A Boy of Good Breeding: A Novel [Paperback]

Miriam Toews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2006

From the acclaimed Giller Prize Finalist and Governor General's Award Winner comes her delightfully funny and charming second novel about life in Canada's smallest town.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Lake Wobegon, Toews (A Complicated Kindness) gives us Algren, Manitoba, a town noteworthy because, with 1,500 colorful residents (give or take), it ranks as Canada's smallest town. For the town's painfully shy mayor, Hosea Funk, Algren's small population spurs both pride and constant anxiety. He tallies births, deaths and all other arrivals and departures to make sure the population hews to the magic number 1,500—less than that, and the town diminishes to a mere village, but more than that and Algren might outgrow its title. Funk's obsession isn't motivated just by bragging rights, but also by a family secret: on her deathbed, Funk's mother told him that the prime minister of Canada is his long-lost father, and that same prime minister has pledged to visit the smallest Canadian town. When single mother Knute McCloud and her kinetic young daughter return to Algren and Funk's own long-distance romance threatens to catch up with him, Funk's compulsive people-counting tests his already awkward human relationships. First published in Canada in 1998, this is a sweet, funny novel full of memorable, picaresque characters and unexpected drama. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Small-town life is a lot more eventful than one might think, especially for the mayor of Algren, the smallest town in Canada. Hosea Funk works hard to keep the population at just the right amount to maintain the town's designation. His anticipated reward is a promised visit from the prime minister as part of the Canada Day celebration. He spends his time keeping careful track of births and deaths, arrivals and departures. In his obsessive attention to his population, he risks things of real value, but does come to realize what indeed matters. Algren may be small, but love and loyalty are in good supply, as are the odd characters, including a couple of unusual single mothers--Hosea's mom, Euphemia, and Knute, whose daughter is named Summer Feelin'--who make life there unique and wonderful. Toews, author of A Complicated Kindness (2004), offers a mellow summer interlude that allows readers to revel in the not-so-simple pleasures of small-town life, and consider what matters most. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (March 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582433402
• ISBN-13: 978-1582433400
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual characters make this an enjoying read, July 27, 2000

By 

Andrew Laurence (Alameda, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Boy of Good Breeding (Paperback)

I first heard of Miriam Toews (pronounced Taves) when an excerpt from "A Boy of Good Breeding" was read on CBC Radio One while I was traveling in Canada recently. I was captivated and wound up purchasing the book. The story centers on the zany characters who live in fictional Algren, Manitoba, which at 1,500 people is in the running for Canada's smallest town, and its eccentric mayor is intent on keeping it that way until Canada Day (July 1), for reasons which I won't go into to avoid spoiling your fun. Toews has a gift for making ordinary people and their failings (teenage motherhood, poverty, chronic depression) interesting and sympathetic, without drowning in sentimentality. I was so hooked by this book that I purchased and read "Summer of my Amazing Luck," which won a Manitoba award in 1996. It too was amusing, warm and thoroughly enjoyable

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Writer of Good Breeding, February 26, 2001

By 

Levi Miller (Scottdale, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Boy of Good Breeding (Paperback)

I was recently in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and someone mentioned Miriam Toews as a good writer from the area. I really enjoyed the characters in this book: the eccentric mayor Hosea Funk, the young mother Knute Corea-McCloud and the wonderful mutt named Bill Quinn. The characters make bad, petty, heroic and hilarious decisions, but the writer is ultimately a friendly narrator who gets us to care and want to keep reading right to the end.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Writer of Good Breeding, February 26, 2001

By 

Levi Miller (Scottdale, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Boy of Good Breeding (Paperback)

I was recently in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and someone mentioned Miriam Toews as a good writer from the area. I really enjoyed the characters in this book: the eccentric mayor Hosea Funk, the young mother Knute Corea-McCloud and the wonderful mutt named Bill Quinn. The characters make bad, petty, heroic and hilarious decisions, but the writer is ultimately a friendly narrator who gets us to care and want to keep reading right to the end.