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Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

A Memoir of Going Home

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Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

By: Rhonda Janzen
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
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About this listen

 A hilarious and moving memoir in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron about a woman who returns home to her Mennonite family after a personal crisis.

The same week her husband of 15 years ditches her for a guy he met on Gay.com, a partially inebriated teenage driver smacks her VW Beetle head-on. Marriage over, body bruised, life upside-down, Rhoda does what any sensible 43-year-old would do: She goes home.

But hers is not just any home. It's a Mennonite home, the scene of her painfully uncool childhood and the bosom of her family: handsome but grouchy Dad, plain but cheerful Mom. Drinking, smoking, and slumber parties are nixed; potlucks, prune soup, and public prayer are embraced. Having long ago left the faith behind, Rhoda is surprised when the conservative community welcomes her back with open arms and offbeat advice. She discovers that this safe, sheltered world is the perfect place to come to terms with her failed marriage and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.

©2009 Rhoda Janzen (P)2009 Highbridge Women Memoir Marriage Witty Funny
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Enjoyed the strong performance by the narrator. It was interesting too to hear about Mennonite views. Pretty down to earth in observations. A sarcastic sense of humour but always sounding truthful.

Entertaining

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This had a great review in the Telegraph so I downloaded it for a long car journey and boy am I glad I did, It is quite brilliant. I didn't laugh out loud a lot but had a big smile on my face most of the time, which probably worried other drivers! It's a beautifully read story of life in middle age beset by the kind of trials that life hurls at you when you think you're doing alright but in this case Rhoda Janzen has the guts to get back up (with the help of her eccentric family) and face it full on, then write a book about it. It's funny, it's sad, it's upbuilding, it's family, it's life.

thoroughly captivating

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we start with cancer, and polio, then the hysterectomy, flowed shortly by incontinence, sexual dysfunction, divorce, a gay husband who was good at cleaning catheter bag, followed by car crash and insolvency. I left when her mother is serving tuna sandwiches while descriving puss ( all these in two chapters).
I am not of a weak stomach but I do not see the point of suffering through someones medical and psychological history in a totally valueless manner, and with disorganized writing; better books and thing to do with my life.

One hour of torture, was all I could take

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