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Fight Night

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
"Move over, Scout Finch! There's a new contender for feistiest girl in fiction, and her name is Swiv." -USA Today, "Best Books of the Year"

"Toews is a master of dialogue." -New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"A revelation." -Richard Russo
NPR Best Books of the Year * Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize * Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Finalist * Indie Next Pick * Amazon Editors' Pick * Apple Book of the Month

From the bestselling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows, a compassionate, darkly humorous, and deeply wise novel about three generations of women.

"You're a small thing," Grandma writes, "and you must learn to fight." Swiv's Grandma, Elvira, has been fighting all her life. From her upbringing in a strict religious community, she has fought those who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit. She has fought to make peace with her loved ones when they have chosen to leave her. And now, even as her health fails, Grandma is fighting for her family: for her daughter, partnerless and in the third term of a pregnancy; and for her granddaughter Swiv, a spirited nine-year-old who has been suspended from school. Cramped together in their Toronto home, on the precipice of extraordinary change, Grandma and Swiv undertake a vital new project, setting out to explain their lives in letters they will never send.
Alternating between the exuberant, precocious voice of young Swiv and her irrepressible, tenacious Grandma, Fight Night is a love letter to mothers and grandmothers, and to all the women who are still fighting-painfully, ferociously- for a way to live on their own terms.
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    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2021

      Using details from her own family history, Toews (Women Talking) recounts a few weeks in the life of three generations of strong, complicated women. The novel is presented as an unsent letter from nine-year-old Swiv to her absent father. Suspended from school for fighting, Swiv helps care for her irrepressible but health-addled grandmother Elvira, while her mother, a pregnant actress, struggles with mental illness. The family history includes membership in a repressive religious community and several instances of suicide, so generational trauma is evident in the way each character approaches the world. When Swiv accompanies Elvira on a trip to California to visit two of her nephews (probably for the last time), the story becomes a comic, picaresque, and ultimately bittersweet adventure. VERDICT Swiv's narrative voice, by turns angry, sardonic, and full of both love and exasperation for her mother and grandmother, provides much of the charm and appeal of the novel. Elvira is a force of nature, charming everyone around her with her zest for life. Despite the dark elements in the story, the humor and love between the characters shine through. Recommended.--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 23, 2021
      Toews (Women Talking) continues her consideration of the theme of women’s self-determination in this indelible and darkly hilarious portrait of an unforgettable Toronto family. Framed as a long letter to eight-year-old Swiv’s absent father in her brisk, matter-of-fact voice, it also features letters to her mother and others. After being expelled from school for fighting, she grows closer to her larger-than-life grandmother, Elvira, who “has one foot in the grave” and dives into homeschooling with gusto, convening so-called editorial meetings and devising assignments to write letters to one another. Meanwhile, Swiv’s mother, Mooshie, a pregnant actor, is prone to dramatic and sometimes violent mood swings, leading Swiv to fear Mooshie might succumb to the same mental illness that led to her aunt’s and grandfather’s suicides. The harder-edged Mooshie, who wants a “cold IPA and a holiday” for her birthday, and the exuberant Elvira, are both brash and fearless, traits that alternately embarrass and inspire Swiv. Through these women’s letters and stories, readers glimpse histories of grief, loss, and abuse, making Grandma’s assertion that “joy... is resistance” even more powerful. The moving conclusion, which has its roots in a plan for Swiv and Elvira to visit family members in California, shuns sentimentality and celebrates survival. Fierce and funny, this gives undeniable testimony to the life force of family. It’s a knockout.

    • Booklist

      September 15, 2021
      In this uproarious, tender, and wise epistolary novel set in Canada and California, nine-year-old Swiv describes the chaos and conundrums of day-to-day life with her moody, pregnant mom and rambunctious-but-always-at-death's-door grandmother Elvira. Expelled from school for fighting, Swiv spends her time taking care of, and being embarrassed by, Elvira, who homeschools her. She worries about her mom, an actress, and protecting her unborn sibling, Gord. Swiv's understanding of Elvira's past is a mythologized story that matches her grandmother's outsized, fighting spirit. The hilarious situations in which she and Elvira find themselves are testimonials to embracing life, and Swiv's youthful pronouncements on life, death, and love hit the mark. Men are mostly absent, including Swiv's father, and sometimes malevolent. Toews' (Women Talking, 2019) multigenerational family story of this trio of women barrels to a slapstick, touching, cycle-of-life ending. Elvira espouses an uplifting legacy: the wisdom that we're born with a light inside of us; that our job is to not let it go out; and that our ancestors are ahead of us to light the path.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from August 1, 2021
      The author of Women Talking (2018) lets a 9-year-old girl have her say. The first thing to know about this novel is that it's narrated by a child writing to her father, who seems to have abandoned her and her pregnant mother. The novel-as-long-letter can often feel gimmicky, it's difficult to craft a child's voice that is both authentic and compelling, and it would not be unreasonable for readers to be wary of a book that attempts both. Readers familiar with Toews, however, may guess--correctly--that she's quite capable of meeting the formal challenges she's set for herself. "Mom is afraid of losing her mind and killing herself but Grandma says she's nowhere near losing her mind and killing herself." This is Swiv talking. "Grandpa and Auntie Momo killed themselves, and your dad is somewhere else, those things are true." This is Swiv's Grandma talking. "But we're here! We are all here now." This exchange captures the central concerns of this charming, open-hearted book. Swiv's mother--an actor--is a bundle of angst, rage, and stifled ambition. Swiv's grandmother, on the other hand, is the embodiment of joie de vivre, and it's Grandma with whom Swiv spends most of her time, filling the roles of caretaker and (sometimes reluctant) accomplice. Grandma is the type of person who befriends everyone she meets and who finds the joy in even the most ridiculous and--to her granddaughter--mortifying experiences. As the novel progresses, we discover that this ebullience isn't the natural product of a happy life but, rather, the result of a conscious decision to endure terrible loss without becoming hard. We also come to learn why Swiv's mom is so brittle. And we understand that Grandma, in all her glorious ridiculousness, is showing Swiv that the only way to survive is to love. Funny and sad and exquisitely tender.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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