Born Hutterite

by Samuel Hofer

..."these stories-portraying both lighter and darker sides of Hutterite commuial life-are laced with a flavour that is unmistakable home to the prairies of Western Canada..." (approx 4x8.5 size paperback)

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I'm back to one of my major 2018 reading goals - to read a bunch from Alaska and Canada. You can't read the prairies of Canada without reading about the Hutterites. I read three books from their own voices, two of which I got from a Canadian reading friend who grew up on the prairies too. (The other two books are Hutterite Diaries: Wisdom from My Prairie Community and I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage.

This slim book is full of stories from Hofer's childhood, but he's not saying which parts are true and which are not. I felt like this was a good peek into the world of the Hutterites, because he is able to juxtapose the strict expectation of a very religious community with the real ways people choose to interpret it - from surprising alcohol use to bombastic characters that struggle to constrain their personalities as expected.

The speech pattern used in the story feels a bit foreign, like he's using the rhythms of the old German dialect and replacing the words with English. I loved this, it brought me more into the feeling of the community. More here on traditions like marriage negotiations, teenaged shenanigans, and more.

[Darlene Wilson]

Read this to my Reading Group after Max Braithwaite's Never Sleep 3 in a Bed. We have a Hutterite colony about 20 miles away - the seniors enjoyed the stories - learned somethings about Hutterite way of life. The fact that it was based in Saskatchewan - near Moose Jay and Regina - made it more interesting for them.
An enjoyable few months reading.
This book was loaned to me by Sharon Teale - after talking of my reading group - thanks to her!

[Dani]

A reflective glimpse into Hutterite life—I found it fascinating. (Reminiscent, in my mind, of Leacock's Sunshine Sketches). I learned a lot about daily activities and social expectations on the colony through the stories, which were pleasantly diverse. Most appealing, to me, was the subtly critical retrospective narrator, who maintains a positive and nostalgic atmosphere but provides the groundwork for questions of identity, morality, purpose and human connection.