I’m also sure that August’s story and status as an outsider connects to what’s happening to the women in some way my brain hasn’t yet been able to compute. Why? The minute format lends the book the feel of a historical document, which emphasizes that the book’s events are based on something that actually happened. However, the narrator of a work of fiction doesn’t have to know how to read to narrate – though this would change the book’s format – so anyone could have done it, but Toews chose August. In this situation, August tells this story because, as a man, he is educated. The book’s explanation for August writing minutes is that the women cannot read or write, so Ona brings in August to create a record of the event. The woman August is in love with, Ona, may have been portrayed in a very positive light, but because her somewhat whimsical personality other narrators might have been especially negative.Īugust Epp is the narrator of this particular story, but let’s get hypothetical for a moment. The women’s stories weren’t ignored in a way that stood out to me, if at all. However, just as with plays, the women’s dialogue – as well as helpful explanations from August – gives a fairly detailed picture of the lives and personalities of each of the characters. The book even includes a list of the characters, like a cast.

Reading Women Talking is a bit like reading a play, but with a greater amount of commentary.

(I would like to note that I almost wrote that he would change the story, except that that doesn’t fit because the story is what he’s writing, and whatever it would have been with a different narrator is something different.) However, if August is an unreliable narrator, which in some ways he is – though I feel like it’s difficult for any narrator to be completely objective, then he might change the shape of the other characters to fit his perceptions of them. In some ways, this was a nonsensical fear, given that we see any character who isn’t the protagonist in this manner and usually manage to bond with them without issue. To be more specific, I was worried about is whether I would get to know all the characters, or whether I would be unable to tell much about them because I would have to see them through the eyes of somebody else.

Women talking the book