Miriam Toews: A Complicated Kindness

[iiris]

I loved A Complicated Kindness! I usually prefer third-person narratives to first (don't know why, and I couldn't give you like a proper reasoning or statistics on this, it's just a gut-feeling), but in this one the voice of the narrator, Nomi, was so strong and captivating that I loved it.

Her difficulty to find her place, to feel contended in the religious community she lives in, her struggle o being torn in two directions, and her general discomfort is something I don't usually like reading about (turned me right off Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, but oddly only applies to teenagers going through that) but the way Nomi's mind works is rather captivating. Her way of telling things, seemingly jumping from one topic to another, stating absurdities of her life as they are: everyday things, it's all fantastic.

It's hard to explain why this book was so interesting, just like it's hard to say why it was funny at bits. It's one of those books where you notice yourself laughing quietly reading it, but when your BF asks what's so funny, you can't explain.

It's a book I was surprised to love. As I said, I don't like reading about teenagers going through the angst, and I don't like religious topics too much, but this one dealt with them both in a refreshingly new and interesting manner.

I strongly recommend it! I was thinking of getting A Boy Of Good Breeding (or something like that, I don't remember exactly) but Toews too, as judging by this one I like her style.

Am I making any sense? I don't like writing reviews, really, so...