You are in a restaurant. You have had a lovely meal of steak or chicken primavera or manacotti. You decide that that lovely looking chocolate bomb has indeed tempted you. Then, the waiter brings the luscious looking desert to the table. You pick up your fork and break the gooey sauce covered cake. Tasting it, the chocolate melts into your mouth and the smells intensify the sweet goodness. Three bites in, it is no longer pleasurable. It has become cloyingly sweet and sickeningly goopy. You've had too much.
This book started out promisingly well. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen has a lovely title, and starts with several funny chapters and laugh out loud lines. It ends however by being too much. Too much introspection. Too much bitterness. Just too much. I found myself wishing that Janzen would spend more time writing about her delightful family in all their amazing quirkiness and less time about her abusive louse of a husband.
Who should read this?
Anyone one who has had experience with large families. Anyone who has experienced the quirky world of fundamentalism, which has many weaknesses, but actually has a few (a very few) strengths--like valuing family. With that said, if you do pick this book up, be prepared for quite a lot of coarseness and, well, just too much detail about Janzen's bitter and painful years in her marriage, which may outweigh those first three bites of chocolaty goodness. Too bad books aren't like desserts, because you will want to split this one.
I agree -- I read this book and it didn't live up to my expectations.
Posted by: Andrea | 03 December 2010 at 08:05 PM