Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Brief note: In a previous life, before marriage and kids, I was an English major. It seemed a good idea at the time to major in something I loved rather than something that would provide, oh, stable and profitable employment opportunities.

My love of literature only grew during my years of study; I devoured books and savored the opportunity to write and to create. So now, in my spare and stolen moments, I read. And when I'm truly blessed, I take a few moments to jot down my thoughts.

So every once in a while, I'll probably feature a brief review of some of my latest reading here on our blog--just for old time's sake.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (A Memoir of Going Home), by Rhoda Janzen.

So much has already been written about this little gem that pretty much anything I would add would just be redundant. But I do want to quickly summarize the book and scribble down my reflection on the book as a whole.

As the title points out, this is a memoir written by a one-time Mennonite, after her marriage of 15 years has fallen apart and as she is recovering from a debilitating automobile accident. Having no one to help her at home, she spends her recovery with her parents back in the Mennonite community of her childhood.

The book (humorously and achingly in turns) guides the reader through her life from childhood to the present--her Mennonite roots, her failed marriage, her life as a secular academic--and it's written cathartically, as she struggles to heal, emotionally and physically.

Her wry and intensely clever writing creates the literary equivalent of a talented stand-up comedian, who keeps your sides aching for over 200 pages, and yet laughter turned to tears as I grieved with her and her heartache. In the last half of the book, she turns introspective, struggling to understand faith and virtue as they relate to Christianity and to the greater religious experience. Even in introspection, though, her writing maintains its lighthearted vibe. And while no one is safe from her humorous revelations, not even her own mother, she writes with a loving and respectful attitude, which I found honest and refreshing.

Although I disagree with some of her conclusions, specifically as they pertain to my view of truth and Christianity, I wholeheartedly believe her memoir is more than worth the several hours it takes to read. It's a beautiful, almost poetic, exploration of life, love, loss, and finding out all over again what really matters.

The oldsters were singing and smiling and shivering in the breeze that had picked up, heavy now with the scent of lavender. Harmony rose like a prayer in the cool of the late afternoon, and the music was gentle as a hand on the small of my back, nudging me forward--the sound of my heritage, my future.