However, Yoli is the one who, perhaps, faces the greatest challenges. She’s the one who’s locked in a hospital, and she’s also the one who explicitly states how life is not for her. While it’s true that Elf experiences the most literal cases of entrapment. Yoli says about Elf, “She wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other.” Then, Elf attempts suicide and winds up in the hospital. Elf is still the talent, about to begin a worldwide tour.

The adult sisters are very much the same as their younger selves. Eventually, the pressure is too much, and he takes his own life, leaving the two girls and their mother to adjust to life. He doesn’t have enough control over his family. Elf and Yoli’s father becomes a target for the leader’s disdain. Heads of the community visit the Von Riesen house often, proclaiming a non-acceptance of Elf’s eccentricities. They want her to be happy and to find her escapism, even if it creates a stigma around the family.Īnd a stigma is what the family gets. One thing going for Elf is the fact that her family-not just Yoli-truly supports her. Yoli wants to encourage her sister and champion her talents. This limit on creativity is especially difficult for Elf, who wants nothing more than to tell jokes, be sarcastic, and play her piano. At home, they face creative struggles because being different is bad in such an environment. Toews begins her narrative by detailing the childhood of Yoli and Elf. It sounds sad-maybe too sad, and, really, it is for segments however, Toews knows how to create a story, and she adds just enough humor to make the whole thing digestible. When speaking with Yoli about what she wants most in life, Elf emphatically declares, “Death!”Īll My Puny Sorrows is about how we approach life when we don’t want to live it.

You probably think that Yoli might be the one struggling with the idea of life-or living, but it’s Elf who can’t seem to find anything worth living for.Įlf isn’t just a woman who fights with depression-this is a woman who very much struggles to exist in an entire world that she can’t bear. Elf is a master-pianist, married to a good man, rich, and by most accounts, a beautiful woman.

The one thing she craves is “true love,” but everyone knows it’ll never happen. Yolandi “Yoli” and Elfrieda “Elf” Von Riesen are sisters who couldn’t be more different. This time, though, things are even direr. Now, in her latest (and best) novel, All My Puny Sorrows, Toews presents a similar situation. Her community inhibits her individuality, and the overwhelming control dominates the girl’s life.

A Complicated Kindnessis about a teenage girl who struggles with her identity inside the oppressive Mennonite world. Considering 2004’s A Complicated Kindness, it is clear that Miriam Toews is a woman who understands entrapment.

All my puny sorrows book review