Women Talking: Film > Book

Yup- I said it!

On Saturday, my beloved Fiction Matters crew was scheduled to discuss Women Talking by Miriam Toews. The week got away from me and on Friday afternoon, I realized I had lots of pages left to read. I sat down and read as fast as I could. I got to the end and knew right away that this was not a book to have read quickly. I hopped onto our Fiction Matters Discord to confirm and sure enough- Women Talking was well loved by others in the group and the comments that I read, led me to know that my quick reading did this book a terrible disservice.

Knowing that I would not have time to re-read the book and also curious to know how the print version compared to the newly released film version, I snuggled under a blanket on the couch, downloaded the movie and wow…

As long time reader’s know, plot summary is not my thing so I am copying and pasting the publisher’s summary here:

“Toews describes her novel as "an imagined response to real events" that took place on the Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Menonite community in Bolivia. Between 2005 and 2009, over a hundred girls and women in the colony woke up to discover that they had been raped in their sleep. These nighttime attacks were denied or dismissed by colony elders until finally it was revealed that a group of men from the colony were spraying an animal anaesthetic into their victims' houses to render them unconscious. Toews' novel centers on the secret meetings of eight Mennonite women who, on behalf of the other women in the colony, must decide how to react to these traumatic events. They have only 48 hours before the colony men, who are away to post bail for the rapists, return.”

The writing in the book is gorgeous- this was obvious even as I skimmed. And for the right reader, the book will be remarkable on its own. For me though? Had I only read the book, even if I had slowed down, I sense a lot of the power would have been lost on me. Reading and watching together gave me such a full understanding of who these characters were, the ethical struggles they suffered and the weight of the decisions in front of them. The dialogue in the book was tough to follow- why oh why were there no quotation marks?!- but in the film, the characters words were deep and funny and loving and biting. In the book, it was hard to keep characters straight- the names were all unfamiliar- but in the movie the visual images helped. There were laugh out loud funny moments in the film as I’m sure there were in the book but while reading, it was easier to get bogged down in the terible-ness of the situation and miss Toews incredibly effective use of humor. Another major difference between the book and the film is the choice of narrator. I won’t elaborate as the difference is almost a spoiler but if you read the book and watch the film the difference is striking and led to such an interesting discussion in our group.

I loved the Women Talking experience- the reading a little bit, the watching a lot and the discussion the most. The true story this book is based on, the writing and the film adaptation all beg to be discussed. And now I am on the search for adaptions that enrich the reading experience. Please share if there are any that come to mind and if you read or watched Women Talking, what did you think?!

Comments are open and I can’t wait to chat!