My Hutterite Life (Lisa Marie Stahl)
So we all know the Amish, right? (Even if some of us only know them through their association with Harrison Ford) And some of us know the Mennonites. But I for one had never heard of the Hutterites, who live mostly in the northern US (Montana) and Canada, speak German, live communally and wear very distinct and plain clothing. So young Lisa, a teenager in Montana, decided to write a newspaper column for several years about what it means to be a Hutterite: how they don’t shun technology, how they divide labor along gender lines, how they make clothes, ceremonial and holiday traditions, etc.
While she goes into detail about how to make bread for a hundred and her school schedule, even that her brothers hoard John Deere tractor catalogs like other boys do dirty magazines (my words, not hers), she doesn’t really go into the things I want to know. Such as do they talk about the birds and the bees? Is enjoying sex a crime because the act in purely for reproduction? Are there illegal drug rings skulking around the barns in the dead of night? You see, that’s why I couldn’t be a Hutterite, that dirty little mind of mine.
So while I enjoyed the book, I wanted more. I wanted the truth that didn’t have to be read by her mother before it went to press. Also, the narrative style was a bit choppy given that the book is simply a compendium of her previous columns, not a cohesive work. I guess all that bread baking keeps a girl too busy to re-write from scratch. Still, a really fun read. I think I finished the whole book over the course of an airplane trip with a layover.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Vacation reading
Biography, Non-Fiction |