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Reviewed by Sarah Klassen, a Winnipeg Poet and retired school teacher
The Storekeeper's Daughter is as much a tribute to the storekeeper, Jacob Funk, as it is a memoir of Katie Funk Wiebe, his daughter. And although most of the chapters are set in Blaine Lake where Wiebe grew from childhood into young womanhood during the depression years, significant segment has the Old Colony, southern Ukraine, as its backdrop. Wiebe experiences this earlier slice of Russian Mennonite history largely through her father's story-telling.
Her initiation into the mysteries of death, of being saved, and of sexuality form the main substance of the book, but the real drama lies in her father's past life. In the Ukraine, he came bravely to the rescue of his wife's family, struggled painfully for inner peace and suffered both as the son of landless Mennonites and as a result of the RevolutionİCivil WarİTyphusİFamine years in the Ukraine.
Prompted by her father's experience and by her own observations, Wiebe holds the Mennonite church up for scrutiny. In her own experience, the across-the-river Mennonite Brethren Church exists alongside the other Blaine Lake churches: the Russian Baptist Church where her father sometimes preaches; the street meetings of the Salvation Army; and the United Church where she attends when the river is uncrossable due to the weather. Nowhere is there such a relentless emphasis on sin and guilt and the need to be saved as in the MB church.
Her father also warns her that "life is not fair," also tells her that he has found in various denominations of the Mennonite Church, "loveless power and powerless love." Although her own experience is not dissimilar, in the end she affirms that, "My father's stories ...opened the way to a more mature faith." Wiebe remains MB, and her memoir also gives tribute to her father.
Many of the chapters in The Storekeeper's Daughter have appeared previously, in full or in part, in other publications, and will be familiar to readers who follow Katie Funk Wiebe. Those who are looking in this memoir for glimpses into a young writer's early attempts at writing will be disappointed. The Storekeeper's Daughter is, however, another significant retelling of the suffering and relocation of Russian Mennonites in the 1920s and their subsequent difficult immigrant experience in the depression years
Reviewed by Ron Toews, pastor of Dalhousie MB Community Church, Calgary.
Perhaps the most refreshing feature of postmodernism is its openness to spirituality. Decades of Godİdenying rationalism are giving way to an opennessİİindeed a hungerİİto be put in touch with the soul, with spirituality and with the supernatural. Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul, a collection of pithy stories with a spiritual twist, may well have tapped into a receptive North American reader market ready to see the intertwine of God and the human story.
Of the more than 7,000 stories considered for the 1993 book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, 101 were selected for inclusion in the new Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul, a book intended to inspire Christians of all denominations. Included in the book are stories from Corrie ten Boom, Charles Colson, Norman Vincent Peale, Dick Van Patten and a host of other lesser known authors.
The short stories in the Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul make for light readingİİeasy to pick up, easy to put down. A public speaker might on occasion find the stories able to convey biblical truths, although most of the stories are too long to be retold, and the book lacks an accessible topical index. A better context for the book might be the dinner hour, in conjunction with family devotions. Given that the emerging generation is less inclined toward propositional truth, Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul may well be a means by which biblical truth can be told. The stories are sufficiently provocative that they could hold the attention of most children and adolescents, while at the same time introducing family members to a wide array of topics that would warrant a vigorous family discussion. Jesus certainly found story-telling to be a useful teaching tool!
If you long to experience Christmas with your heart rather than your pocketbook, Simplify and Celebrate by Alternatives for Simple Living is for you.
The book is divided into two sections: Simplify and Celebrate. Part I has general suggestions for making Christmas not so much a commercial time as a time to enjoy. There are suggestions for simple gift-giving; simple Christmas ideas for kids, decorations that can be made and traditions that can be begun.
Part II, Celebrate has three programs that can be used either at home with the family, or at church in a larger setting. These programs consist of readings, reflections, questions to ponder and activities to help make the most of Christmas.
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