I have to admit that I love Miriam Toews. Right out of the park. There. I've said it. I'll read anything she writes and most likely will enjoy. A lot. The only reason I rated her 'memoir' Swing Low, at only 4 stars, is because of the subject matter and how difficult it is to tackle a parent's inevitable decline into old age and dementia and do it superbly well. But I digress. The Summer of My Amazing Luck is a window into the life of a teenage single mom living in the 'centre of the universe': W...

Fun story! Loved the characters!

This is one of my favourite books. Though it is not as subtle and mature and Toews' newer writing, it is a beautiful depiction of why I turn to Towes time and time again: the wondrous portrayal of people stumbling forward in the adventure that is their lives with good hearts and vague ideas.

This is my third Toews book, and it is probably good I waited. I found it interesting to read this less tightly written story after reading her two best novels. It's like looking at film of a minor hockey player after he has made the NHL. You see the potential as it relates to the now seasoned pro. One thing stood out for me in this story -- Ms. Toews ability to end scenes and paragraphs. I bet a crafty professor could build a creative writing course in how to end things based solely on this boo...

I liked this quirky funny-but-sad-but-funny story of a baffled 18-yr-old mother on welfare. Lucy has had all the wind knocked out of her by her mother's tragic death, her father's withdrawl, and her own inability to deal with her grief. This is evidenced by her Finnegan-like silence and her empty apartment, made even more stark by the comparaisons to Lish's over-the-top warmth and flamboyance. And yet, she perseveres. The Epic Story of her travails in trying to get to the Welfare Office with her...

I hope the movie rights to this novel have been snapped up by a producer with an appreciation for strong female characters. This book has plenty. A great read -- and the author gets bonus marks for winding in cultural references to Casey, Finnegan, and Mr. Dressup.

I did not love Summer of My Amazing Luck the way I did A Complicated Kindness and The Flying Troutmans--two novels that Toews wrote after this one. The writing is in the same sort of fast-paced, conversational style, but somehow everyone in the book felt more real to me than the first person narrator.

There's nothing amazing or lucky in this book. Perhaps a better title would have been, "My Down-And-Out Tale." Perhaps the title is trying to be ironic. It's a story about a single mother who's on welfare. Her situation is miserable. But her story is told with an air of humor and indifference to her environment. There aren't very many novels written about the welfare class. And there are even fewer novels written about women on welfare free of moralizing. This book simply tells the story, and it...

Oh Miriam Toews, you write great books. I want to buy them all. This one is especially enjoyable, with deeply flawed characters and tons of humor. It is basically like the movie Little Miss Sunshine if the main characters were single moms on welfare. These two, Lish and Lucy, are very quirky and likable, don't always show good judgment, and maintain a remarkably optimistic outlook for most of the book. They are barely holding things together, but still trying to take care of their kids and live

A friend told me that this is her favourite Toews book, and it might be mine too. Set in Winnipeg, with real, well developed characters.

I liked this book because I really enjoy Miriam Toews, but this book from 2006 is not as impressive as many of her others. It's a quick read, though, and takes place in Winnipeg so that's fun. Our protagonist is Lucy, a teenaged mom living in government housing on social assistance. She regales us with tales from the other inhabitants and her good friend Lish, and also reflects on the loss of her mother and her relationship with her father. But it's light-hearted and fun. This particular edition...

I loved this book. This may be my favourite Toews novel so far. Toews has a wonderful and humorous way of illustrating her characters' resilience in the face of hardship and tragedy. Also, the details she uses create such verisimilitude, I almost believe that Half a Life is an actual place, and the characters in it are living, breathing human beings. For instance, the Sikh caretaker, Singh Dillon, is called "Sing Dylan" by the residents of Half a Life, and this quirky little detail seems so odd

Delightfully witty and subversive, yet tender and astutely observant; a joyful and humorous read.

Miriam Toews is incredible. This is the third book of hers I have read (A Complicated Kindness and The Flying Troutman's being the other two) and they are all fantastic, fun, intelligent, absorbing, and addictive-to-the-point-of-missing-your-bus stories. With an odd but real cast of characters and an honest genius for turning the mundane and ordinary into something beautiful and compelling, Miriam Toews is fast becoming my favourite author.

Sometimes rambling, sometimes weird, always entertaining. Miriam Toews fucking rocks. This one had a John Irving vibe, though sunnier (despite the rain).Anyone wanting a lesson on writing several very different down on their luck characters should give this a go. So much fun.

'Summer of My Amazing Luck' was Miriam Toews first novel and although it lacks the polished writing more evident in the latter 'A Complicated Kindness', itself the 2004 winner of the Governor General's award, it still makes for an interesting read. Through the eyes of Lucy Van Alstyne we are given a brief glimpse into the lives of a community of single mothers on welfare. Lucy is a naive, not stupid, 18 year old girl struggling to come to terms with her life; a baby with an unknown father, an em...

Another phenomenal 5-star read from Miriam Toews! As always, this book was hilarious, it was touching, it was goofy, it was shocking. But what sets Toews apart is that there will always be a measure of profundity in her novels! Do not make the mistake of clumping her in with authors of "contemporary" fiction. That is definitely NOT her style! Her writing is kilometres above that. She knows how to write tremendous novels that will elicit "all the feels" and she knows the human condition so intima...

I just couldn't get into this book. I returned it to the library without even finishing it. The story was character driven and though they are quirky, I didn't care about them and there wasn't enough plot to keep me engaged.

This barely kept my interest. It's about Canadian Welfare Moms (They call welfare "the Dole," like in England); kind of depressing but not as bleak as A Complicated Kindness by same author, which I didn't even finish reading. The protagonist in this book is stupid, which bored me. She's purposely written as not intelligent, as are most of the other welfare moms in the book. Don't get me wrong—I love stereotypes, but I would've preferred a protagonist who was savvy and intelligent and rose above

LISH HAD BEEN A LIFER EVEN BEFORE THE TROUBLE STARTED WITH SERENITY PLACE....We meet Lucy, single, eighteen, mom to young baby Dill. They end up living in the Have-A-Life housing project which is better known as Half-A-Life. Things are tough, money is scarce, living on welfare is not easy. Thankfully, Lucy meets a community of so many different types of women who are literally in the same boat as her....no men in their worlds, kids, no jobs, welfare with all the rules and regulations. Lucy becom...