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Loading... Never Enough Flamingos (Volume 1)by Janelle Diller
None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) IVLeafClover | Jun 21, 2022 |  Never Enough Flamingos is a fascinating, well-written novel, set in a Mennonite community in Kansas during the Depression. In the introduction Diller describes Mennonites in the following way: In a manner of speaking, Mennonites and Amish are kissing cousins, but even that's a risky description since Amish tend not to kiss anyone but other Amish. The introduction is interesting, especially for readers like me, who know very little about the history of Mennonites. Don't skip it. Since the Mennonites are a highly religious group, I expected they would be less susceptible to the temptations of day to day life, but this is the depression, there hasn't been rain for way too long, and these are farmers. It's a hard time to live through and hard times not only lead people to make questionable decisions, but they also present other people with opportunities to take advantage. The title Never Enough Flamingos seemed strange at first, until Cat (the narrator) described her mom as ...a flamingo in a sea of turkeys... and it became clear that flamingos are the people who rise above the failings of the general population, even in hard times. The story is about those people as well as the people who give in to temptation. Steve Lindahl – author of Hopatcong Vision Quest, White Horse Regressions, and Motherless Soul (  ) SteveLindahl | Oct 11, 2017 | no reviews | add a review
It's the Depression and it's rural Kansas. For good measure, nature decides to throw in a Dust Bowl. It's not the life Cat Peters would have chosen, but the young Mennonite girl doesn't have much say in it. Driven to the edge of bankruptcy by the relentless winds of the Dust Bowl, Cat's family is desperate. Fortunately, wealthy Simon Yoder generously saves them with a loan. Everyone gets something more out of the arrangement than what they bargain for. Cat's father gains a start back from the edge and the shame that he can't provide for his family. Cat's older brother goes to work for Simon to pay off the family debt and learns lots of new ideas. And Simon gets the debt repaid and casts a sticky net over the Peters family. So in the end, everyone loses. Still the rains don't come. Without rain, there is no wheat. So Cat, too, goes to the Yoder's to clean and cook and do whatever the hired girls do. It turns out the hired girls at the Yoder house do a lot more than cook and clean, for Simon Yoder is a man who steals the souls of young girls. And now Cat has slipped into his hands. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyRatingAverage: (4)
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