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A review by aliceburton
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
3.0
This book was really weird in that I didn't really like it, but it was very readable. The author seemed somewhat on a quest to prove her own intelligence, which makes sense with some things she says in the book about her ex-husband deriding it all the time, but nothing should make someone write a sentence like "Sure, from a rationcinative point of view, the invention of angels on the walls seems an unlikely way to achieve virtue in praxis." What? No. No, madam. That was sentence fail for your poplit book.
The last chapter is called A Mennonite History Primer, which really should be first. She either assumes you know a decent amount about Mennonites, or she thinks it's not necessary. But her childhood kept sounding pretty normal until she'd inject something like her church having an outhouse. I know nothing about Mennonites except I THINK they have beards as a requirement. This didn't go too far towards expanding that knowledge.
I did, however, like this section: "After Nick left, I eventually began dating a man I liked but didn't love, and I finally have firsthand experience in those little sparks of irritation that ignite impatience. I'd never minded the little things in Nick's behavior; I'd never even noticed them. It was after Nick had left me that I learned the lesson: it's when you don't love somebody that you do notice the little things. Then you mind them."
I just got out of a relationship and yeah, lots and lots of things had bugged me. But I also know that towards the end I didn't love him. So that kinda hit home, and that and a few poignant moments she managed to grab bumped this from 2/5 to 3/5.
The last chapter is called A Mennonite History Primer, which really should be first. She either assumes you know a decent amount about Mennonites, or she thinks it's not necessary. But her childhood kept sounding pretty normal until she'd inject something like her church having an outhouse. I know nothing about Mennonites except I THINK they have beards as a requirement. This didn't go too far towards expanding that knowledge.
I did, however, like this section: "After Nick left, I eventually began dating a man I liked but didn't love, and I finally have firsthand experience in those little sparks of irritation that ignite impatience. I'd never minded the little things in Nick's behavior; I'd never even noticed them. It was after Nick had left me that I learned the lesson: it's when you don't love somebody that you do notice the little things. Then you mind them."
I just got out of a relationship and yeah, lots and lots of things had bugged me. But I also know that towards the end I didn't love him. So that kinda hit home, and that and a few poignant moments she managed to grab bumped this from 2/5 to 3/5.