DLR LIBRARY BLOG

Once again a big thanks to Sarah for the following review!!

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

by

Rhoda Janzen

I would love to meet Rhoda Janzen. When I finished "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" (which is written with fantastic candidness and panache) I felt like I had been into Rhoda's life, read her diary, looked at her credit card statements, seen the contents of her fridge, listened in to her phone calls, gone through her wardrope, lookedat her photo albums...and whats worse I want to know more! The more an author lets you in the deeper a reader will want to go into a story. What is even better than her honesty in this story is the fact that as a person and in her writing Rhoda is unaffected and charming and the same can be said for the story itself.

With fluid humour and light self-deprecation " Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" is a super page turner of a book. Rhoda Janzen, a former poet laureate in the University of California, English Lecturer and all round academic, writes her life story so far (she is only forty-three) in this memoir of growing up in and returning to the Mennonite Community in which she was raised.

Atlantic Books have been great for quirky accessible human interest stories( Cockeyed, Ryan Knighton, Fortune's Daughter, Elizabeth Keogh and God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens) so it was very easy to make the decision to pick this one up.

Rhoda's husband of fifteen years leaves her for a man named Bob whom he met on Gay.com. In the same week Rhoda is involved in a terrible car crash. Her physical and emotional injuries send her back home to the Mennonite Community from once she fled. Where she begins a sabbatical from her lecturing post. Nursing her broken bones and heart Rhoda reflects on her life spent with a bipolar husband who makes insane impulse purchases like a $385 pair of gloves on Rhoda's credit card. She also reflects on the heavy traditions of the Mennonite Community in which she grew up where everything from dancing to convenience food was banned but where love was abundant.

Rhoda's writing had me sniggering and snorting ungracefully with outbursts of laughter. She is the kind of funny that can only be achieved with candid honesty and an appreciation for the unique problems that simply being human bring. Many stories are worthy of being told but only a select few make it to the New York Times bestseller list and this book did I think because how much the reader is allowed in. There is nothing more fascinating than reading in delicious detail about someone else's life decisions, finances and love life.

I highly recommend this wonderful story, it is so uplifting and bright I almost want to fashion a petticoat and bonnet... Sarah Sarah's Books.com