I’m not going to lie; the thing that drew me to tonight’s book was the cover and title.
Based solely on the title I bought the book one day, knowing I would take it to read on my vacation. Though I must confess I thought this would be a chicklit book I would just breeze through. Somehow I missed the word “memoir” on the cover.
This book starts out at what you would assume would be the low point of the author’s life. Due to her surgeon’s error two of her organs were punctured and she had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital and months hooked up to a “pee bag” as she calls it.
Things seem to turn around, her recovery is moving along just fine, and then her husband announces that he is leaving her for Bob. A man he met on gay.com. But that’s not the worst of it, a few days later she is in a terrible car accident that leaves her seriously injured.
With not many options, and a house that costs more than she can afford, Rhoda returns to her parent’s home and the Mennonite community she ran away from. At this point in the book, for an unknown reason I glanced at the front cover and saw the glowing review of this book from Elizabeth Gilbert. After not being able to make it through “Eat, Love, Pray” I almost threw the book down and moved on. . .but, I was on vacation and didn’t have many other book options.
Hesitantly I started reading again. . .and found myself laughing out loud whenever Rhoda talked about her mom. She is one fiery, opinionated woman, who has never lived anywhere but in the Mennonite community her entire life but boy does she have some hilarious perspectives and thoughts that I had to share with my friends.
In spite of Elizabeth Gilbert’s review, I too have to recommend this read. You don’t even have to know anything about the Mennonite community to enjoy this book because I sure didn’t.
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