This collection of essays by poet Julia Kasdorf "probe", in her own words, "the tangled threads of gender and cultural/religious identity as they relate to the emergence and exercise of literary authority". Her ten essays, accompanied by 42 illustrations (from a nude by Titian, to family photos, to a famous image of Marilyn Monroe) and a dozen of her poems, focus on specific aspects of Mennonite life. Often drawing from historical episodes or family stories, Kasdorf pursues themes of martyrdom, landscape, silence, the body, memory, community, and the struggle to articulate experience with a voice that is both authentic to the self and a conversation with her traditional Mennonite and Amish-Mennonite background.
"These essays, poems, and illustrations illuminate the Mennonite life from the perspective of one of this religious community's best contemporary poets... In this collection, Kasdorf explores her strong emotional ties with the settlement where she was born... combin[ing] historical research, family legend, and poignant autobiography, exploring such themes as martyrdom, work, hope, the Pennsylvania landscape, gender, and cultural change." -- Library Journal
"A collection of poet's prose in the best sense, drawing from the various sources of Kasdorf's poems to examine the productive and difficult relationships among writing, community, and belief... Poetry often arises in unlikely places. This fine book helps us understand why." -- Brian Conniff, Religious Studies Review
"Fans of [Kasdorf's] poetry... will surely find deep pleasures in The Body and the Book, not least because of its emotional honesty and its overall honoring of the Mennonite tradition." -- Sarah Fox, www.raintaxi.com
"An intriguing look into a world unknown to many." -- Choice
"While The Body and the Book grows out of the author's experience in a specific tradition, it is in a larger sense an assessment of the human and artistic toll that comes with creating art out of religious experience... Kasdorf's writing also carries deep personal consequences... For a poet to undertake a book of essays like The Body and the Book, that unpacks her past work with such personal detail and with such passionate defense, is to risk shutting down the very wordplay that gives poetry life... Yet this risk too is essential because the poet, she argues, must be 'at the same risk as all other elements in the text, not omniscient, not all-powerful'... It is impossible for Kasdorf not to speak, and her writing becomes a fierce form of remembrance and resistance." -- Mark Berkey-Gerard, Image: A Journal of the Arts
"These essays grow out of considerable research and thinking, [but] they are not pedantic. That's because Kasdorf begins with stories about real people... Using narratives as starting points, she explores the question of how a writer who is of Amish background and a woman achieves authority for her work." -- Sarah Klassen, Mennonite Brethren Herald
"Kasdorf writes her reflections with vulnerability and yet with boldness... compelling readers to take her themes seriously." -- Gwen Stamm, Provident Book Finder
"Kasdorf builds her essays around stories set in vividly portrayed places and peopled with a lively assortment of characters. There is Aunt Bertha, who taught Kasdorf the Amish way of life and loved her... There is Marilyn Monroe, whose physical allure gave her the kind of power an Amish girl should not desire. And Lucy Hochstetler, whose Amish bishop father kept her chained to her bed... her writing is clear, authoritative and graceful." -- Sarah Klassen, Journal of Mennonite Studies
