Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home

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Synopsis
Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her injured. Needing a place to rest and pick up the pieces of her life, Rhoda packed her bags, crossed the country, and returned to her quirky Mennonite family's home, where she was welcomed back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda's good-natured mother suggested she get over her heartbreak by dating her first cousin - he owned a tractor, see.) Written with wry humor and huge personality - and tackling faith, love, family, and aging - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.
Copyright:
2010

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
257 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780805092257
Publisher:
Henry Holt & Company
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Rhoda Janzen
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Religion and Spirituality
Submitted By:
Liz Halperin
Proofread By:
Liz Halperin
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

3 out of 5

By on

Humor, like the proverbial beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. Mennonite begins with 2 pages of reviews attesting to its slap-dash, spit your coffee humor. That always makes me wary. The first few chapters I thought were mildly funny but the reviews had built my expectations too far up there on the humor-o-meter. Then I found myself laughing out loud a couple times. Oops. I think the book in addition to being a sly story, a going home (to a Mennonite family) story, is going to strike different people differently. We each bring our own history to constitute what is "cute", what is satirical, humorous, what is side-splitting-hilarious, and what is spit out your coffee unexpectedly funny. There's no predicting. However, I'll say proofreading this book was a light-hearted romp, there were parts I DID find funny although my neighbor might not, and parts others probably though hysterical that made no impact on me. I also learned some Mennonite culture. I just wish that publisher marketing departments would go easier on the build-up. One other note: a couple times Janzen uses the idiom so-and-so was a "shoe-in" for something, spelling the word "shoe" as an apparel item. For what it's worth, it's spelled "shoo".