The Flying Troutmans - Miriam Toews

I knew little about Winnipeg author Miriam Toews personal life until listening to an episode of This American Life. In the episode, Toews talks briefly about a road trip with her teenage son and 12-year old daughter. Her son is quiet and brings his CD's for accompaniment. The daughter is chatty and precocious and occupies herself with art supplies and comic books.

Toews' newest book, The Flying Troutmans, concerns a similar road trip. When Hattie Troutman's sister, Min, is hospitalized, Hattie gets temporary custody of Min's children, Logan and Thebes. The three then embark on a road trip to find the children's father. Teenage Logan carves morbid sayings into the dashboard and looks for places to play basketball at every stop. 11-year-old Thebes never washes and talks incessantly. Hattie calls her ex-boyfriend in Paris and tries to keep it all together.

As usual, Toews' prose is funny and lucid. It manages to be both smart and conversational. However, the star in this novel is Thebes. Her purple hair, bizarre outfits, and fondness for making and writing out over sized novelty cheques, are totally endearing and come off as sincere rather than smarmy.

Despite echos of other books (Summer of My Amazing Luck is also about a road trip to find a missing father), this is another gem from Toews.

Wetlands by Charlotte Roche

I like to read on my lunch break. I hunker down outside on the grass, or in a chair in the staff room, eat, and enjoy a book. "Wetlands" proved to be a problem to this routine.

Explicit. Before the second page, we know that 18-year-old narrator Helen, has terrible hemorrhoids, but has still enjoyed a fulfilling anal sex life. From there on, we're taken into a world of pubic hair shaving, creative masturbation, home-made menstruation devices, and vaginal secretions. 

Now I'm certainly no prude, but this is shock for shock's sake. Admittedly, I read the whole thing, but it was just to see what levels of perversity Helen would achieve. The writing isn't particularly spectacular, the only thing that could save this book, and I felt in the end, that I had wasted a couple hours of my life. Thumbs down Ms. Roche.