Review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

Truth is stranger than fiction, the saying goes. And Rhoda Janzen, in her memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, proves that. Soon after turning 40, Janzen, a poet who teaches at Hope College, has major gynecological surgery. And not long after that, Janzen's husband, Nick, leaves her for a man. The same week Nick leaves her, Janzen is injured in a serious car accident. It sounds like a soap opera, but it's true.

Janzen decides to take a well-deserved breather at her parents' home in California. The kicker is that her parents are Mennonites, a faith she has tried to distance herself from for years. Her mother is always upbeat, while her father is more austere. They welcome her home with open arms, and Janzen does her best to try to heal.

This memoir is not just the story of Janzen looking back on her childhood and the Mennonite religion. It's also the story of her failed marriage to a man who was bipolar and bisexual-- that's a lot of bi. And her memoir is also about coming to grips with the life that she has chosen. An academic, Janzen strays from her upbringing, where too much education is considered a bad thing.

The tone of this memoir is light. Too light. I know that Janzen wanted to have a light-hearted tone, but in some places, this works against her. This is serious stuff she's tackling-- surgery, faith, divorce, mental illness. And yes, she can find humor in it, which is great. But all of this is deserving of a more serious tone on occasion.

All in all, though, I enjoyed the book, especially Janzen's interactions with her mother-- an always cheerful woman who suggests her daughter date a cousin-- and the various Mennonites in her orbit. I also found it interesting to read about Janzen's relationship with her siblings-- her brothers continue to follow the Mennonite religion, but her sister does not.

I admire Janzen for bouncing back from such adversity and for being so honest about everything that has happened to her.

Just One Pink gives Mennonite in a Little Black Dress a 7.5.

Review of The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

If there is one word that comes to mind after reading Aryn Kyle's novel, it is "hushed." The God of Animals is the story of a young girl, Alice Winston, growing up on a horse farm in Colorado. Alice's life is far from easy-- her older sister has run off and gotten married, her depressed mother stays upstairs in her bedroom, and her father tries to keep money coming in and his home and business in order.

Alice is an unusually observant and smart girl. The novel opens with her recollection of a classmate's death. How she spins this death to her advantage was an interesting part of the book. It was also interesting to see how she dealt with social issues that came up at her school, how she tried to deal with her mother's illness, and how she tried to soldier on in light of so many troubles at home.

The quietness of this novel was one of its strong points, but I thought it moved too slowly. I would have liked to see a bit more action-- most of it came in the form of horse riding and training.

Kyle is a lyrical writer, and I thought the novel flowed nicely. She created an utterly believable narrator in Alice Winston and clearly has first-hand knowledge of life on a ranch.

Just One Pink gives The God of Animals a 7.5.

Review of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

We've seen an explosion of Indian literature over the past few years, but we haven't seen much Pakistani literature. Daniyal Mueenuddin's book of short stories, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, has changed that.

Mueenuddin's linked short stories tackle class issues in Pakistan. We see the viewpoints of the rich, poor, and those who used to be rich and are now poor. We meet an electrician who struggles to support his large family, a servant who uses sex to gain favor, an embittered Lahore judge, a spoiled and wealthy young woman who marries and moves to the countryside, among others. I found myself feeling empathy for all the characters, no small feat when many of them were manipulative and dishonest. Though I have never been to Pakistan, I got a good sense of the country from reading Mueenuddin's stories.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was a finalist for the National Book Award last year. This book was one of the best books of short stories I have read in years, and I highly recommend it.

Here is an excerpt from the story "About a Burning Girl": I am a sessions judge in the Lahore High Court. I should tell you at the start, so that you understand my position regarding these events, that despite my profession I don't believe in justice, am no longer consumed by a desire to be what in law school we called "a sword of the Lord"; nor do I pretend to have perfectly clean hands, so am not in a position to view the judicial system with anything except a degree of tolerance. I render decisions based on the relative pressures brought to bear on me.

Just One Pink gives In Other Rooms, Other Wonders a 9.5.

Review of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Is that testosterone that I smell? Yes. Yes, it is, and the odor is coming from Anthony Bourdain's book, Kitchen Confidential. Again, I'm behind the curve-- this book about Bourdain's life as a chef throughout the East Coast came out years ago. Most recently, I think, Bourdain was the chef at New York's Les Halles.

Bourdain's book details his life in the restaurant business and all the good, bad and ugly that transpired. He mostly concentrates on the bad and ugly, which, of course, is much more interesting than the good. Bourdain has a bad boy reputation and freely admits to using heroin and cocaine, among a bunch of other drugs. He talks about bouncing from restaurant to restaurant, plucking the best sous-chefs and other kitchen staff along the way. Bourdain descibes what actually goes on inside a kitchen-- this includes a lot of banter, insults, booze, yelling, and hook-ups. He also discusses how he came to be a chef, that the restaurant business seems to attract people who could not function in "regular" jobs. His tales of sex, alcohol and deceit are definitely entertaining, but he does provide the lay reader with practical information about eating out-- a bonus of the book, I thought.

So if you are looking for an entertaining and frolicking (why this word jumps out at me, I don't know) read about a frenzied chef in New York City and the world he orbits, definitely pick up this book.

Just One Pink gives Kitchen Confidential an 8.

Review of Famous Fathers & Other Stories by Pia Z. Ehrhardt

Women are the main characters in all the stories in Pia Z. Ehrhardt's book, Famous Fathers & Other Stories. And all of these women are struggling with issues of fidelity and love, both familial and romantic. The stories take place in and around New Orleans, which serves as a great backdrop-- it is a city that is recovering, as are most of the characters in some way. Ehrhardt's writing is spare and clear, and I liked that. What I didn't like so much was that each female protagonist seemed to be similar to the next-- I started thinking that all the characters were interchangeable. For example, in the first story in the collection, "Running the Room," the narrator thinks about starting an affair at the same time she is housing her mother-- who is actually having an affair. In "Tell Me in Italian," the divorced narrator is having a torrid affair with a married man and finds out a lot of information about her own father's affair with his grad student. All of the women have considered affairs, are having affairs, or are dealing with heartbreak, which is fine, but I would have liked the narrators to be more distinct.

One of the strongest stories in the collection, "Intermediate Goals," tells the story of a woman named Carrie, who is reeling from her recent divorce. She's at loose ends and spends her time hanging out at bars and visiting a local prison. I also thought "Driveway" was very good. A married woman considers having an affair and thinks about the boredom in the daily life of a wife and mother.

Here is an excerpt from "Intermediate Goals": There's something wrong with my train of thought. Pat and I are at Shoney's, drinking coffee and arguing about money, but I switch off and start to admire his eyebrows, his nose, his analog watch, the new orange shirt he's wearing. I watch him like he's someone else's problem, and I start thinking: wouldn't it be nice if he were mine.

Just One Pink gives Famous Fathers & Other Stories a 7.

Review of Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo

Sung J. Woo's book Everything Asian tells the story of a Korean boy who immigrates to New Jersey with his family in the 1980's. His father had arrived in the U.S. years before, leaving Dae Joon, his sister and mother behind in Korea while he established himself. Dae Joon-- soon to be David-- is not only grappling with a foreign culture, but also with a father he barely remembers.

David does his best to navigate the strange surroundings of New Jersey. His parents run East Meets West, a store that sells "everything Asian" and David spends a lot of time there and in Peddlers Town, the strip mall that houses the store. There are a lot of other characters who add flavor to the novel, including the only other Korean shopkeepers at Peddlers Town, the Hongs; the fiery Russian owner of a stereo store; and a detective who sets up a storefront agency.

As if adjusting to life in the U.S. weren't enough, David is also contending with parents who aren't so happy in general or with each other in particular, and a moody older sister.

Everything Asian is a coming of age novel and an immigrant novel.

Here is an excerpt: My sister had chosen this day, my twelfth birthday, to try to kill herself. Looking back on that day now, I can see it was merely a stunt to gain attention, and even then I think I knew she was bluffing, but still, I couldn't ignore the blue dish and the paring knife sitting on top of the toilet seat, its tip pointing toward the bathtub like a compass needle. On the dish, a pile of white pills sat like an offering. I put the dish and the knife on the floor and flipped the seat up. As I peed into the bowl, I stared down at the silver edge of the blade, wondering how close it had come to my sister's wrists.

Just One Pink gives Everything Asian an 8.

Review of Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

Amsterdam is a disturbing and well-written book. Ostensibly about the death of Molly Lane, a woman in her 40s who dies of a degenerative disease, Amsterdam revolves around the lives of several of her former lovers: Vernon, a newspaper editor; Clive, a composer; and Julian, a politician. Also in the mix is George, Molly's much older husband, who is also connected in some way to these men.

The book opens with Vernon and Clive meeting outside Molly's funeral on a dreary February day in London. Vernon and Clive are good friends, and much of the book focuses on their friendship, which one day can be combative and the next heartfelt. These two men also have connections to George and Julian.

How all of these characters' lives and decisions-- both personal and professional-- intertwine is the thrust of this book. Major moral issues come in to play and Ian McEwan weaves them all together in a tightly-knit way.

I wouldn't say Amsterdam is my favorite of the books I have read by McEwan, but I will say that it is one of the most intricately plotted.

Just One Pink gives Amsterdam a 7.5.