The Flying Troutmans (2008)

"Yeah, so things have fallen apart."

With its first sentence The Flying Troutmans announces itself as a brilliantly comic work of weariness. It is told through the eyes of Hattie Troutman, brought back to Canada from Paris when the mental health of her older sister, Min, takes a turn for the worse and Min's kids, Logan and Thebes, ask for her help. Min, who has a history of suicide attempts and depression, is promptly checked into a hospital while Hattie sets off with the kids on a roadtrip to the States in search of their father, who was run off by Min when Thebes was still an infant. The trio have several minor adventures along the way and, of course, Hattie comes to terms with her own past with Min and discovers her capacity to pick up the slack her sister has left behind.

Author Miriam Toews tells the story with a lot of humor. Hattie doesn't always know the right thing to do or how best to interact with her niece and nephew, not to mention how to balance her own problems (the boyfriend she left behind in Paris, who was supposed to be going to India to find himself but actually just told her that so that she wouldn't feel compelled to stay) against the more pressing problems of her family. The kids have developed strategies for coping with their mother's problems as best they can, but there's only so much they can do as their world collapses around them. Logan is an understandably angry and often withdrawn kid, though not without feeling, and Thebes is an eccentric with an aversion to bathing. Hattie does the best she can for them but is often a bit out of her depth and her self-deprecating view of the situation helps keep the simmering tensions from overpowering the characters and the story itself.

Toews has a great handle on the characters and the story and does it with such ease that it appears effortless. Though the tone is largely light and humorous, she doesn't let characterization suffer. The characters of The Flying Troutmans are fully fleshed out, the depths of their selves and relationships explored with great care and sensitivity. The Flying Troutmans won 2008's Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and is certainly very deserving of such recognition.