5/19/2023 0 Comments Toews miriam![]() ![]() Swiv explains that Elvira grew up in a small community of Russian immigrant Mennonites, ruled over by the church leader, a tyrannical man named Willit Braun. Swiv accompanies Elvira to a restaurant where she is meeting a friend and listens to the two women talking about “assisted dying” (35). Mooshie, meanwhile, is frequently angry, presumably because she is a pregnant single mother trying to make ends meet as an actress. She says that she survived the grief by asking herself, “Who can I help” (15). She lost both her husband and daughter, Swiv's Aunt Momo, to suicide. She recently gave her sweatpants to a man experiencing homelessness. Elvira is eccentric herself, but also kind and generous. ![]() Swiv has been expelled from school for fighting, and Elvira is homeschooling her, teaching eccentric lessons like “How to Dig a Winter Grave” (9). In Part One, she is living in Toronto with her grandmother, Elvira, and her mother, Mooshie, who is pregnant with a baby they call Gord. The novel is narrated by eight-year-old Swiv, as a letter to her absent father. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Toews, Miriam. ![]()
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