However, as a child Nomi herself believes wholeheartedly in Mennonite principles. She encourages Nomi to mock church elders, like Trudie’s brother, the preacher, whom they impiously nickname The Mouth for his pompous sermons. Tash is much more explicit in her rebellion: she carries her radio everywhere, wears clothes deemed inappropriate by the church, and “educates” Nomi on sex and sexuality, topics that no one else in the community discusses. While Mennonite women are expected to be scrupulous housekeepers, Trudie is haphazard and untidy she spends most of her time reading, an activity frowned upon in the community.

On Sundays, when Trudie is assigned to take care of babies during church services, she unplugs the speaker piping the sermon into her room and lets Tash play forbidden American radio stations instead. Trudie passively resists conformity by refusing to do many of the things expected of Mennonite women, like performing chores at the church and sending supplies to missionaries. At school, she has a close friend named Lids, with whom she walks home every day.Įven as a young child, Nomi sees other members of her family questioning the norms of Mennonite society. Yet Nomi characterizes her family life as happy and satisfying, remembering lake outings with her parents and Tash and the comforting feeling over going to sleep listening to her mother and sister playing cards.

When she asks permission to go to the movies, Trudie spends an afternoon deciding if it’s appropriate. She can only wear certain kinds of clothes, and she’s not supposed to dance or hug people at school. Nomi’s life is largely controlled by the seemingly archaic rules that govern Mennonite society. Nomi also has a bossy but kind older sister, Tash. He admires and adores Trudie, who is warm and spontaneous but often contravenes Mennonite norms in a way that makes him anxious. A middle school teacher, Ray is a devout but mild-mannered Mennonite. Nomi is born into the conservative Mennonite community of East Village, Canada, where her parents, Ray and Trudie, have lived all their lives. The novel’s action occurs in two timeframes: during the childhood of the protagonist, Nomi Nickel, and during her adolescence in the late 1970s.

A complicated kindness book review