A Complicated Kindness Book Report

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My summative novel, A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam Toews was a little bit of an odd one. Throughout this dark, yet uplifting novel, we follow the life of the main character Naomi Nickel, who is shortly nick-named Nomi. Nomi is a sixteen year old girl living in strict mennonite town that she does not belong in. She tries to deal with a father who doesn’t necessarily care about her, a best friend who is stuck with an unknown illness in a hospital, and a completely useless boyfriend. But most importantly, she has to deal with the fact that her mom and sister fled town three years ago to seek a better life…. without her. To top it all off, the town she lives in is completely awful. Their only income is a run-down heritage museum site and a chicken slaughterhouse. Also, as mennonites, the town’s occupants are expected to go to church, keep their faith in mind at all time, keep up in their jobs or studies, and essentially live a boring life with no personal choices. Now, I don’t know about you, but that doesn't sound very appealing to me. So, what actually makes this book interesting if everything is a complete write off? Well, I loved this book because the main character was one of a kind, it was interesting, and completely relatable. Personally, I loved this book because I fell in love with the main character. At the beginning of the book, Nomi said "But that's the thing about this town - there's no room for in between. You're in or you're out. You're good or you're bad. Actually, very good or very bad” (Toews,10). It was clear that Nomi didn’t fit in whatsoever and she was a major outcast in her town and family. I fell in love with her when hearing this because I realized that she was a complete underdog. Her family, church, and boyfriend all expected her to fail but I knew she would come out on top. I also loved Nomi because she was funny. The beginning lines to the novel were “half of our family, the better looking half, is missing” (Toews,1). Right away we are drawn to Nomi Nickel’s personality by her snarky comments. I honestly think Nomi was a very essential part to making this book enjoyable. Readers are able to find comfort and …show more content…
Throughout the novel, we are thrown back and forth between a time when Nomi’s Mom and sister were still in town, and three years later when Nomi was left alone to deal with her father. Honestly, I’ve read a lot of predictable books before and they got very boring, very quickly. But with this book, it always switched between time frames so I didn’t know what was going to happen next. My interest level was high page after page and I always looked forward to reading. This book was also very refreshing, mostly because the topic was random. I mean, how often do you hear of a girl rebelling in a mennonite town? Mennonites are supposed to be civil, follow the rules of the town, and love their religion, but Nomi Nickel does the exact opposite. She listens to obscene music, can’t stop touching her boyfriend, and smokes her fair share of marijuana. The experiences Nomi goes through are abnormal for a mennonite girl and thats why I was stayed

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