10 Reasons to Love "Mennonite In A Little Black Dress"

There are a lot (a lot!) of reasons to love "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" by Rhoda Janzen but here I will pick out ten in the hope that this will convince to read this brilliant book:

1) Janzen grew up in a Mennonite community, left it to become an academic and then went back home to cook and write a fantastic memoir when her hapless husband Nick left her for a guy named Bob that he met on gay.com. She rocks.

2) This quote from page 24: "I hope it's clear by now that the Mennonites wouldn't want me. The only reason they're nice to me is that my dad is famous, my mom makes great pie, and I babysat their kids when I was twelve."

3) Her take on men (from page 62): "Hannah's husband was fabulous. Among Phil's many excellent qualities was the expression of zero interest in leaving his wife for a guy he had met on Gay.com."

4) She manages to make Germanic food such as Platz, Borscht and persimmon cookies sound oddly attractive and I did actually buy persimmons to try the recipes at the back of the book. Thanks Rhoda's mom!

5) Her musings on modern womanhood (page 166): "Consider how impossible it is, for example, to aspire to the role of virtuous woman when professional commitments dramatically interfere with jam delivery to oldsters."

6) Her musings on what makes a man sexy (page 203): "In my opinion, sexiness comes down to three things: chemistry, sense of humour, and treatment of waitstaff at restaurants."

7) Her observations on the sorority that she is faculty adviser to (page 210): "One twelve-degree evening in February, when there was eight inches of snow under a layer of slippery drizzle, my sorority gals celebrated their fellowship by donning denim minis, pink tights, and stilettos."

8) Her explanation of the difference between Amish and Mennonite (page 226): "But the Amish cut away from the Mennonites in 1693 because the rest of us were too liberal. That's rich, no? A liberal Mennonite is an oxymoron if ever there was one."

9) The way she manages her mother who is a typical, practical Mennonite woman who at times approaches life in a different way: "If your mother takes a frozen uncooked chicken in her suitcase to Hawaii, all bets are off. You just go with the flow."

10) The fact that she manages to tell a tragic story about a woman who looks after and takes care of her mentally frail husband who then leaves her when she herself is at her most fragile without letting the grief and the unfairness take over. Instead she turns it into a story about life,  hope and looking towards the future, she is an inspiration.

An Education - What Lynn Learnt

"An Education" is a short little book with a lot to tell. It is the memoirs of British journalist Lynn Barber and it was recently made into an acclaimed film by Danish director Lone Scherfig.

Barber tells about growing up in the suburbs of London with parents that did not make life easier for her - and it cannot have been easy for said parents to read their daughter's description of a dull childhood in Twickenham. Maybe it is boredom or the search for adventure that lead the 16-year old Lynn to fall for a much older man. A man to introduces her to the wrong sort of people, takes her away for weekends and all with her parents acceptance. They even urge her to say yes when he proposes. She doesn't, however, instead she goes to university at Oxford determined to learn more about men and this stand her in good stead when she goes on to work for Penthouse in the magazine's early days. This jobs leads to many more job in journalism and Barber describes the world of writing well, however, the really impressive part of the book is her description of her husband's fatal ilness. I was unable to stop reading and almost cried at her honest description of tragedy.

Personally I would like more detail - especially in chapter 2 where she describes her relationship with the con-man. Maybe some more reflection as well - especially on her relatioship with her parents as this is describes as complicated but she never tries to see the situation from their point of view or tie this in with the way she handles parenting. The chapters about losing the love of her life, however, are so emotional and wonderfully written that I will read them again some day. It almost hurt to read about her pain, yet it is so beautiful in is loving descriptions that it is impossible not to be impressed by it.