A Complicated Kindness

I just finished another book. I'm on a roll, which is probably a good thing as my reading list is significantly shorter this year than last year. (Shame on me, eh?) A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews offers an interesting look into the life of a Mennonite teenager.

"We're Mennonites. As far as I know, we are the most embarrassing subsect of people to belong to if you're a teenager. Five hundred years ago in Europe a man named Menno Simons set off to do his own peculiar religious thing ... Imagine the least well-adjusted kid in your school starting a breakaway clique of people whose manifesto includes a ban on the media, dancing, smoking, temperate climates, movies, drinking, rock 'n' roll, having sex for fun, swimming, make-up, jewelry, playing pool, going to cities or staying up past nine o' clock. That was Menno all over. Thanks a lot, Menno."

Left with her broken father after being abandoned by her mother and older sister, Nomi struggles to find her way in this typical coming of age story made atypical because of its setting within the small Mennonite town in which she lives. The author poses the following question, which with any luck you'll be able to answer for yourself by the time you read the last page: "Is it wrong to trust in a beautiful life if it helps you get through life?"