The
Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
Random
House Canada, 2008
Sane
families are all alike; every crazy family is crazy in its own way.
With
apologies to Leo Tolstoy, this could well be the tag line for Miriam
Toews’ original and moving novel, The Flying Troutmans.
Hattie
Troutman is living in Paris, trying to adjust to being dumped by her
boyfriend, when she gets a long-distance call from her eleven year
old niece Thebes (short for Theodora) in Manitoba. Hattie’s older
sister Min has, once again, descended into severe depression, leaving
Thebes and her brother Logan to cope alone. In fact Hattie has fled
to France to escape from her apparent inability to help her brilliant
and disturbed sibling. However, she can’t leave the two kids
without supervision, despite the fact at twenty six she’s aimless,
confused and hardly feels like an adult herself.
She
arrives to find everything including the house falling apart. Min had
been hospitalized and won’t speak to Hattie or the children.
Logan’s about to be expelled from school. Thebes hasn’t taken a
shower in a week.
Desperate
to do something, Hattie piles the kids into their aging Aerostar van
along with a slew of music CDs, a box of art supplies and a cooler of
soda. They hit the road to look for the kids’ long-lost father
Cherkis, who disappeared into the vast U.S. after Min kicked him out.
Following rumor and instinct, the Troutmans zigzag through the
American heartland – South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona,
finally making it to the Mexican border – in a quest that doesn’t
really bring them any closer to solutions, but does help them
understand how much they love and need one another.
The
description above doesn’t really do this book justice, though. All
the characters are bizarre, quirky, and extreme. Thebes and Logan
(who’s a moody, hormonal fifteen year old) have a precocious intelligence and unfettered creativity that make their conversations a gift. Hattie has no
control over them – indeed, very little over herself – as she
stumbles along, trying without
much success to
play the role of competent guardian.
The shadow of Min hangs over them all: Min who has tried to kill
herself so many times that she’s bound to get it right eventually.
I
thought about pulling some quotes into this review, but discovered
that the stream-of-consciousness flow of
the novel doesn’t
lend itself to carving out snippets. Suffice to say that this book is
a joy, even when the themes are dark and the times apparently
desperate. The
Flying Troutmans provides
grace and humor on every page. The kids are annoying, sometimes
even
disgusting, yet you cannot help but adore them. And maybe, as I did,
you’ll feel a sense of kinship, a familiarity
that reminds you’ve
experienced some of this sort of insanity in your own family.
I
highly recommend The
Flying Troutmans.
It might well bring
tears to your eyes
– it
did to mine - but
it will also leave you smiling.