Coinciding with the release of her fifth novel, Irma Voth, Miriam Toews's memoir of her father is new to Americans, but it was published in Canada in 2000, before her other books. Readers of Toews's ("tayvz") novels will recognize the small Manitoba town, strict Mennonite community and close-knit, plain-living families of her fiction. But in the story of Mel Toews, written as a memoir in his voice, we don't find the often negligent fathers of the novels. Mel did his best, in spite of the debilitating manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder) that was diagnosed at 17 and led him to walk in front of a train at 52, in 1998.
While he was hospitalized (without psychiatric care) in the weeks before his death, Mel asked Miriam to write down his thoughts, and she filled legal pads for him to re-read, hoping these words might "lead him out of his confusion and sadness." After his death she continued to write in his voice, and the memoir reveals poignant insights into Mel's life as his family remembers him--a gifted elementary schoolteacher, devoted churchgoer and community leader and a caring father who despaired that he could not overcome his depression or fend off his retreats into solitude and silence. Miriam, as Mel, inserts frequent witticisms and ongoing stories of the love and understanding in her parents' marriage and her mother's unflagging support of her husband.
A compassionate homage, Swing Low is also an inspiring tribute to faith and family. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller