The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life

by Julia Kasdorf

"When I think I can't bear to trace / one more sorrow back to its source, /... I think of how they tell these / honestly, without explanation, / to whoever will listen. -- "Thinking of Certain Mennonite Women," by Julia Kasdorf, from Eve's Striptease (University of Pittsburgh Press) This collection of essays by nationally known poet Julia Kasdorf "probe," in her own words, "the tangled threads of gender and cultural/religious identity as they relate to the emergence and exercise of literary authority." Her ten essays, accompanied by forty-two engaging illustrations (from a nude by Titian, to family photos, to a famous image of Marilyn Monroe) and a dozen of her poems, focus on specific aspects of Mennonite life. Often drawing from historical episodes or family stories, Kasdorf pursues themes of martyrdom, landscape, silence, the body, memory, community, and the struggle to articulate experience with a voice that is both authentic to the self and a conversation with her traditional Mennonite and Amish-Mennonite background. Praise for Julia Kasdorf's previous book, Eve's "Crosshatched by body, spirit, and the relation between them; animated by bright instinctive exchanges between carnal and religious zones of experience; driven by an honest, explicitly female consciousness of what 'animal' and 'soul' might mean, the poems in Eve's Striptease keep pace with a considered life in its search for some consoling 'homeliness' in the world."--Eamon Grennan, author of New & Selected Poems "Most readers will be grateful for the gift outright of Kasdorf's achingly beautiful language of desire and of a "full store" of unavoidable passings from discovery to dark discovery and from expectations and surprises of childhood to retrospections and surprises of adulthood."--Mennonite Quarterly Review "Her poems have an immediate quality that illustrates her ability to explore emotions... Kasdorf's poetry tends to illustrate small situations that have larger implications... Kasdorf also exhibits a keen sense of place in her work, with some lovely descriptions of her birthplace and the magical hold Pennsylvania seems to have on its native sons and daughters."--Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Genres: Essays, Memoir

232 pages, Hardcover

First published August 8, 2001

Reviews

[Natasha Witmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is inevitable that some of my interest in Kasdorf’s work comes from shared culture. But although that directed me to the book initially, Kasdorf herself kept me there. Her forthright storytelling and nuanced exploration of herself, her world and the worlds of those whose stories she tells made me hope to read more of her writing.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is many things, but more than anything, it focuses on the path of an artist or individual working to come to terms with their own cultural identity, a society's expectations, and their devotion to writing. This may sound fairly broad, for a book apparently focused on 'writing from a Mennonite life', but while Kasdorf's concerns and questions all revolve around her place within (or outside of) the Mennonite community, the questions at the heart of the book are questions which I think every writer or artist faces in some context and moment, if not consistently. As such, this book is both more than and less than what I'd hoped for. It speaks to a broader artistic and individualistic experience against the backdrop of society, but in that almost global nature of concern, it also comes across as far more familiar, and far less unique, than what I'd actually expected. And, in all honesty, couched as it is in academic concerns and an ultra-awareness of the work it is attempting, it has far less immediacy and power than other works which tackle similar questions.

There are moments where Kasdorf focuses in specifically on Mennonite history and cultural trauma, and those are probably the most striking moments in the work. She is a gifted essay writer, smoothly melding together memoir, history, poetry, and supposition, but at many points, the essays are almost too objective and logical to be as potent as I would have expected, given her poetry.

All together, I enjoyed the read. At the same time, though, it came across as more academic than conversational or narrative, and I simply expected more based on my experience with her poetry. However, if you're looking for essays on Mennonite identity or artists, literary authority, or cultural identity, this may very well be a collection worth picking up.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read from Kasdorf who engages thoughtfully with her Mennonite upbringing.