"A Truce That Is Not Peace" | Reviewed by William Winkler

Canadian author Miriam Toews is known primarily as a novelist, although autobiographical themes are found in many of her books. Her most recent book, “A Truce That Is Not Peace” is her first work that is essentially non-fiction.

Toews’s premise is that she has been invited to submit a piece to a “Conversación” in Mexico City, in which writers are asked to submit and then read a piece on a subject selected by the committee. The subject was “Why Do I Write?” Toews responded asking if the question should be “Why Write?” and was told in no uncertain terms the “Do I” could not be omitted.

The book is a series of submissions, all rejected by the committee, based upon the life experiences that she feels formed her as a writer and as a person, roles she finds impossible to separate.

Among these are included a series of letters she wrote to her sister as she made a bicycle (later hitchhiking after her bike was stolen) tour of Europe when she was 18-years-old.  Also included are her musings about the creation of a “Wind Museum,” and her speculation on the technical challenges of creating such an exhibition.

But underlying the narrative is her fixation on death, especially the deaths by suicide of her father and sister, which occurred 12 years, almost to the day, from one another. She relates her own contemplation of suicide and the subsequent admission to hospital for treatment of depression, and a line of questioning that leads to lengthy recollections of her childhood and adolescence.

After five submissions were all deemed unsuitable by the committee, her invitation to the Conversación was withdrawn, and “CANCELLED” in block letters was superimposed on her photo in the program.

Miriam Toews has a large, dedicated following who appear to wait for her next novel with great anticipation. Her skill as a writer is evident in this book, but those unfamiliar with her previous writing may find this book, with its non-linear style, a bit confusing.

Buy the Book.