A Complicated Kindness

Witty & Extremely enjoyable

Each page kept me hungry for more. This is a great coming of age novel for everyone. Although the synopsis may seem like this book is just about some rebellious teen...it is much more than that! There are enough books about kids running around being pretentious and stupid. A Complicated Kindness and its cover of a hot pink hen will keep you very well entertained that you'll want to read it over and over.

Enjoy laughing.

sad story :(

A Complicated Kindness is a very well written book that I found to be very, very enjoyable.
Some parts were kind of slow but overall it was an interesting and unique story. I felt horrible for the way Nomi's life was going and I understand why she'd want to leave that town of hers like her mother and sister did. This girl is NOT happy and it makes the reader soo sad :( You'll find yourself cheering for her and wanting her to get out of that town and just run and never stop.
You are going to despise her uncle, so be prepared to hate one of Miriam Toews characters with passion.
You DON'T want to miss this book so go check it out.
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To say I was disappointed in this book would be an understatement. I don't need to spend my time reading about someone's disillusionment with her faith. I stopped reading every word on page 2 and stopped skimming it altogether by page 50. I simply couldn't find any way this book, subject or writing, could enrich my life.

A Dream of Escape

'a complicated kindness' is the story of a 16 year-old girl, Nomi Nickel, trying to have a normal life. 'I dream of escaping into the real world.' She is a Mennonite,'The most embarassing sub-sect of people to belong to if your're a teenager. She just wants to be herself. 'I want to do things without wondering if they're a sin or not. I want to be free.' Half of her family is missing,'the better looking half'. Her older sister Tash, and her mother left three years ago. She lives with her father, Ray , a school teacher whose eccentricity includes always wearing a shirt and tie. She cuts school mercilessly and hangs out with her boyfriend Travis who says what is and is not allowed. She would like to leave East Village, Manitoba, located on the U.S. border but is afraid to in case her mother returns.In the model village everything is prohibited by 'The Mouth', her uncle. With Travis, she drinks and gets stoned. He teaches her how to drive and they listen to records. Travis plays the guitar for her and she struggles to think of cool comments to make about his performance. At home with Ray, she notices that he keeps removing the furniture first the living room sofa, then the dining room table and four chairs. At the end, he himself is gone, leaving her with the house and family car. It was either a case of him leaving or staying with her who had been excommunicated by her uncle for mouthing off in class when her essay was late. Nomi knew Ray couldn't bear to live with her and shun her. She would have been a 'ghost kid' one he couldn't acknowledge. The novel alternates between backflashes where Nomi tries to unravel her he puzzle of her mother's existence, and the present. Nomi accompanies Travis helping him at work, swimming in the 'pits', a local quarry.Ultimately, he leaves and her world crashes. She is left with an empty house and nowhere to go. But she still can't quite forsake her village. 'There is a kindness here, a complicated kindness. You can see it sometimes in the eyes of people when they look at you.' In a poetic fashion, Toews portrays the contrasts of adult life that loom in the coming of age of a teenaged girl and the conflicts she must resolve. The reader is caught up in the tension between the Nomi's desire to leave and the love she has for her childhood home.

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