51 pages • 1 hour read
Miriam ToewsAll My Puny Sorrows
Miriam ToewsFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Yoli goes to the car garage to collect Lottie’s things from her car. She’s surprised to discover that she knows the mechanic, Jason, from college. Seeing him reminds her of her younger self, and she starts to cry. He comforts her and reveals that he’s also in the middle of a divorce. Then they pick up some beer and drive to the floodway together. They sit in the car remembering their classes during college. Finally they kiss and have sex. Afterward, they talk about Yoli’s manuscript and Jason gives her helpful advice.
Back at Lottie’s, Yoli feels ashamed of herself. She finds Lottie playing Scrabble online. In her own room, Yoli researches assisted dying again, discovering that it’s legal “to help a person kill herself in Switzerland” (197). She now understands Elf’s request and tries to decide on the best course of action. Lottie appears in the doorway, and they chat for a while. The conversation shifts to Elf, and Lottie gets upset that the hospital isn’t treating her like a human. They sit on the couch together and discuss Tina’s condition, too. She’s supposed to be discharged the next day.
Yoli drives Nic to the airport in the morning. He gives Yoli fan mail to give to Elf before leaving. Afterward, Yoli and Lottie drive to the hospital, where they discover that Elf is in a new building. Before visiting her, they check up on Tina who, they learn, has to have immediate surgery. The doctors are confident that she’ll be okay. Then Yoli and Lottie walk through a lengthy tunnel to cross the campus to Elf. In the hall of her new building, they run into Radek. He heard rumors about Elf’s situation and wanted to thank her for her music. Yoli ushers him out.
Yoli sits with Elf, updating her on Tina’s condition and Nic’s whereabouts. She also asks Elf if she’s told Nic or Lottie about Switzerland. Elf insists that no one else can know and they’d have to go to Zurich in secret. She is begging Yoli to take her when Lottie returns to the room. She’s gotten into an altercation with the staff about the psychiatrist ignoring Elf. Yoli changes the subject and updates Elf on her kids’ lives. Then the nurse shows up with flowers from Elf’s friends. Elf doesn’t want them, so Yoli takes them to Tina. She promises Tina to contact her daughter and husband and to sneak her a coffee.
Chapter 13 Summary
Yoli leaves the hospital to run some errands. Nic let her use his car in his absence, and she has to fix the broken door. She also has to see her lawyer and sign her divorce papers. She contacts Julie, asking to meet up afterward to celebrate her divorce. While she drives, she thinks more about assisted dying.
Before going to the lawyer’s, Yoli returns to the hospital with coffee for Tina and sandwiches for her, Elf, and Lottie. In Elf’s room, the atmosphere is tense. Lottie reveals that a Mennonite pastor barged into Elf’s room insisting that he pray for Elf’s soul. In response, Elf recited a Larkin poem while undressing in front of him. Yoli exclaims at Elf’s brilliance.
Yoli leaves again to finish her errands. On the way out, she begs the nurses not to discharge Elf even if Elf says that she’s okay, because there’s no one home to care for her. Then she checks her phone and fields texts from Dan. Afterward, she signs the divorce papers and brings the car to Jason. He gives her a loaner, promising to do the repair by the end of the day. Afterward, Yoli picks up Julie, who was at an event and is already drunk. They drive to the airport and pick up Tina’s daughter, Sheila, and husband, Frank. Yoli drops them at the hospital.
Afterward, Yoli and Julie drive to Garbage Hill, a former dump. Sitting together, they talk about Switzerland again and the associated costs.
Later that evening, Yoli has dinner with her family. Then they play cards and Sheila and Yoli eat chocolate and talk about Elf, Leni, and Tina’s surgery the next day. After everyone falls asleep, Yoli flips through some books and finds the Coleridge poem that inspired “AMPS.” Lying awake, she decides that she’ll take Elf to Toronto after she’s discharged. They’ll spend some time together and resolve their Switzerland plans. Then they can fly to Zurich without the family knowing.
In the morning, Yoli discovers that Jason dropped off Nic’s car. The family drives to the hospital and visits Tina before her surgery. Afterward, Yoli goes to see Elf and tells her that she has a plan.
Chapter 14 Summary
Tina dies shortly after coming out of surgery. The operation went well but her organs failed afterward. The family sits together and discusses what happens next.
Yoli sits outside and emails Nic. She asks him to come home early to be with Elf because she has to go “to Vancouver for Tina’s funeral” (236). Back at the apartment, Yoli sits with Lottie while she writes Tina’s eulogy. Then, she, Frank, and Sheila share memories of Tina. Yoli is surprised to learn that when Tina and Lottie’s dad got sick, Lottie let him die.
Before flying to Vancouver, Yoli visits Elf. She reassures her of their plan and reminds her how much she loves her. Afterward, she confronts the nurses, begging them not to discharge Elf in her absence.
Yoli and Lottie fly to Vancouver. On the plane, she tells Lottie that she wants Elf to stay with her in Toronto. Lottie likes the plan.
The family holds Tina’s funeral. At the repast, they share memories of Tina. Yoli stands in the church foyer and talks to Nora on the phone. She has injured herself during dance and begs Yoli to come home.
Chapter 15 Summary
Yoli returns to Toronto. She brings Will to the airport as he has to return to New York. They have an intimate conversation before he leaves.
Yoli keeps up with Nic and Lottie while she’s away. In the meantime, she pursues her and Elf’s plan. She seeks out a loan for Elf’s physician-assisted death. Then she tells her publisher that she’s going to write a new Rodeo Rhonda book, as she needs the advance. Meanwhile, she calls the hospital repeatedly to ensure that they haven’t discharged Elf.
Chapters 12-15 Analysis
This section of rising action augments the narrative tension and accelerates the pacing. Shifts in the novel’s micro and macro settings also contribute to these formal and atmospheric evolutions. In the preceding chapters, Yoli and her family were mainly lodged at the hospital. The hospital acts as the fixed narrative backdrop and thus conveys the sometimes static nature of depression. They’re also situated in Winnipeg, a macro setting that connects Yoli to her childhood past. By way of contrast, Yoli’s character is more mobile in this section. She shifts frequently between micro settings and is often depicted driving to and from the apartment, the car garage, the airport, the store, and Julie’s house. She also visits the lawyer’s office, various local restaurants and cafés, and the floodway and Garbage Hill. These frequent environmental shifts mirror Yoli’s restless internal state. The longer Elf is in the hospital, the more desperate she feels to keep her safe. Toews therefore uses the narrative settings to provide further insight into the Impact of Mental Health on Family Dynamics and to characterize Yoli’s bond with her sister.
Yoli’s frenetic activity in this section thus illustrates her longing for control and her desperation to exact some change in her sister’s condition and familial dynamics. In Chapter 12, for example, she has sex with the car mechanic, Jason. Their encounter makes Yoli remember “[her] younger self, the person [she] was before [she’d] become all of these other selves” (194). Having sex with Jason therefore lets her escape her fraught circumstances in the present and reconnect with a youthful iteration of herself. Meanwhile, she also works on her and Elf’s Switzerland plan in a more serious manner. After she discovers that “you don’t have to be a Swiss citizen” to pursue assisted dying there (197), she takes active steps to satisfy Elf’s request. Yoli proves her sacrificial nature when she temporarily sets aside her literary novel and decides to write another Rodeo Rhonda book. She begins to “wr[i]te like crazy” and even makes plans to use the “bit of money left from an arts grant [she’d] received for the [other] book” to pay for Elf’s physician-assisted death (251). These actions capture the Enduring Strength of Sibling Bonds as they show how much Yoli is willing to give on behalf of her sister. While Yoli’s overarching actions at times appear contradictory, her behavior is a manifestation of her guilt and confusion and illustrates her desire to feel grounded and to ease her sister’s pain.
Tina’s death also marks a turning point in the overarching narrative plot line and further augments the narrative tension. When the doctors first inform the family of Tina’s impending surgery, they assure them that Tina “is strong and otherwise very healthy so the operation will be very routine” (204). The family therefore tries to remain positive despite their concern for Tina. This is particularly the case because they’re all trying to support one another through Elf’s hospitalization and recovery. Therefore, Tina’s death is another tragedy that tries the family’s connections and inner peace. The event also acts as an omen. Yoli is watching her mother lose her sister amidst her own fear of losing Elf. These dynamics parallel Sheila’s situation, too, as her sister, Leni, also died in recent years. Tina’s death thus continues the pattern of generational trauma: One sister is always left behind to mourn the strong sibling bond.
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By Miriam Toews
