From the Publisher
"Min was stranded in her bed, hooked on the blue torpedoes and
convinced that a million silver cars were closing in on her (I
didn't know what Thebes meant either), Logan was in trouble at
school, something about the disturbing stories he was writing,
Thebes was pretending to be Min on the phone with his principal,
the house was crumbling around them, the black screen door had
blown off in the wind, a family of aggressive mice was living
behind the piano, the neighbours were pissed off because of
hatchets being thrown into their yard at night (again, confusing,
something to do with Logan) … basically, things were out of
control. And Thebes is only eleven."
-from The Flying Troutmans
Days after being dumped by her boyfriend Marc in Paris -
"he was heading off to an ashram and said we could communicate
telepathically" - Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into
a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg
to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing
what else to do, she loads the kids, a cooler, and a pile of CDs
into their van and they set out on a road trip in search of the
children's long-lost father, Cherkis.
In part because no one has any good idea where Cherkis is, the
traveling maters more than the destination. On their wayward,
eventful journey down to North Dakota and beyond, the Troutmans
stay at scary motels, meet helpful hippies, and try to ignore the
threatening noises coming from under the hood of their van.
Eleven-year-old Thebes spends her time making huge novelty cheques
with arts and crafts supplies in the back, and won't wash, no
matter how wild and matted her purple hair gets; she forgot to pack
any clothes. Four years older, Logan carves phrases like "Fear
Yourself" into the dashboard, and repeatedly disappears in the
middle of the night to play basketball; he's in love, he says, with
New York Times columnist Deborah Solomon. Meanwhile, Min
can't be reached at the hospital, and, more than once, Hattie calls
Marc in tears.
But though it might seem like an escape from crisis into chaos,
this journey is also desperately necessary, a chance for an
accidental family to accept, understand or at least find their way
through overwhelming times. From interwoven memories and scenes
from the past, we learn much more about them: how Min got so sick,
why Cherkis left home, why Hattie went to Paris, and what made
Thebes and Logan who they are today.
In this completely captivating book, Miriam Toews has created some
of the most engaging characters in Canadian literature: Hattie,
Logan and Thebes are bewildered, hopeful, angry, and most of all,
absolutely alive. Full of richly skewed, richly funny detail,
The Flying Troutmans is a uniquely affecting
novel.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Jacket
"Toews's writing is a unique collision of sadness and humour. . . .
The Flying Troutmans is a dark story but it is
also a never-ending series of hilarious adventures."
- Ottawa Citizen
"Engaging, humorous, grim, and redemptive, this is essential
reading."
- Library Journal
"It's darkly funny, bursting at the seams with quirky
characters and off-kilter pop culture references that rival Douglas
Coupland's for their incisive wit."
- The Vancouver Sun
"Toews may have invented a new genre, the romantic-depressive
comedy, at which she excels."
- Toronto Star
"Toews has a terrific ability to capture the mix of irony and
innocence in a smart child's mind. . . . She balances heartbreak
with laugh-out-loud wit."
- Edmonton Journal
"Toews writes . . . in a high-energy original voice filled
with love, fear, humour and originality. Miriam Toews is an
extraordinarily gifted writer, one who writes with unsentimental
compassion for her people and an honest understanding of their
past, the tectonic shifts of their present and variables of their
future."
-The Globe and Mail
From the Hardcover edition.