(1979 - ): Mortifications

Oddly for a book in the form of epitaphs, Nathan Russel Dueck’s (1979– ) is such a fun and pleasurable read, a book I looked forward to returning to every day as I was reading it. It’s funny, moving, charming, and self-deprecating in the most appropriate of places. I wish more books were like this. —Casey Plett, author of On Community

A hilarious, witty, courageous romp through the treacherous shoals of Mennonite male adolescence, on the long journey from an over-religious upbringing with its attendant phobias, self-flagellations and guilt, to confident, compassionate, responsible adulthood. It’s not an easy journey! The author has taken great social and personal risks in his efforts to become whole. He has broken apart much of what counted as loyalty and goodness and self-respect in his fundamentalist home community, and refashioned the shards with laughter, self-parody and sorrow, into a gentler, more truthful and generous understanding of himself and the world. A must-read for our times. —Di Brandt, author of The Sweetest Dance on Earth: New and Selected Poems

(1979– ): Mortifications stretches self-deprecation to perilous extremes. You will laugh, you will cringe, and your thighs will blush with recognition! It takes some hubris to write a memoir, but to write a memoir of one’s mortifications raises hubris to monumental heights. —Armin Wiebe, author of Grandmother, Laughing