I've noticed that the majority of my favorite writers are men and many of them use male protagonists and it's starting to feel a little unbalanced to me. It worries me that there seems to be no place for women in contemporary fiction. So often women writers (and characters) are limited to chick lit novels with the same basic character rather than taken seriously and it leaves me asking where all of the women are. I've tried to make it a point to read more books by talented lady writers that have realistic female characters.
I was browsing the books at Goodwill last week when I came across Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen. I recalled seeing it reviewed in a couple of magazines, but it seemed like a memoir with a chick lit bent and I wasn't all that interested. Then I saw a blurb on the back by Kate Christensen, my favorite female writer, and knew it was probably a little deeper than I gave it credit for.
The memoir follows Rhoda's trip home to the Mennonite community in Central California after her rocky marriage ends (with the help of Bob from gay.com). She had just been injured in a car crash and decided that spending her sabbatical at home is preferable over spending it alone in the midwest. From reading the amazon reviews it seems like a lot of people were disappointed because they were expecting something else (or found the vocabulary to be a little much), so let me be clear, to me this book is about coming home and coming to terms with yourself when who you are isn't who you expected to be. I've made the choice in my life to have my career be the priority at the moment and she's somebody who made the same choice and can be honest about the joys and struggles it has brought her. It was about being single after putting a lot of work into sustaining a marriage and straddling the the line between being culturally religious and religious religious. The book is humorous in the way that life is humorous. Her mom is downright hilarious, but Rhoda doesn't try to sugar coat the crap she's going through.
Ms. Janzen is an incredibly talented writer. She's a professor of english and creative writing and clearly writes at a level far superior to what I'm used to seeing, which honestly makes it a little difficult for her to connect to the audience. That said, she writes so beautifully and honestly that I found myself constantly sneaking off to read more. I feel like memoirs are a little self serving for the author. They're written to force the writer to learn something about themselves and look for lessons in their struggles. As an added benefit the reader get's to partake in their wisdom. After reading this book I feel like I should be cherishing the time I'm spending with my family more and feel like I have a model of a strong, intelligent woman to look up to.
Any recommendations for lady authors (or protagonists) that I should keep my eyes out for?
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