Your Mouth Is Lovely

by Nancy Richler

"Each winter I'm sure will be my last. Dust to dust,I find myself saying as my frozen fingers struggle tohold the pen with which I write these words to you, Ashes toashes, I mutter, and nothing but suffering and joyin between. I've had my share. Hot and sharp -- I taste itstill in the blood that fills my mouth when I cough."

Miriam is a nineteen-year-old imprisoned in Siberia following the Russian Revolution of 1905. Reaching out to the young daughter whom she gave up at birth, Miriam weaves a haunting tale of life in a small Jewish village during the last days of imperial Russia and of a community caught between the rich yet rigid traditions of the past and the frightening, unfamiliar ways of a society desperately trying to reinvent itself.

Rejected by her suicidal mother and abandoned by her father at birth, Miriam is marked as an outcast in her village from the beginning. Reunited with her father when he marries Tsila, a haughty and complex woman whose beauty has been marred by the hand of divine anger, Miriam searches to unveil the secrets of her birth in a place of mystery and superstition, where everyone seems to know the truth that eludes her.

Your Mouth Is Lovely moves seamlessly from picturesque but impoverished villages, where fife is ruled by the iron hand of God and the equally powerful grip of Fate, to the slums of teeming Kiev, where a seething anger is about to change the course of Russian history. A story of epic human drama, Your Mouth Is Lovely is a poetic, dreamy novel with a darkly magical sheen.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Jewish, Russia, Canada, Book Club, Adult

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Nancy Richler was a Canadian novelist. Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1957, she spent much of her adult life and career in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Montreal in the early 2010s.

Richler published her first novel, Throwaway Angels, in 1996. The novel was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her 2003 novel Your Mouth Is Lovely won the 2003 Canadian Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the 2004 Adei Wizo Award. Her 2012 novel The Impostor Bride was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Reviews

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written historical fiction. The narrator is a young Jewish woman, whom we know from the start is in a Siberian prison in 1911, writing a letter to the daughter taken from her at birth. Great job evoking the claustrophobia, gossip and superstition of village life, as well as the constant threat of antisemitism and pogroms. Lots of interesting female characters too, though I had a hard time keeping characters straight sometimes. Miriam gets involved with socialist revolutionaries looking to force change ... but the Revolution of 1905 didn’t exactly work out, hence the Siberian prison...3.5.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways this was so beautiful that it deserved four stars, but I felt the language grew tiresome in spite or perhaps because of its beauty, and that the characters, rather than well sketched, were confusing. But I do recommend it as a pretty read and one with a lot of interesting ideas. She really captured what I think of as the shtetl life - both its charms and its limitations - really well, and while it got to be too much at times, it was still enjoyable.

[Danna · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the cover and title of "Your Mouth is Lovely" proclaim trashiness, this novel is anything but trashy. The story takes place in the very early 1900s in a Jewish home in Russia. The protagonist, Miriam, was raised by her wet nurse until she was about 7 years old, when her father remarries and she moves in with him and her step-mother. The transition is difficult for Miriam, but she eventually grows close to her parents. The book travels back and forth in time between Miriam's coming of age, and her later years in a Siberian prison. It was a little hard for me to understand the back-and-forth, but the ending helped to bring some of it together. There are hints of anti-Semitism throughout the book, but it is not pervasive.

I love the descriptions that Nancy Richler uses throughout the book. Her writing is poetic, unique, and frequently beautiful. The dialogue she writes of the Jewish women gossiping is awesome and easy to imagine (if you have any old Jewish ladies in your life). Early in the book, I love the way she describes Miriam's father.

Also, I feel inclined to mention that this book was eerily similar to the Invisible Mountain, which I just finished. The story is partially narrated by a young woman imprisoned for a political crime, writing to her daughter to tell her story.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"'Shendel is not one of your husband's trees,' he said to me, as if I could not differentiate my daughter from a sapling. 'Trees have roots, Jews have legs.'"

"'I'm asking what good are isolated acts of charity? It's like running around hell trying to put out brushfires.'"

"That my sentence is life does not impress Tsila. We all receive a life sentence at the moment of our birth, she has written me repeatedly. It is a sin to break under the weight of it."

[Toni Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Your Mouth is Lovely” is a touching and memorable tale set in Russia between 1887 and 1912. It is rich in the shtetl ways of life and sweeping historical events. The title is from the Song of Songs, offered as a prayer when a child speaks its first words.

The story centers on Miriam’s life while she languishes in a Siberian prison camp. She recounts memories, the high and the low points in her life in a form of a letter to her six year old daughter who was taken away at a very early age and will never have the pleasure of knowing her real mother. Her prose is lyrical and is told with the tenderness of a mother’s love. Most of the characters are women, they are superstitious and smart, judgemental and kind and the few male characters are complex and sympathetic and act as a catalyst in the plot.

The novel exposes the brutality of the regime as well as that of the radical socialists who struggled through one aborted revolution after another. It starts with flashbacks in Miriam’s upbringing and continues as time passes to the first up rise against the tsar’s regime and to the circumstances that led to her arrest.

At first I found it hard to understand the fine points of the time and culture however the author’s excellent ground work at start helped me to quickly become somewhat familiar with Jewish and Yiddish terminology and customs. It all paid off and it carried me back to the turbulent and horrific time in Russian history when hope and passion were all the people had to live for.

This is a rich human drama that was very intense and emotionally stimulating.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad I picked this up despite a cover image that has absolutely nothing to do with the story (very strange selection for a book cover!) Engrossing tale narrated by Miriam, a Jewish woman living in exile in a Siberian political prison in 1904 for participation in revolutionary activities. She is writing a journal to be given to her young daughter (not a spoiler). Her story begins as she recounts her early years as a little girl living in a small Jewish village in Belarus. Abandoned at birth by her mother who commits suicide, Miriam survives childhood with the help of a local villager who "adopts" her until her father can reclaim her with the help of her stepmother. The descriptions of life in this tiny village were quite fascinating; almost like a fairy tale with the requisite omens, signs and busybody neighbors. Miriam's stepmother, Tilsa, is strong, resolute and a deeply complex character. The story moves at a moderate pace until political unrest reaches the tiny village as outsiders bring in word of uprisings and protests against Russian rule. The creeping in of the Russian revolution revolution is very interesting, especially Miriam's time in Kiev. The latter third of the book is quite suspenseful, although I can't say much more without spoiling the story.

[Lyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction, Story of Miriams's shetl life set Russia between 1887 and 1912. The title is from the Song of Songs, offered as a prayer when a child speaks its first words.

The story begins as Miriam she languishes in a Siberian prison camp, recounting the high and the low points in her life in a form of a letter to her six year old daughter who was taken away at a very early age

[Greta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listening to a fly on the wall is not my idea of a fun read. While I appreciate the research that went into a story about Russian women during the early 20th century proletariat rising, I would have liked a main character who actively engaged in the decisions of her times. Escaping the company of fellow travelers from her hometown who were charged with the responsibility of her safe train passage to Kiev was as bold as she got on her own behalf. Sadly, she encounters guilt by association more than once and then ends up in prison in Kiev and in Siberia

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her writing is magical and laugh-out-loud funny, even though this is not a light-hearted story! A spellcasting book for those with great capacity for darkness and light.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a book club and would probably have picked it up anyway because I am always interested in the tsarist Russia of the early 1900's. At first I was confused with the time and setting alternate chapters from a small village in 1895 to a prison in 1905 (I think I have the dates close), but figured out what the author was doing about one third the way through. The heroine did not engage me very much but her stepmother was another matter. She was complex, strong but yet endearing, and from my perspective made the book interesting. The whole narrative really felt like a description of a picture rather than a depiction of life. Maybe a bit too back and forth, choppy, for me, with the ending leaving me feeling that the author didn't know how to tie it up so just stopped. I would say try this because some of my group really liked it and didn't have the same disappointment about the ending.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Your Mouth is Lovely is set in Russia in the years leading up to the Revolution and centers on the life of a poor Jewish, motherless child, Miriam, who grows up on the outskirts both of her village, and of its sense of community. After some years of being fostered out, she is returned to her father's home when he remarries. Her stepmother, Tslia, raises her with a rough, irritated, kindness, making sure she knows how to read, among the other things she believes it necessary for a girl to know. Tsila's sister Batya gets involved in political protest, and has disappeared somewhere in Kiev. Miriam convinces her parents that she should be the one to go find her. How she ends up in a prison camp in Siberia writing to the daughter she will never see is as fascinating as the rest of her story.

[Rhonda L.]

This was an interesting read and nicely written. I enjoyed the historical backdrop but it was Miriam's personal experiences in the context of her culture, combined with her coming of age, that most appealed to me. Very evocative and engrossing. The ending felt a bit thin, but I would certainly recommend.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this is one of those books you just can't put down! I was transported to turn of the century Russia which sounds like, and I'm sure was, a very bleak place and time. Richler brings a surprising warmth to the story of an orphan with a cursed fate. The imagery and language are vivid, poignant and often heartbreakingly beautiful.
Highly recommend!!!

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written historical novel. Set in the Russian Empire in 1905, in what is now Belarus. I learned a lot about the persecution of the Jews during the Czar’s pograms before the revolution of 1917. Miriam’s story is completely engrossing and stayed with me long after finishing the book.

Nancy Richler was a great Canadian writer who sadly died far too soon.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm not sure why, but i was hoping for something more from this book. it was definitely interesting and a good story, but the characters felt a little shallow to me. i can't quite put my finger on it, but it left me a little disappointed.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neither the ugly cover nor the weird title had much to do with this interesting story.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s neither a compelling title or a compelling cover (though I can forgive the title for plot purposes. It comes from the Song of Songs. We’ll get to that. :P)

I’m also kinda worried that I didn’t give this book a fair shake. I had a lot of other stuff going on as I read it; I was distracted! It’s like part of my brain was impressed by many aspects of this novel, but the rest was watching the STATION ELEVEN adaptation. :P Would be nice to think that I could engage in multiple activities over one timespan and judge them all fairly, but maybe not!

Anywho. This book takes place between the late-19th and early-20th century in Imperial Russia. Our protagonist, Miriam, narrates some interstitial chapters at the end of the timeline, from her prison in Siberia. The rest of the story is dedicated to her formative years.

Miriam grew up during some crazy times. A Jew from a shtetl in Belarus (I have reinvigorated feelings, because I recently learned that my great-grandfather’s parents immigrated to the US from Minsk,) she grew up in a religious home, but slowly got more and more involved in the Bund, a Jewish socialist movement. This ultimately led to her arrest when she shot a guard who was raiding her safe house.

So, a lot going on here! One can’t accuse Richler of being too simplistic with the narrative. We start with the tragic story of Miriam’s mother’s suicide, shortly after her daughter was born, and how her stillborn son was like a ghost presiding over the family. Miriam was raised by her stepmother, Tsila, who could have been the one-dimensional evil sort, especially given her attitude in the beginning. But instead, though not with the emotional affectation that’s popular in the West today, Tsila educated and looked after Miriam. Also nursed her to health after a debilitating illness, which is where the title comes in. It’s uttered like some sort of miracle cure.

And the plot only gets more complicated from there! We follow Tsila as she works as a dressmaker and pines for a birth child, there’s drama in Miriam’s past about her true parentage, there’s the ups and downs of poverty in an oppressive regime and then there’s Miriam’s growing involvement in the Bund, largely due to the company she finds along the way.

Some of that company actually comes from Tsila’s sister, Bayla. Bayla was supposed to marry Leib, but the two of them disappear to Kiev without a firm, traditional understanding. Meanwhile, after the Kishinev pogrom, Tsila and Miriam’s father decide it’s not safe to stay in Russia as Jews, and they book passage to Argentina. Tsila warily sends Miriam to bring Bayla back, if she can, but Miriam’s involvement in terrorist revolutionary activity only grows. She spends months in prison (for distributing pamphlets) and then moves around with Bayla from safehouse to safehouse. And then the shooting I mentioned earlier happens. And Miriam, from six years later, writes notes to her daughter, whom Bayla has taken to Canada.

These interstitial chapters didn’t really work for me. They were too fleeting; I couldn’t latch on and care much about the action or characters. I wish Richler had just stuck to the main storyline, and maybe even excised the whole affair-with-Leib-surprise-pregnancy thing altogether. She had so many other bits of backstory that would’ve been more interesting to me. (I missed me some Wolf, with his enigmatic upbringing and refreshingly nuanced, if cynical, take on the world. “I knew…which structure I personally believed most responsible for the devaluing of human life…the human heart. And where will we be if we smash it?”)

Still, overall, I was impressed by this reckoning with history. Richler made these times in the Russian Revolution feel gritty and real. She also wove in specific Jewish concerns with the rising violent antisemitism, and it never felt like a textbook. I also appreciated that both the Bund and religious Judaism felt three-dimensional (and not like the villainous entities they each painted each other out to be. :P) Honestly, part of me thinks I should rate this book higher and extoll its virtues more. But eh. At the end of the day I’ll stick with the impression I formed when reading. Good stuff, but not a fiver.

[morowa · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUMMARY:
First half was very compelling; however, by the end the plot dragged.

"Each winter I'm sure will be my last. Dust to dust,I find myself saying as my frozen fingers struggle tohold the pen with which I write these words to you, Ashes toashes, I mutter, and nothing but suffering and joyin between. I've had my share. Hot and sharp -- I taste itstill in the blood that fills my mouth when I cough."
Miriam is a nineteen-year-old imprisoned in Siberia following the Russian Revolution of 1905. Reaching out to the young daughter whom she gave up at birth, Miriam weaves a haunting tale of life in a small Jewish village during the last days of imperial Russia and of a community caught between the rich yet rigid traditions of the past and the frightening, unfamiliar ways of a society desperately trying to reinvent itself.

Rejected by her suicidal mother and abandoned by her father at birth, Miriam is marked as an outcast in her village from the beginning. Reunited with her father when he marries Tsila, a haughty and complex woman whose beauty has been marred by the hand of divine anger, Miriam searches to unveil the secrets of her birth in a place of mystery and superstition, where everyone seems to know the truth that eludes her.

Your Mouth Is Lovely moves seamlessly from picturesque but impoverished villages, where fife is ruled by the iron hand of God and the equally powerful grip of Fate, to the slums of teeming Kiev, where a seething anger is about to change the course of Russian history. A story of epic human drama, Your Mouth Is Lovely is a poetic, dreamy novel with a darkly magical sheen.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really want to give this 3.5 stars ... loved the epic elements, the depiction of Jewish life in a small village, rife with tradition, superstition and faith, the insights into human nature that struck me as close to profound, and the history I never knew (there was at least 4 stars, probably stars worth of content in this read). But while the author is a good writer - certainly the characters were well-written - I found a few sentence(s) here or phrase(s) there, too annoying to glide over; I think that sometimes the writing strived too hard.
I do have to confess I was not a of the short chapters the mother penned from her prison in Siberia but I respect its structural intent: our protagonist had struggled with her perceived abandonment by her mother (suicide) and did not want her daughter, whom she was not allowed to raise, to feel the same. However, the voice was irritating here. To me. Not necessarily melodramatic, but perhaps undermining the character consistency of the woman who was ultimately trusted to to find, then raise the daughter taken away from her.
On the other hand, I love books where my favorite character(s) are not necessarily the protagonist. Tsila resonated for me. And Wolf ... what a brilliant character, no doubt structurally conceived but just a joy to know.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautifully written story by Nancy Richler. I loved how the story of Miriam was told through the prison gates of Siberia in 1912 looking back to how it all started only 8 years before when Miriam was barely a young woman. So many rich characteristics in Tslia and Bayla who cared for Miriam as if she were blood. The story taking place at the beginning of the Russian Revolution was quite interesting and I could easily visualize the life they were leading while fighting for a better existence. You tend to wonder 100 years on how much freedom has been won. I also enjoyed the magical tales within the story - the superstitions and beliefs that governed their way of life - sometimes almost magical.

I very much like Nancy Richler’s descriptive prose and am sorry that she is no longer with us. I also enjoyed The Impostor Bride a great deal.

[Jane Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so happy to be reading and loving so many Canadian novelists. This was an interesting portrayal of life in Russia in the last days of the tsar. Many Russians, Jews included, which is the main focus of this story, begin a subversive rebellion against the government, and of course, are killed or imprisoned accordingly. Very informative, highlighting one small part of those days.

[Kenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helped me learn about events in Russian history I had never learned about, atrocities against Jewish communities, but the stage-setting was far too drawn out, and it wasn’t until about halfway through the book that the story started to be compelling.

[Russel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable. And for me, educational.

[Sharon Dorival · Rating 5 out of 5]

That's a beautiful historical fiction.

[Erin Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Richler does such an amazing job of transporting us to a Ukrainian village that
when you look up from reading it, you have to remind yourself that you're not a Russian Jew in the early 1900's, struggling to survive.

But that makes it sound as if this is a story about the Revolution (which it is), but really, it's the story of a motherless girl, trying to find her place within her village (which mainly shuns her for the suicide of her mother) and within her family (with a new stepmother and father who doesn't understand her.)

Right from the beginning, we learn that Miriam is now a political prisoner in a Siberian gulag, but as the author slowly reveals the story behind her imprisonment, we see that we are really being given the tale of the outsider, the observer, the lonely person in all of us. And when Miriam starts to discover who she is, and find out how much her past has influenced her present, we root for her as we would for any underdog. We, too, want something more than just the life of the village for her, even if it brings tragedy and heartbreak.

Nothing is ever entirely what it seems in this story of marshes and villages, poverty and revolution, Siberia and Kiev, even Miriam herself, surprising us with what she has done in order to feel alive and as if she matters to someone.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this very good book only gave three stars because it was a difficult read. This is not a feel good novel but each time I put the book down, I was drawn back in to read about the times and the characters who populated its pages. Nancy Richler describes a world that, for me, is both extremely personal and extremely alien. As the granddaughter of two sets of grandparents who lived in small Jewish villages in Eastern Europe (Lithuania and Poland) at the same time as Richler's protagonist, I found her descriptions of Jewish life between the years 1887 and 1912 to be both fascinating and awful. It did not make the superstitions of my grandmother easier to take knowing that they were part and parcel of shtetl culture, but it made them more understandable. Miriam, the protagonist of the story, is an outsider but not a rebel - and the superstitions of those she lives with are hers as well. But as the story progresses, in the context of the politics leading to the Russian revolution, she grows from an person whose acts are driven by her need for approval to a woman who accepts the harsh life her choices have led to without rationalization or self pity.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, as the author's writing style is engaging. The set up of the book had you wondering what was going to happen next.
However, one complaint I have is you never really know how the main character, Miriam, feels about the Revolution and everything going on around her. The activism at the turn of the century, fascinated me and I wanted to know more and more and more. But I felt the main character stayed removed from it. However maybe it is due to the story being told in hind sight?

[Debs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had been sitting on my shelf for a while and was a random buy from a bargain bookstore in London (ON), mostly because the title drew me. Writing-wise, it had an old-worldly, almost classical feel to it. I liked it but had to push myself through the first half because it didn't particularly engage me, though it really picked up in the second half and drew me in at that point. The ending felt a little rushed and I was surprised at the lack of love story. I've never read anything in which the Russian Revolution was a backdrop, so there was some fun historical learning for me too.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent somewhat of the Middle Heart about the Chinese Revolution, this book conveys the feel of revolutionary fervor in tsarist Russia through compelling characters and the intimate details of their lives as Jews at that time. Like that book, too, we gain some understanding of the revolutionary impulse as well as its limitations and blind spots. I only wish the author's prose style matched her ambition and insight.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept reading this book, compelled by the story. The voice in which the book is written is stiff, distractingly so. There are important characters who get dropped completely. So I have serious misgivings about it, but the fact that I finished it rather than setting it aside (which I do shamelessly and frequently when a book loses my interest) acts as a counterweight to this somewhat negative response. I liked it enough to keep reading. I just wish there had been more to it.

[Gracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. I do wish the author had given a bit more insight into some of the thoughts/actions of the narrator though because at times I couldn't really understand the impetus for what she did. But, I loved the insight into the Russian Revolution and why people joined it or didn't. All in all, it was a good book. Definitely sad though - not a summer beach read in the slightest.