Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World

In author Shirley Hershey Showalter's own words, she's "a farmer’s daughter who became a college professor, college president, and foundation executive." Showalter grew up in a close-knit (is there another kind?) Mennonite community in Pennsylvania. Her memoir traces her childhood years up until the fall she enters college. She was the first in her family to head to college, making a choice that was definitely not mainstream within her Mennonite community. She describes a life few of us have lived and yet one that continually intrigues—a life pared down to what matters, a community that stands firmly against the dregs of our culture. A community rooted in its faith and history, and guided by shared values. Twerk? Never. Work? Yes—with pride.As you might surmise from the title, this is no Mommy Dearest memoir, but a recounting of a childhood and family life that seems nearly too good to be true. It's not that the Hershey family was free of conflict and grief; they experienced it aplenty. But I found myself wanting more, as if even the conflicts were painted with such a light touch that, were I a dog I might have taken the book in my teeth and begun shaking my head back and forth just to get a rise out of the pages.Yet time and again, I identified deeply with the author's stories about going to school and feeling keenly that it was a testing ground, a place where she recognized "the ways [she] fit and the ways [she] didn't." I couldn't help but thing back to my own early days in first grade, the lone Jewish kid in a class of 28 gap-toothed kids all of whom knew the words to a song called Jesus Loves Me that followed the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. She wrote of her fourth grade teacher, Miss Gibble, "the most notorious teacher of them all." But Miss Gibble was also plain, "an anomaly," wrote Showalter, "in front of my own classroom... she would understand me in ways my first three teachers could not."  My own Miss Gibble was my eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Hirsch. That eighth grade fall was the only time in 12 years of public school that I didn't have to feel awkward being absent on random days in September, because my teacher had been absent, too.It was not only on the school front that Showalter's experiences echo in the Jewish community. She wrote of the day neighbor women came to help out after her mother suffered a miscarriage and recalled hearing their judgmental whispers to one another about her mother's housekeeping as being "not very redd up [cleaned up or put away.]" Reading that I remembered a conversation I had with a young Orthodox mother who lives in a Jewish community nearby.  "Oh, they are all ready to help in a minute, but they're always peeking in your cholent (stew) pot, too." Petty judgment knows no religious or spiritual bounds.Now retired from university life, Showalter is pursuing memoir not only as a personal endeavor, but as a teacher of the genre as well. Not everyone could write a memoir titled Blush. For some of us it might have to be titled Scarlet, or perhaps Marooned. But we've all got a story to tell. Showalter's memoir serves as inspiration that whatever the story, whatever our community of origin, so very many life experiences are universal, and as such they have the power to resonate quite neatly across every seeming divide.

Reading, at least for me, is at its finest when the author spirits me off to new places and introduces me to new ideas, but in a way that elicits a “shiver of recognition.” I save the highest praise for authors that evoke empathy for the challenges the characters face in an otherwise unfamiliar environment. This is as true for memoir as for fiction.From this perspective, Blush was very fine read for a city girl (me) who knew little about the inner workings of a Mennonite farming community. I so enjoyed Shirley Hersey Showalter’s portrait of farm life as well as her portrayal of the colorful and often idiosyncratic people who dominated her home, school and church. She is a fine writer, and Blush often has the visual acuity of the cinema.What made it an especially good read was following Showalter's recurrent attempts to challenge the traditions and values with which she was raised, to explore “the glittering world” that seemed to exist outside her rural community. For anyone who has undergone a crisis of faith, her rebellious gestures may seem tame, but in her world, any and all questions required considerable personal courage. I was rooting for her all the way.For sheer enjoyment, Blush deserves five stars. However, I give it four because the book left me unsatisfied on one important point. Shirley tells us on the first page that she wants to be “influential” and we know that she ended up in roles in which she was very influential. However, her exquisitely detailed documentary about the Mennonite world did not help me to understand how a sheltered young girl from a conservative and traditional background actually made those dreams come true.I found the most satisfying part of the book to be the Epilogue, which offered a few—but not enough—clues to how that girl came to be a force in the world of education.If and when there is a sequel, I will be one of its very first readers.

I really enjoyed this book as an introduction to a society of which I knew almost nothing. The author has a very forgiving way of looking at things that would have been hard for me to deal with which gave me food for thought. I would have liked to have read more about the author’s life after she left home.

Great story. Read it in one and purchased another book she recommended. A braw read, you'll not be disappointed!

Excellent read, brought me to tears twice, very well written and enjoyable.

I first heard about this book in early summer and as soon as it was available to pre-order I did and then waited patiently for the book to be available and delivered here in Canada. It arrived last week and as soon as I started to read it, I began to reminisce about my own Mennonite upbringing and often wanted to underline the ways in which her life and mine were similar simply because of heritage and upbringing.I found the book uplifting and encouraging and I appreciated that she somehow managed to be honest about human failings while still being respectful about the church, community and family where she grew up.Her appreciation for those in her life that gave her bits of encouragement while she was a student was lovely and I think it would be inspiring for anyone who has privilege to speak encouragement to children.

Delightful -- we love it!This childhood memoir tells the story of a girl who might have left the church but found another way. And that is so positive.Showalter tells her story in a very upbeat manner, without bravado or bragging.