Journal Entry 1 by dancing-dog from Cordova, Tennessee USA on Wednesday, August 17, 2011

from amazon.com:
That rare coming-of-age story able to blend the dark with the uplifting, Irma Voth follows a young Mennonite woman, vulnerable yet wise beyond her years, who carries a terrible family secret with her on a remarkable journey to survival and redemption.

Nineteen-year-old Irma lives in a rural Mennonite community in Mexico. She has already been cast out of her family for marrying a young Mexican ne’er-do-well she barely knows, although she remains close to her rebellious younger sister and yearns for the lost intimacy with her mother. With a husband who proves elusive and often absent, a punishing father, and a faith in God damaged beyond repair, Irma appears trapped in an untenable and desperate situation. When a celebrated Mexican filmmaker and his crew arrive from Mexico City to make a movie about the insular community in which she was raised, Irma is immediately drawn to the outsiders and is soon hired as a translator on the set. But her father, intractable and domineering, is determined to destroy the film and get rid of the interlopers. His action sets Irma on an irrevocable path toward something that feels like freedom.

A novel of great humanity, written with dry wit, edgy humor, and emotional poignancy, Irma Voth is the powerful story of a young woman’s quest to discover all that she may become in the unexpectedly rich and confounding world that lies beyond the stifling, observant community she knows.
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This reminded quite a bit of A Complicated Kindness in the basic premise - Mennonite girl unhappy with her life/family/Mennonite-ness tries to find herself. There were several differences of course. I liked the Mexican setting however I really wanted to know earlier in the story just why/how they had moved there. A little more background earlier on would have helped me to understand Irma and Aggie much better. I think this is why I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more than the first half. I liked the sister's relationship and that they were so very different. I thought the parents characters could have been more well developed, as well as Jorge. What I do like about Miriam Toews' writing is that she articulates the feelings of her quirky characters in a way that makes them seem almost normal (maybe troubled or confused still, but normal).

This copy of the book is an advance reader's copy uncorrected proof.
 

Journal Entry 2 by dancing-dog at Cordova, Tennessee USA on Monday, October 24, 2011

Released 7 mos ago (10/24/2011 UTC) at Cordova, Tennessee USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

mailed today to tranq1 - enjoy! 

Journal Entry 3 by tranq1 at Tampa, Florida USA on Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Received from dancing-dog for VBB on Bookobsessed. Thank you.