I absolutely love Miriam Toews…. Canadian writer of Mennonite descent.
I’ve read most of her novels ….(some filled with humor - others painfully sad > drawing characters from real-life experiences).
I’ve also seen two of her film adaptations from “All My Puny Sorrows” and “Women Talking”.
All of Toews work is illuminated by her deeply affecting …. deeply layered ….absorbing and breathtaking prose.

“A Truce That Is Not Peace”, is a non-fiction biography-memoir. Those of us who are fans of Miriam Toews, know some of the history in this book….(adding passionate energy for me).
It’s so real - deeply rooted in truth, heart, intimacy, thoughts, reflections, and emotions….that it’s one of those books you want to reread the minute you are finished.

Miriam was invited to a literary event in Mexico City. Her assignment was to submit a paper on “Why Do You Write?”
Ha…seems like an easy task for a writer ….right?
Ha…not so fast….the complexity suggested more layers and depth than initially assumed.
There was more to the question than meets the eye… it wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
As quoted in the blurb:
“we, her readers, come to see the question is as impossible to answer as deciding whether to live as a comedy or tragedy”.

I enjoyed this 192 page memoir very much. (VERY).
A few topics, memories, and themes we are privy to: [in no order]…
….the Mennonite community …
….Mennonite women …
….Toews parents, (their language: Plautdietsch-East Low German with Dutch influence)…
….Toronto, City of Winnipeg…
….Books & Authors (W.B. Yeats, Josephine Baker, Mary Shelley, Yiyun Li, etc)…
….Memories of laughing with her children and grandchildren … [including an adorable tale about Miriam’s grandson when he was turning five and all he wanted was rope for his birthday]
….Memories of her sister, mother, father, and grandmother…
….Writing thoughts …
…. Suicide thoughts… (including grief, guilt, emptiness, and hopelessness)
…. Memories of a Caribbean Scrabble Tournament cruise with her mother …
….Miriam’s ex- husband
….Singing lullabies …
…. Walking …
….University …
…. Journalism … radio documentaries …
….The Director of Conversacion informed Miriam that her submission “Why Do I Write” was not suitable …
….An attempt to undermine her sister’s silence …
….Visits with a Russian Jungian therapist …
….Dreams …
….Past family vacations [Ecadorian Amazon jungle where her family was robbed atvgunpoint]
….Memories of a cedar chest filled with journals and inspirational quotes …
….etc. etc. etc.

A few excerpts:
“Is writing the acceptable alternative to killing oneself?
Does suicide and the pain and preserve the truth? Does writing attempt to achieve the same thing, and are both suicide and writing and comprehensible?”

“This book is a poor substitute for self-mutilation and murder, but it absorbs my rage well, like a gasoline-soaked rag. I want to get on a plane and fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly anywhere. Off the earth, preferably, and into another galaxy.”

“The silence of my sister, the suffering that destroyed her language, or destroyed language, or destroyed faith in language’s ability to communicate anything of the human soul, or of her soul, it’s all wind, the unmaking of her world, of the world—and in that space or spot of land or corridor is her asking me to write, to re-make my world, her world, the world”.

“A Truce That Is Not Peace” is a significant memoir ….
It’s a perfect dance between unsentimental but heartbreaking elegance.

Such a unique book, as I've come to expect from Toews. Funny, sad, brilliant- all the complicated things she does do well.