Book Review: The Flying Troutmans
Posted By Admin on January 18, 2012
Through Hattie Troutman, the protagonist and arguably the heroine of the novel, Toews explores major thematic content about family relationships and human connections. The Flying Troutmans builds off Toews first critically acclaimed work, A Complicated Kindess, and both novels acknowledge the fragmented nature of a family without a strong authoritative figure.
Min, the mother of Logan and Thebes, has suffered another mental breakdown. Hattie, Mins sister, receives a distressed phone call from her niece, Thebes, and breaks away from her aloof existence in Paris and comes home to pick up the pieces of the Troutman family. Hattie is well aware of her sisters vulnerability to mental disorder and depression and takes it upon herself to repair the family that she had previously turned her back on. Among the darker motifs such as familial fragmentation and mental disorders, The Flying Troutmans explores some of Toews lighter interests such as motifs of travel, exploration and self renewal.
Hattie makes the exclusive resolution to take Logan and Thebes on an odyssey of self and interpersonal discovery as they make their way across North America in search of the childrens father, Cherkis. On their long journey, Hattie, without ever being a mother herself, attempts to breach subjects of sexuality with the young Logan who is, coincidentally, coming of age. Hattie also discovers the quirks and colloquialisms of a pre-teen girl as Thebes constantly gets herself into trouble and, as a reader, keeps you laughing throughout what would have otherwise been a dark tale. As they travel along in their Ford Aerostar ,The Troutmans slowly realize that the key to a (semi) functioning family is having to venture into their fragmented relationships to understand the possibility of coming together in a familial bond. Whether that venture takes place with or without their mother, Toews takes the reader along with the Troutmans on their journey of enlightenment. The bottom line, and the Troutmans most poignant realization, is that sometimes family works and sometimes it doesnt; however, it is the journey – the ups and the downs, the twists and turns- of how you get there that matters in building those enduring familial relationships.
Stippled with pop cultural references, Toews writing is relatable, yet maintains some of her personal projections of loss through thematic questions of individual agency, human connections and familial bonds. Toews is delightful to read as she aligns the morbid with the witty and whimsical. Her writing, purposely fragmented in itself, is a chaotic and sorrowful presentation of overcoming lifes greatest trials.
Miriam Toews continues to reinterpret our deepest anxieties, guilt, pleasures and sorrows in her most recent novel, Irma Voth.
Kate studied Engligh Literature at Carleton University and now works as a freelance writer and researcher. To read more of her written work visit www.inanutshell.ca
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