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CRAZY QUILT
by Cynthia Yoder
Cascadia Publishing House/DreamSeeker Books, December 2003
187 pages
$14.95
ISBN: 1931038147


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

I've been interested in the "peace churches" - the Amish, the Quakers, the Mennonites - for a very long time. I think it's very interesting that people in these and other churches live, as they say "in the world, but not of the world." And when you want to read about the Amish, or Mennonites - the Anabaptists - you tend to read descriptions of them, not by them, because they tend, by definition, not to write books for the rest of the world. So when Cynthia Yoder, who grew up in Mennonite society with a minister father, published a memoir, I thought "cool, this will give me insight and understanding."

I don't think it did; I truly dislike it when reviewers say they're disappointed because a book didn't live up to expectations, but I guess that is how I feel. Yoder writes of being horrifically depressed and to try to get out of it, she leaves her New York apartment (and her husband, also of Mennonite heritage) and returns home to Pennsylvania, living with family. She decides she'll interview her grandparents, doing a sort of oral history, to give her direction while she tries to understand what's wrong.

It might have worked for Yoder, but the book did not work for me. Despite this interesting premise, it wasn't interesting. Yoder provides excerpts from her grandmother's diary which I found bafflingly dull; instead of convincing me that Betts had a full, rich satisfying life, the very plain writing shows a grind. I know I'm modern 21st century and all, but I do respect "simpler" lives and know that the life of the Yoder family can't have been easy.

These are relatively "modern" Mennonites, who use electricity and have phones, for example, but for whom, the church and the bible and religion are the centerpiece of every life. Cynthia went to church camp, and Jesus festivals, and while she did spend time with friends who listened to Led Zeppelin and wore tank tops, she understandably had a hard time deciding which life she wanted to lead.

I don't know why her stay in Pennsylvania worked for her, although of course I'm glad it did. Her husband, in part to give her some "space" went abroad, traveling to lots of countries. When he returns, she's not interested in any stories of his travels, any information about where he went or what he saw; all she wants to know is if their marriage is still working. I found that sad and awfully self-centered.

She sees a therapist, which I thought interesting since some conservative religions frown on seeking psychiatric help from "outside". But he seems very normal and ordinary and she keeps calling him "her angel". Yoder, for all her experience in the world, expresses ideas that I expect from someone much younger and more having visions or mild hallucinations - that she was let's say seeing things - means she's going to be "locked up with the other lunatics", meaning two of her friends who were suicidal.

The details of the lives of the Mennonites were interesting. Yoder's own trip back to stability might have been, but I never really got why her stay with her family worked; she was frantic for letters from her husband, her questions to her grandparents didn't, to me really bring out a lot of detail, she didn't seem to be able to follow-up well.

She does understand that asking someone about personal details can be intrusive and she tries to be curious without being "nosy", as she put it, but she doesn't know how to ask the next question. Her grandfather will say something, she won't ask another question. Her pushy grandmother will say something and again, she gets distracted.

It's my own dislike of some parts of religion, discussing of faith or "going to glory" or missionaries and evangelical religion that got in the way of some of this book, I know, but I went past it, deliberately, and kept reading, hoping to get more out of it. I respect religion, but much of what comes up in this particular book, I can't and don't relate to and at times, makes me uncomfortable. But there was no assumption that all readers must believe or feel this way - for Yoder, this just is and was part of life, and that's fine.

This is not a bad book by any description. Readers have to not mind the infrequent but when-they're-there-they're-bad typos like "you're" for "your" and misspelling the name of Abbie Hoffman. Crazy Quilt just wasn't as interesting as I had hoped it would be. I think readers who are less picky than I am will get more out of it.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, November 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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