While Women Talking is a work of fiction by acclaimed author, Miriam Toews, it was written in response to real-life events in a remote Mennonite colony in Bolivia. For several years, between 2005-2009, women and girls were being knocked-out with an animal anesthetic in the night and raped. Eight men from the colony were eventually convicted in a Bolivian court and sent to prison, although reports of sexual attacks continued in the colony, even while the eight men were serving their sentences.
In Toews' novel, three generations of women across two families - the Friesens and the Loewens - meet in a hayloft to decide their future while the men are away in the city to post bail for the accused. Since women in the community are not taught to read or write, minutes are recorded by the one male to witness their conversation - August Epp, the local schoolteacher for the boys and "half-man" who lived outside the colony when he was ex-communicated as a boy with his parents, but has been reluctantly allowed back in by Peters, the current bishop. We witness the women's conversation through August, whose character is also complex and compelling, and bridges the realities of the remote colony with that of the rest of the world.
The women who gather are faced with both a time limit (they can only meet while the men are away), and many personal and ethical questions to battle through. Should they leave the colony? Should they stay and fight? Or should they become like the other "Do Nothing" women who are willing to turn a blind eye to the abuses and carry on? If they do leave, where will they go? And who will go with them? The children, certainly, but what about boys over age twelve? And if they leave those boys behind, what will become of them? Don't the women have a responsibility to teach them a better way and not leave them to be indoctrinated toward abuse by those who stay behind?
Central to the dicussion is, of course, their faith. Miriam Toews herself grew up in a Mennonite community in Manitoba. She navigates the question of faith skillfully, pulling apart the complexities of these questions while also depicting how strongly the women are committed to their belief system and to the Mennonite doctrine, and not dismissing how central that is to their decision. Her cross-section of characters brings these questions into the forefront as the older women will not bend on the Mennonite tenant of pacifism, and wouldn't dare call any of their actions revolutionary, as that harkens back to the Russian revolution and strikes fear in their hearts; while one of the middle generation, Salome says she will "dance on graves" before letting them hurt her three-year-old daughter again. And then there is the realization that since women cannot read, men have always been the ones to interpret the bible for them anyway.
So what of these questions of faith? If staying will make them violent, turn them into murderers, they must leave to be true to their faith and their pacifist ways. But leaving involves many other sins, including lying, stealing, and disobedience to their husbands. The women battle through all these questions as they banter, bicker, sing, and even laugh in that hayloft.
Throughout the novel, fear is palpable - immediate fear of violent men, but also fear of the unknown. If they do choose to leave, they don't know where they are going or what they will find. Few of them have ever been further than the neighbouring colonies, and they cannot read maps or interpret the ways of the world. But Toews expertly demonstrates the ingenuity and knowledge deep within the women. They do know navigation of the stars, they know the "news" (north, east, west, and south), and Salome is quick to question the truth of a fire bearing down on them. "Are the skies dark? Are the animals jumpy?" Throughout the novel, Toews depicts these women with dignity and we see them in their fullness - smart and capable, reflective and philisophical, fiercly protective of their children, angry at the perpretrators, but also overwhelmed and saddened by the possibility of leaving people they love, along with those that hurt them (who are sometimes one and the same).
On the original book cover, certain letters are coloured on the front and back covers. If you look closely, you will see the word "love" on the front, and "anger" on the back. This cover, like all the pages in between, speaks to the dichotomies that exist in our human struggles, and in the pain of impossible choices that Miriam Toews is so skilled at identifying and exploring in her novels.
Women Talking has been adapted into a movie and has been nominated for an academy award for both Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay! Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. Bravo to the many Canadians dedicated to telling this important story in all its different forms.
If you've read this novel (or have seen the movie) and want to add your own thoughts; or if you want to add your own book recommendations, please comment below!