Miriam Toews’ new novel, FIGHT NIGHT, is a pleasure to read but a challenge to describe. A breathless and beautiful ode to a family of fighters, it plays with language, identity and expectations in dizzyingly inventive ways. An unabating rush of emotion and response, it is the tale of three generations of women, as told through the tough-innocent perspective of nine-year-old Swiv as she writes a letter to her absent father.

Swiv lives with her mother, affectionately called Mooshie by her family, and her grandmother Elvira. Mooshie is heavily pregnant, and Swiv’s father has taken off --- possible reasons for his absconding are revealed as the story progresses. Swiv misses him and is unsure what his departure means, but her life is full of her mother’s mood swings, the anticipation of the arrival of the baby they are calling Gord, and, having been expelled from school for fighting, days of “homeschooling” with and caring for Elvira.

"FIGHT NIGHT is a glorious, bittersweet, wickedly funny and super smart generational tale of brave and creative women fighting for family, independence and joy."

Elvira is destined for greatness as a literary character --- wise, eccentric, hilarious and more powerful than she appears at first glance. She is kind and bawdy but certainly not someone who should be in charge of Swiv’s education. Nor should Swiv be responsible for Elvira’s daily diet of pills, or her complicated compression sock and bathing rituals. Yet, for the most part, the two keep each other well and are great company while Mooshie, a stage actress, goes to rehearsals and argues with directors.

The first half of the book gives us hints and glimpses into the family’s story: Elvira and Mooshie came from a strict religious community led by the vaguely described but totally sinister Willit Braun. Clinical depression runs in the family, and Elvira’s husband and daughter both died by suicide. Mooshie is fearful of her own mental health, which impacts Swiv as well.

Elvira decides that she must visit her nephews in California, and Swiv ends up coming along. The second half of the book is a whirlwind trip from their home in Canada to Fresno to spend time with Ken and Lou. Swiv expects her cousins to be kids, but they are adult men who share a long and heartbreaking history with Elvira and who know Swiv’s mother in ways Swiv does not. The trip is really a journey as Swiv begins to connect the dots of her past and more fully understand the women raising her. And it becomes clear that Elvira is going to see her nephews, and the other elderly women survivors of her community, for the last time. Behind the mad dashes through airports, the sunsets on boats, and the car rides through town in a convertible with teenage boys is Elvira making peace and just hoping to hold on until Gord is born.

Toews revisits familiar territory here: the fragile yet resilient survival of those who leave abusive church communities. In Swiv and Elvira, she masterfully has created unforgettable characters and given them strange and powerful voices. Swiv’s letter to her father, a conceit that barely registers while reading, becomes a lovely and puzzling game of telephone --- a misunderstanding of the adult world told through half or misheard stories and ideas. Religion, literature, pop culture, sex, “secret” languages: the past and the future, and all kinds of love, collide in the chaotic and uncertain present for Swiv.

FIGHT NIGHT is a glorious, bittersweet, wickedly funny and super smart generational tale of brave and creative women fighting for family, independence and joy. Toews will rattle her readers through various displacements (linguistic and geographical, to mention the simple ones) and through the lens she allows Swiv to control, leaving us as charmed, confused, heartbroken and in love as Swiv herself.