Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. Her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com. In the same week, a car accident left her with serious injuries. Rhoda had little choice but to seek shelter and support at home with her family. Her Mennonite family, who, for theological reasons, oppose drinking, dancing, smoking, higher education, homosexuality, and divorce. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.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 speak to anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.
Rhoda Janzen holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was the University of California Poet Laureate in 1994 and 1997. She is the author of Babel’s Stair, a collection of poems, and her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review. She teaches English and creative writing at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.
The year I turned forty-three was the year I realized I should have never taken my Mennonite genes for granted. I'd long assumed that I had been genetically scripted to robust physical health, like my mother, who never even catches a head cold. All of my relatives on her side, the Loewens, enjoy preternaturally good health, unless you count breast cancer and polio.
Rhoda Janzen Discusses Mennonite In A Little Black Dress
Rhoda Janzen discusses her new memoir Mennonite In A Little Black Dress.
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