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menfort's review
3.0
First half of the book I liked. The stories about her family were funny and upbeat. The stories about her marriage were honest with out making excuses. The second half I felt she was all over the place. I would give 2 1/2 stars if possible. 3 for the first half, 2 for the last half. It was an enjoyable book.
lisadsam's review
4.0
Charming, funny and well-written memoir. It doesn't follow a traditional story arch, but instead dives in with anecdotes and interludes past and present. I enjoyed the casual style, it felt honest and fitting for the situation, which was not traditional, either.
raben_76325's review
3.0
When your husband of fifteen years leaves you for a man named Bob that he met on Gay.com and you have a horrific car accident the same week, it might be time for you to consider a sabbatical. If you do, you might want to go home to your family to lick your wounds, and if you do, you might find yourself reminiscing about how different your family is from the life you've chosen for yourself. Then, you might find yourself writing. This is what Rhoda Janzen has done in this book. Throughout the book, Janzen shares humorous stories from her family, reflects on the life she chose for herself and explores what went wrong in her marriage.
The book was funny. There were a lot of incidents that made me have a smile to my face. She very clearly loves her family and looks back on her upbringing with true nostalgia. she finds herself understanding things from her childhood that embarrassed her or stressed her out as a child. She finds herself openly discussing the issues she has with her faith. She finds herself admitting that her marriage wasn't as idyllic as it was in her own head.
Despite the good things, there were several things that disappointed me.
First, she doesn't really make an attempt to explain the mennonites or what makes them distinctive. I was actually looking for buggies and long skirts, so I was disappointed with the author's descriptions of mennonite life. I never truly understood what made them so different from other Christian groups. That is a failure of the book.
Second, I didn't like the potshots she took. She downs her sister-in-laws, her brothers and her ex-husband. There's a lot of bitterness and unhappiness towards many people in the books. She needs to come to terms with her feelings with all of them so that bitterness does not grow.
Third, I didn't like her contempt for religion. She acts as if religion is something that a participant can grow past if they are educated enough. This leaves me feeling like she's looking down an patronizing in her descriptions of her family and their religion. It's just not something that is appropriate if you're just looking back with fondness at your family.
Still, it was an entertaining read, and one that I often found myself smiling and laughing at. Since I bought this at a discounted table at a library book sale, I would call it 33 cents well spent!
The book was funny. There were a lot of incidents that made me have a smile to my face. She very clearly loves her family and looks back on her upbringing with true nostalgia. she finds herself understanding things from her childhood that embarrassed her or stressed her out as a child. She finds herself openly discussing the issues she has with her faith. She finds herself admitting that her marriage wasn't as idyllic as it was in her own head.
Despite the good things, there were several things that disappointed me.
First, she doesn't really make an attempt to explain the mennonites or what makes them distinctive. I was actually looking for buggies and long skirts, so I was disappointed with the author's descriptions of mennonite life. I never truly understood what made them so different from other Christian groups. That is a failure of the book.
Second, I didn't like the potshots she took. She downs her sister-in-laws, her brothers and her ex-husband. There's a lot of bitterness and unhappiness towards many people in the books. She needs to come to terms with her feelings with all of them so that bitterness does not grow.
Third, I didn't like her contempt for religion. She acts as if religion is something that a participant can grow past if they are educated enough. This leaves me feeling like she's looking down an patronizing in her descriptions of her family and their religion. It's just not something that is appropriate if you're just looking back with fondness at your family.
Still, it was an entertaining read, and one that I often found myself smiling and laughing at. Since I bought this at a discounted table at a library book sale, I would call it 33 cents well spent!
laura_vee's review against another edition
5.0
This book was HILARIOUS! I'm talking water-spitting-out,knee-slapping, side-splittingly funny.
I read so many passages of this book out loud to my fiance, he probably feels like he read it as well.
Rhoda had some pretty awful things happen to her -- bad accident, husband leaving her for a dude he met on gay.com, abusive relationship -- but she handled it all with humor and grace.
I'd kind of like to be BFFs with her.
I read so many passages of this book out loud to my fiance, he probably feels like he read it as well.
Rhoda had some pretty awful things happen to her -- bad accident, husband leaving her for a dude he met on gay.com, abusive relationship -- but she handled it all with humor and grace.
I'd kind of like to be BFFs with her.
audreylee's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
3.0
Genuinely funny in some parts while in others it feels like the author is being needlessly crass to keep the reader at a distance. The Authors frequently comes across as pretentious--choosing to use obscure words. Still, it was overall an enjoyable read.
eljabo's review against another edition
5.0
This book was HILARIOUS! I'm talking water-spitting-out,knee-slapping, side-splittingly funny.
I read so many passages of this book out loud to my fiance, he probably feels like he read it as well.
Rhoda had some pretty awful things happen to her -- bad accident, husband leaving her for a dude he met on gay.com, abusive relationship -- but she handled it all with humor and grace.
I'd kind of like to be BFFs with her.
I read so many passages of this book out loud to my fiance, he probably feels like he read it as well.
Rhoda had some pretty awful things happen to her -- bad accident, husband leaving her for a dude he met on gay.com, abusive relationship -- but she handled it all with humor and grace.
I'd kind of like to be BFFs with her.
ruthiella's review
3.0
Less a memoir and more a collection of essays mediating on the end of Janzen’s marriage and her Mennonite upbringing. Some of what she chronicles isn’t so unusual. I was raised Methodist by parents who neither drank nor cursed; I too suffered from the lack of a cool lunch box and the fact that my mother re-used zip lock bags (the 70’s were a rough time economically folks!). I never had to take Borscht for lunch, however, and I while I was not allowed to see R rated movies like Saturday Night Fever, I did get to learn the Hustle with my mother’s blessing. Occasionally this book made me laugh out loud, in particular any story involving Janzen’s mother, but the entire book doesn’t quite maintain the hilarity or the tone of the first chapter