Table of Content
I had no idea what to expect of this book, but it is hilarious! I had been needing a break from some heavier reading, and this was just the ticket. I would love to hear the audio version as this author is a true comedian. But for those who are familiar with the different shades of Mennonite, it does make a difference. I had hope for this book--a tale of a forty-something woman who goes back home after splitting from a verbally abusive and (surprise!) gay husband.
Janzen left the community in her late teens when she decided to go into academia. A University of California poet laureate in the mid-1990s, she is now an English lecturer at a college in Michigan. "That was just the beginning. Soon I longed for the days when he had merely been spending $385 on a pair of gloves." As I read, I wasn't sure how Janzen pulled off some of the descriptions of her family without alienating all of them. When I say 'irreverent' I mean that literally - she pokes fun at virtually anything that others revere.
Other Editions and Formats
“Mennonites don’t do movement,” she states at one point, although my Goshen College students who have become talented devotees of the campus Latin Dance club would beg to differ. Supposedly this is the story of a 40-ish woman who is a Mennonite whose husband leaves her for a guy whom he meets on Gay.com. She has had major surgery from which she recovers and during which he was a prince, but now she is alone and is involved in a major car accident.
This second review is written by Shirley Hershey Showalter, past-president of Goshen College. Her review is quite long and toward the end she raises the issue of the author's responsibility for the feelings of the people about whom they write in their memoir. She even includes an irreverent Appendix at the end of the book in which she tries to anticipate the questions of readers about the Mennonites. I was not very impressed with her knowledge of the historical reasons for the Amish-Mennonite split. All I can say is, don't let this woman write the Wikipedia article about Mennonites! I'll grant her a top grade for creative writing, but it's just as well that she didn't choose to be a historian.
Friend Reviews
I concur with Ann Hostetler's comments that memoirs are one perspective of a bigger story. I doubt any memoir has been published that does not result in some disgruntled relative or friend of the author. Those who are unhappy with how they were presented have the option to write their own memoir to set the record straight.
My father, once the head of the North American Mennonite Conference for Canada and the United States, is the Mennonite equivalent of the pope, but in plaid shorts and black dress socks pulled up snugly along the calf. In the complex moral universe that is Mennonite adulthood, a Mennonite can be good-looking and still have no sartorial taste whatsoever. My father may actually be unaware that he is good-looking. He is a theologian who believes in a loving God, a servant heart, and a senior discount. Would God be pleased if we spent an unnecessary thirty-one cents at McDonald's? Living in Ohio, I still long for the Hollywood version of the plain people.
Mennonite Memoir: Fun In A 'Little Black Dress'
Did I mention that Janzen was raised in a Mennonite community? In fact, her father was the head of the Mennonite Church in both Canada and the United States. As she put it, he was like the Mennonite Pope, but in sandals, socks, and plaid shorts. Janzen admits that when she left home for college, she put behind her the teachings of the Mennonite Church and entered into secular society with wild abandon.
In fact, her husband (you remember, he's now with Bob from gay.com) doesn't even believe in God and mocks her for her religious upbringing. What she finds when she drags her bruised soul and body back home is that the Mennonite community embraces her with both open arms and some distinctly odd advice. At age 43, Rhonda Janzen discovers that sometimes you are forced to go back before you are able to move forward.
Published Reviews
Hopefully the next book I pick up will be the right one for me right now. A book that does not look new and has been read but is in excellent condition. No obvious damage to the cover, with the dust jacket included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections.
The new doctors had told me there was a chance that I would be permanently incontinent, a possibility that would seriously mess with my love life, not to mention my gym schedule. But like my mother, I immediately began telling myself that permanent incontinence wasn't the end of the world. It was better, for instance, than quadriplegia. I had great friends, a husband, and a cat.
