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| The Flying Troutmans: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Miriam Toews
Publisher: Counterpoint
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $11.00
You Save: $13.00 (54%)
New (37) Used (9) Collectible (2) from $10.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 44522
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 275
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 1582434395
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781582434391
ASIN: 1582434395
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Meet the Troutmans. Hattie’s boyfriend has just dumped her, her sister Min’s back in the psych ward, and Min’s kids, Logan and Thebes, are not talking and talking way too much, respectively. Then there’s the past, in which Min tried to kill Hattie once and to kill herself a lot, in which Min threw the kids’ father out of the house, in which Hattie dropped out of school, in which Logan and his friends kidnapped a friend and drove around town with him in the trunk, and in which Thebes frequently impersonated their insane mom in order to cut class.
When Hattie returns to take care of her niece and nephew, she’s rapidly freaked out by the realization that the responsibility is in fact far greater than she’d expected, and she decides to take the kids in the family van to find their father, last heard to be running an idiosyncratic art gallery in South Dakota. What ensues is a remarkable journey across the United States, as aunt and kids discover one another to be both far crazier and far more normal than any of them thought.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Quirky Tragicomedy August 5, 2008
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
I will be honest, I read this book with nothing more to go on than the cover and the title, which I found intriguing. However, when I first began to read the book I felt a little disappointed. Right off the bat it seemed like a written version of The Royal Tenenbaums...really weird. Having finished the book, I can say it retained this weirdness throughout, but it ended up very endearing. While the names and situations seemed a little far-fetched, I really began to care about the characters. Best of all, there were some moments when I literally laughed out loud--quite a few of them in fact. What really made me like this book were the author's sardonic wit and wicked sense of humor...these things trump any other issues I might have originally had with the book. Another reviewer mentioned the similarity this book has with the film Little Miss Sunshine, and s/he was right. It is about a broken family traveling across North America looking for answers, and things just have this magical way of working themselves out, even with all the blunders and mishaps that befall them along the way.
I wouldn't call the book literary in any way, but it would make a nice beach/gym read. I got more than a few stares at my gym when I was laughing out loud to myself on the exercise bike while reading this novel...each time I felt like one of the weirdos I was reading about. That made me laugh all the more. Normalcy is overrated. When all was said and done, I found that I had really enjoyed the book, quirks and all.
 A pleasant diversion worth the time August 6, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
The Flying Troutman opened with what was for me a dubious, well-worn premise. Broken group of odd characters heads on improbable road trip and finds healing/redemption/understanding or whatever. In this particular incarnation the group is family - a recently dumped aunt who rides in from Paris to rescue her mad sister's children. Yeah, sure, lower your expectations.
However, the characters quickly catch your attention - the author's choice of details quickly build into full characters with a range of concerns and responses that makes what happens to them matter to the reader. My favorite - the remains of a candy necklace on Thebes clothes and body.
While the characters at first seem extreme, as their background unfolds their responses become believable, perhaps even "normal" for the circumstances. The road trip becomes the perfect vehicle for healing - the close proximity for hours at a time without facing each other. There is a distancing effect that permits confidences that would be more difficult in an intimate setting. As the trip progresses, one learns that the aunt riding to the rescue is inept herself, bearing the consequences of growing up with a mentally ill sister.
The misstep in the book, from my perspective, is the reliance towards the end of the book on meeting the right person at the right time to learn the right lesson ... the adoption of a dog works; meeting the second wife of the kids' father sort of works; the pot head ... give me a break.
Nonetheless, if you want a delightful, semi-light afternoon's read, I would recommend The Flying Troutmans as a decent choice.
 Gritless, but not witless July 31, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
"The Flying Troutmans" is gritless but not altogether witless. Borrowing an awful lot from "Little Miss Sunshine," it's a novel about a misfit family on a road trip that heals all their wounds. Hattie, has to come home from Paris to rescue her nephew and niece, 10 year old Thebes (who will soon grow up to be an eccentric sprite, the kind who saves some depressed boy's life by having sex with him, only then to reveal her own scarred past) and 15 year old Logan (who pretty much IS the kid in "Little Miss Sunshine.) Their mother is mentally ill, suicidal, homicidal, whatever, you name it. They check her into a hospital, then go looking for the kid's dad, who is hanging out with the "Into the Wild" kid (Alexander Supertramp? Was that his name?) in the hippie-infested deserts of California.
It all seems to proceed from a vacuum, like the story is only taking place in someone's head, which I guess is true, after all. For some reason, Toews does away with dialogue marks ("You know," she said, "those things you put around spoken words so people know they're spoken." "Oh, of course," he muttered. "I know what you mean." Because if you don't use them, the reader might think the words are just in the character's head, he thought to himself.) I don't know the author's reason, but the effect is one of distance - it's like we never really enter into what's going on. That coupled with a real handicap in describing scenery, setting, atmosphere, that sort of stuff, leaves "The Flying Troutmans" feeling a little false, a little fake, and little invented.
Not that it's bad reading. It's quick, surprisingly light considering the material, and often cute and witty, in an awfully innocent way. Readers of Anne Lamott's fiction will likely enjoy Toews, though Lamott has a gift for symbolism Toews can only wish for. Still, it's a book to take the beach. It'll pass the time, you won't feel depressed, or really feel much of anything. And as soon as you finish it, you'll likely forget about it altogether. Maybe there's a place in the world for books like this. There's no place for it on my bookshelf.
 Wonderful! August 2, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I really loved this book. the characters were somewhat bizarre, some were even crazy, but in many ways completely normal. I found the book to be intelligently written and thought provoking and the story itself was a wonderful tale of love and optimism. This is a great author that I will definitely be reading more of her work.
Fascinating! August 3, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Utterly enjoyable! I found myself drawn to the title of this book without knowing anything else about it and I will fully admit to being a bit relieved by the David Rakoff quote on the back.
However, once I cracked it open, I wasn't able to put it down. The first night, I read 50 pages. The second, 70 pages. It is a smooth and easy read with big fat characters and mysteries abound.
Even in my suburb-living housewife and mother life, I can still identify to these girls that grew up wild and settled into a life of deep problems and uncertainty. It is easy to grasp hold of what the author is giving you and stick the characters in there like paper dolls.
I am almost finished but felt the need to review right away, I am enjoying it that much.
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