A Complicated Kindness Book

What a bittersweet story this is. The narrator is a lost and confused soul, trapped in a situation that is not of her own making. But she also has such an amusing way of looking at the world. I rooted for her as I read, hoping that she could find some kind of way out of the predicament she was in.

Nomi Nickel is a sixteen-year-old girl living in the fictional Mennonite community of East Village, somewhere in Canada. Her family has recently been torn apart - her older sister Tash ran away to the city with a local guy and her mother Trudie has left home under mysterious circumstances. It's just Nomi and her gentle, uncommunicative Dad that are trying to hold things together. And it's not at all easy living in such a restricted neighbourhood. There is little to do for people of Nomi's age, with regular distractions like Starbucks and McDonalds banned. And there is always the frightening threat of excommunication for anyone who diverges from the church's beliefs. Nomi takes up with a boy named Travis and starts to rebel against the repressive system that has its stranglehold on the town.

Nomi's complex relationship with her parents is what defines the story. Tasha's exit was no great surprise, but Trudie's sudden, unexplained departure has left her bereft and perplexed. She looks back on memories of their time together for clues. And she recalls that though her mother was mostly a cheerful, good-natured person, "there was always something seething away inside of her, something fierce and unpredictable, like a saw in a birthday cake." Nomi would surely leave town too but she can't bear to have her dear old Dad fend for himself. The aura of their house is now one of "hushed resignation." Her uncle asks her father how he is and he replies: "Oh, unexceptional. Living quietly with my disappointments. And how are you?"

It's not all doom and gloom. Nomi has a wicked sense of humour, especially when she makes fun of the community's strict rules and austere outlook. I know that Miriam Toews grew up in a Mennonite sect herself, so there is nobody more qualified to comment on its problems than her. There isn't a whole lot of plot - it's mostly a teenage girl with a huge weight on her shoulders, trying to figure life out. And it's all written in the tragicomic style that Toews does so well. A Complicated Kindness is a coming of age story with a difference - sharp, sardonic and undeniably moving.