In Yoli and Elf's adult years, the family suffers from Elf’s unhappiness. Elf’s
career as a concert pianist is overshadowed by her multiple suicide attempts.Yoli has been traveling back and forth from
Toronto to support her mother and brother-in-law and sit at her sister’s
bedside. When not at the hospital, Yoli can be found sitting on her friend Julie’s
porch. It is here the novel provides cathartic humor to balance the sadness of
the rest of Yoli’s day.
Toews brightens the pages of this devastatingly sad novel
with Czech violinists, Italian agents, huffy nurses, and eccentric aunts. The
brightest character, however, is Yoli. Her struggles to see her sister’s point
of view, her texts with her teenage children, her endless to-do-lists, her trysts
with mechanics and violinists, and her sometimes flinching optimism all carry
the reader onward - even when the Kleenex box is empty.
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