# Fight Night

By Miriam Toews

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/fight-night-4ec2e6ec/

Swiv is out of school and sharing a cramped Toronto home with her pregnant mother and her grandmother, Elvira. Grandma takes over her education, and the family starts writing letters to make sense of their lives. Swiv addresses hers to the father who is no longer there.

## What makes it funny?

Grandma turns a two-thousand-piece jigsaw into a math lesson: at three pieces a day, how long does she need to stay alive to finish? Swiv has her own objections to adult logic, including a school exercise that allows the same time to dismantle something as to rebuild it. Readers in book groups particularly enjoy Grandma’s sayings.

### The comedy at work

Swiv reports the adults with blunt precision, even when she does not fully understand them. Elvira answers frightening subjects with jokes and exuberant lessons. Their arguments about everyday things give the family ways to speak about aging and absence without becoming solemn at every turn.

### Try this if…

The letters and conversations suit readers who enjoy following a family through a child’s observations. Readers describe finding the book beautiful as well as funny and single out Elvira’s sayings for laughter.

### Good to know

The family’s history includes suicide, mental illness, grief and abuse. The jokes sit close to those experiences throughout the story.

## What to expect

- Genre: Contemporary & literary
- On the shelf: Diary & letters · Family comedy
- Kind of humor: Dark comedy · Dry wit
- The atmosphere: Warmhearted
- Format: Novel
- Length: 272 pages (ebook)
- Audiobook: 6 hr 19 min
- Published: 2021

## Sources & further reading

- Book information: [Apple Books audiobook](https://books.apple.com/ca/audiobook/fight-night-unabridged/id1579445007)
- Publisher: [Bloomsbury ebook](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fight-night-9781635578188)
- Publisher: [Publisher](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fight-night-9781635578188)
- Review: [Publishers Weekly review](https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-63557-817-1)
- Reader discussion: [Reader discussion](https://facebook.com/groups/TwoGirlsMustReads/permalink/1699321627533655)
- Reading sample: [Reading excerpt](https://lithub.com/fight-night)