2021 Giller Finalist Book Review: Fight Night by Miriam Toews

Fight Night by Miriam Toews is a brilliant novel. Written in the voice of a girl named Swiv as she pens a letter to her absent father, Toews captures the universal vicissitudes of a life lived. All readers will likely relate to Swiv; her young perspective reflects the vulnerable child in all of us, the piece of us that always feels a bit uneasy and unprepared for the challenges we face. 

The world is a hard and dangerous place, we are told. For Swiv, school is too much, too overwhelming. She spends her days at home, looking after her aged grandmother and worrying over her mom and her unborn sibling, Gord. She is at that wonderful age when everything is embarrassing (which makes for many laugh out loud moments throughout the book.) But mostly, she is riddled with anxiety. Swiv desperately tries to hold everyone around her safe so that they won’t die or leave. 

In contrast, Swiv’s grandmother, who has had her own share of struggles, offers a different view. She loves people and makes friends with every stranger she meets. When shit happens (and it does happen,) she rolls with it and laughs: “Our adventure has begun! she said. Isn’t this wonderful!” (p. 131)

Toews has done what all writers aspire to accomplish: she has bottled what it feels like to struggle through life’s ups and downs, what it is to feel overwhelmed, to feel burdened, to feel anxious and out of control. But she has also captured the antidote to those feelings. In an age when most of us experience the world as turbulent and unpredictable, Toews offers Grandma as an alternative to depression and anxiety. Grandmas is hope personified. Tragedy will happen, she says, but she also reminds us, “To find joy and create joy. All through the night. The fight night.” (p. 159)

The tone and voice of the prose is entirely unique; it does all the heavy lifting regarding character development. Toews is a at the height of her literary power and it shows: the prose in this latest novel is sophisticated and masterfully executed, despite its non-traditional form. 

Fight Night leaves a lasting impression and begs to be reread—a Giller competitor, indeed.

Fight Night by Miriam Toews Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2021, pp. 251 ISBN: 978-0-7352-8239-1