Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
In the wake of personal crisis, Rhoda Janzen returned to the Mennonite community of her youth — and penned a laugh-out-loud funny memoir.
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Rhoda Janzen. Photo by Shelley LaLonde.
Until the year she turned forty-three, college English professor Rhoda Janzen led a seemingly idyllic life, one that included a rewarding job, a lakefront house, and a husband of fifteen years. Then within the span of a single week, her husband left her for a man he met on gay.com, and she was seriously injured in a head-on motor vehicle accident on a snow-covered road near her Michigan home.
Needing to come to grips with debilitating injuries and her failed marriage, Janzen returned to the Ukrainian Mennonite neighborhood where she was raised—a “land of Borscht, Zwiebach, and corduroy-covered Bibles”—and moved in with her parents. The experience not only helped her to heal both physically and emotionally, it yielded a witty memoir, one that proves you can go home again—provided you come from a close-knit Mennonite community.
Failure interviewed Janzen to discuss her experiences, and to find out how Mennonites have reacted to “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress” (Henry Holt).
Who are the Mennonites and what do they believe?
The Mennonites are a Protestant group who believe a familiar Protestant creed, but one thing that makes them distinctive is that they tend to be anti-war and anti-violence. Most Mennonites don’t fight under any circumstances. They also have a communal ethos, and tend to live together and support one another.
What is their relationship to the Amish?
The Amish are an offshoot of the Mennonite church, having split from the Mennonites several hundred years ago because the Mennonites were too liberal. There are pronounced similarities in creed and in practice between the two churches, though most people assume that the Amish are even more conservative. In general, that tends to be true.
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