MIRIAM TOEWS. Women Talking, New York, NY, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc., 2019, Pp. 216, $16US. First published in Canada in 2018 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Women Talking is based on recent historical events, which occurred in a Mennonite colony in Bolivia, when more than one hundred of the women and girls living there were attacked under mysterious circumstances. It was evident that the women had been subjected to horrific sexual assaults that left them bruised. However, they had no clear recollection as to what had happened. The religious leader of the colony (which had been settled by Mennonites from Manitoba) initially posited that the women were being attacked by demons. Even though they could not recall any events, the women bore evidence of having been physically harmed.
When several men are caught in the act of breaking into one of the residences, it is discovered that these are men who are residents in the colony. Their intent was to sexually abuse the women who had been drugged, revealing the cause of the women’s amnesia—they had been drugged by an anesthetic usually used for cows. Enraged, some of the victims attacked the men; consequently, the leader of the colony took the men to a jail in a nearby town, not for punishment but for protection. It is this absence of the men from the colony that gives the women the opportunity they need to process the events, and to decide what they should do. They meet in a barn and begin to talk. Hence, Women Talking.
It is tempting to think the whole novel focuses only on the women as they process these horrific attacks. But the novel is far more nuanced. The Molotschna Colony, named after a Mennonite colony in Ukraine, has very rigidly defined roles: men do the farming, women help and bear children and make crafts to sell commercially. None of the women reads; they speak only a variation of Low German, a language that is not written. Some of the men can speak English, and even some Spanish, but the women cannot. Women certainly are not expected to interpret Scripture; they are to follow unfailingly the decrees of the man who leads the colony and their husbands
When the women gather to talk, a young man named August joins them—he has been asked by one of the women to record their discussions for posterity. Thus, a book about women talking is recorded by a man writing. Ah, but do not draw hasty conclusions. August is a teacher, and an outcast from the colony, but only recently has been allowed to return so he can teach the children. This is not an honor—he is seen as virtually worthless because he does not know how to farm. And yet he chronicles the women’s discussions on their future course. Their choices: do nothing; stay and fight; leave the colony. This narrative technique helps the reader enter into the ebb and flow of the discourse. There are no easy answers.
Many themes emerge from the book. What is community? Who is in, who is out? What is the role of religion and faith? Is forgiveness of those who committed something as horrific as rape necessary for the women to remain as members of the colony? Is a patriarchal authority legitimate? Is there wisdom in matriarchal authority?
Not surprisingly, the book has been received with widely varying responses. Depending on the lens through which the reader sees Toews’s work, the work has been lauded or scorned. It has been poorly received by some Mennonites and it has been praised by some feminist advocates. The value of the narrative is somewhere in between.
One of the central critical themes is what believers do when their faith seems to contradict their experience. Perhaps not surprisingly, that critical issue is precisely how this book was received in Steinbach, Manitoba, where family members and friends of the author live. My awareness of this response is only second-hand, having been conveyed to me by Daryl Climenhaga (my brother) who lives in Steinbach. Toews’s characterization was seen as only one perspective and incomplete in itself. If the reader takes it as final, that then becomes a false narrative.
That reaction in itself makes the book worthy reading. In a close-knit church environment where events are perceived and interpreted through lens that have been shaped by that environment, it is very difficult to hear an account of such an egregious offense. How could the men in the colony who are striving to follow their understanding of the mandates of being Christian allow such a thing to happen, much less participate in such activities?
It is precisely this question with which the women, in Women Talking, are wrestling. And to a certain extent their answer is to craft their own understanding of Scriptural mandates. In Women Talking, the ebb and flow of the conversations over several days helped build a sense of community, growing awareness emerging in the women of what constitutes true community, and true faith. Of necessity that understanding leads them to leave.
It is important to keep in mind this is a work of fiction, based on events that undeniably occurred. But is this novel worthy of reading for a Brethren in Christ reader? Certainly, issues of faith and theology are explored, albeit sometimes obliquely. The role of women within particular social contexts is also explored. While the portrayals of characters are not unsympathetic, the reader gets the sense that, struggle though they might, these women are not living full lives because of larger social and cultural expectations and limitations. At the very least, contemplation of how our religious constructs shape and rule the lives of others, wrestling with the content of Women Talking is a worthwhile reason for reading the book. It is the unsparing lens through which Toews forces the reader to grapple with these questions that make the novel well worth reading. But, be prepared to think.