for her really enjoying her golden years.

Thanks to Net Galley, Penguin Random House and the author for the ARC of this book.

The synopsis had me excited to read this book, but sadly the synopsis was better than the book itself.

I couldn’t connect, I understand it’s being written from the perspective of a nine year old but it just didn’t fit.

Fight night is the story of young Swiv, her Grandma and her mom, who is pregnant with a baby they call Gord for fun. Written in Swiv's unique voice and tone, it starts as a bit of a letter or diary that she is writing to her absent father about what is happening in their lives.

Most of the characters in Fight Night are wonderfully vivid. Grandma has so much personality she practically leaps off the page. Mom is a firecracker that I can picture. Swiv was the only real mystery to me. I had a difficult time picturing her or even placing her age properly. The way Swiv spoke, thought and acted seemed to shift her age from very young to more mature. I just couldn't picture Swiv which kept taking me out of the story.

I loved that Fight Night was a slice of life for this Toronto family, but I never felt truly connected to the characters. I didn't understand their motives and situation. I couldn't picture their house. I didn't really get why Swiv wasn't in school and no one cared.

I generally like stories told from a child's perspective, but I think Fight Night suffered because of it. I think it was trying to tell too much of an adult story from the voice of a child. Because of that, it never hit the mark for me.

A tug at your heart strings and slowly make it break in all the best possible ways kind of book! This story is narrated by Swiv, a 9 year old mature beyond her years girl, who lives with her pregnant mother and elderly grandmother who she provides a lot of care to. Grandma is a firecracker though, who's zest for life brings excitement, laughter and even sadness to the story. It's impossible not to love grandma by the end of this story!
The book is written as if Swiv is writing a letter to her absent father. I'll be honest in saying that while I love the story line and characters, the never ending, 9 year olds letter, style of writing wasn't always my favorite. It's the piece holding me back from a 5 star rating, but it's still a great book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was really interesting reading a story about family dynamics from the point of view of a 9-10 year old. Great book!

While I liked the writing, this book was not for me. I think Toews is a strong writer, but I don’t think it was in my wheelhouse. Still a book I would recommend to others who I think would enjoy it.

Quiet and contemplative story about the ties between family members. I loved the relationship between the grandmother and Swiv. The story is told from the perspective of Swiv (9-10 years old) so we are learning about the family dynamics through the eyes of a child. The story starts out slow, becomes funny and ends up being quite endearing.

With Fight Night Miriam Toews returns to familiar themes of surviving (and escaping from) a fundamentalist Mennonite community (even if the M word isn’t specifically used this time), and the suicide of those who can’t find the will to go on. Unlike her earlier novels, however, this one has an absurdist tone, with three female generations of a family living together and exchanging frank and farcical barbs. The main character, nine-year-old Swiv, is constantly exasperated by her mother’s and grandmother’s seemingly unserious approach to life, but as the novel unspools, it’s obvious that this is a family filled with love, fighting to survive and find meaning in this irrational world. The tone is relentlessly comedic, but I was amused throughout and ultimately touched.
I can imagine that this tone (and some of the frank talk and profanity) might be a turnoff to some readers but I think that Toews carries it off. There’s power in recognising the absurdity of life, and often, it’s from that recognition that we find the strength to fight, or the strength to end the fight. I'd expect to see this again during Canadian literary award season.