Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

People edit see section history

• Rhoda Janzen: The author and main character. This book revolves around her story of an abusive marriage and a breakup.
• Nick: Rhoda is married to Nick for 15 years. Nick is bisexual.
• Hannah: Rhoda's beautiful younger sister.
• Lola: Best Friend, support network, sense of reason
• Caleb: Rhoda has a sister, Hannah, and two brothers, Aaron and Caleb.
• Aaron: Rhoda has a sister, Hannah, and two brothers, Aaron and Caleb.
• Phil: Married to Hannah for 11 years.
• Staci: Rhoda's sisters-in-law Staci and Deena come across as vastly inferior in sensitivity and taste.
• Yvonne: Add a description of this character.
• Raoul
• Mr. Handwerker
• Mrs. Eplett
• Deena: Rhoda's sisters-in-law Staci and Deena come across as vastly inferior in sensitivity and taste.
• Karl Kroeker
• Soren: Rhoda meets Soren, a 27-year-old Mennonite man who's 17 years younger than she is.
• Bob: Nick met Bob on gay.com.
• Allie
• Milla
• Holden
• Mitch
• Mrs. Leona Wiebe
• Gabe
• Marta
• Mrs. Friesen
• Eva
• Arlene
• Mary
• Regina
• Stan
• Mrs. Lorenz
• Hans
• Waldemar
• Ahithophel
• Wyatt
• Mr. Epp
• Walter
• Connie Isaac
• Jonathan
• Frieda

Quotes edit see section history

• “I'll have to look up the etymology of 'boner'.”

  Rhoda

• “Ji jileada, ji vikjeada (the more educated a person is, the more warped).”

• “In my opinion, sexiness comes down to three things: chemistry, sense of humor, and treatment of waitstaff at restaurants. If the sparks don't fly from the beginning, they never will. If he doesn't get your sense of humor from the first conversation, you'll always secretly be looking for someone who does. And if a guy can't see restaurant servers as real people, with real needs and dreams and crappy jobs, then I don't want to be with him, even if he just won the Pulitzer Prize.”

  Rhoda

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• But I have come to believe that virtue isn’t a condition of character. It’s an elected action. It’s a choice we keep making, over and over, hoping that someday we’ll create a habit so strong it will carry us through our bouts of pettiness and meanness.

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• “When you’re young, faith is often a matter of rules. What you should do and shouldn’t do, that kind of thing. But as you get older, you realize that faith is really a matter of relationship—with God, with the people around you, with the members of your community.”

  Highlighted by 88 Kindle customers

• Is it ever really a waste of time to love someone, truly and deeply, with everything you have?

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• What I want to measure, what I can control, is my own response to life’s challenges.

  Highlighted by 64 Kindle customers

• In my opinion, sexiness comes down to three things: chemistry, sense of humor, and treatment of waitstaff at restaurants.

  Highlighted by 62 Kindle customers

• I don’t think middle age is about learning to live with ambiguity; it’s just the opposite. It’s about finally developing the resolve to reject ambiguity and embrace simplicity. What could be simpler than saying, ‘No matter how I feel about him, I will not expose myself to his damage’? I’m not saying it isn’t painful. But it is simple.”

  Highlighted by 54 Kindle customers

• it’s when you don’t love somebody that you do notice the little things. Then you mind them. You mind them terribly.

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• Are there not other ways to process abandonment than through the lens of our own victimization and anger?

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• Who knows how we can be both good and bad, both hurt and hurtful? The answer is that none of us knows how. None of us knows why. All we can agree on is the fact that the human condition is constituted by wild vacillations between altruism and nefarity, between kindness and cruelty. One moment we’re opening our hearts and our wallets to hurricane victims; the next we’re torturing prisoners of war and laughing about the photographs with our friends.

  Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers

• adiaphorous morality, what if we agreed just to let people be who they are, since we can’t change them anyway?

  Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• California
• Chicago
• Italy
• Montpelier
• Michigan: The author discusses her lake house. More than likely on Lake Michigan, in Holland, Michigan.

Organizations edit see section history

• Mennonites: Add a description of this organization.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Rhoda Janzen (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Hillary Huber (Reader)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3610 .A59 Z75 2006
• Dewey: 811.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Adult themes in this book make it inappropriate for a younger audience and probably not all that interesting to anyone under 18.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Specific Groups › Women
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Memoirs

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Rhoda Janzen: Author's official website.

More Books Like This edit see section history