Pick Up Other Side Of The River (In Search Of Freedom #1) Composed By Janice L. Dick Available In Paperbound
Letkemann and Daniel Martens have been sweethearts for almost as long as they can remember, Luise expects they will marry soon, But the spring ofis not a time life goes along according to expectation for the lovers or anyone else in the Mennonite village of Alexandrovka, part of the Slovgorod Colony in Western Siberia.
As the Soviet officials begin to increasingly interfere in the life of the enterprising farmers and craftspeople, demanding ever more tax and confiscating machinery and livestock, many villagers decide it's time to leave.
While some are allowed to emigrate to America, Luise's chronically ill stepmother fails to pass her medical exam.
So the family ends up planning to join others on a long train ride east, There is farmland and they have official permits to settle near the border of China on the banks of the Amur River.
Meanwhile a winter of hard work up north for Daniel separates the lovers, He returns shortly before her family is set to leave and Luise makes peace with the fact that she will be apart from her family when she and Daniel settle as newlyweds in the farmhouse Daniel has been building.
Of course, that doesn't work out quite as planned either in Janice L, Dick's Mennonite historical Other Side of the River, It's a story through which we experience the day to day life of these Godfearing, peaceloving and industrious people during a time in Russian history when expressions of faith were not allowed, personal initiative was frowned on, and even speaking German could be cause for arrest.
Lovable and hated characters populate the pages with Luise's greataunt Tante Manya taking the prize as my favourite, Senior Major Leonard Dubrowsky and Ivan Mironenko tied for the ones I most disliked and feared.
The way Dick portrays the everyday circumstances, struggles, and growth of main characters is realistic and kept me right there, experiencing their challenges with them.
The period and setting are depicted in satisfying detail, I loved all the homey touchesthe roasted zwieback and other home baking, the Germanisms like "Nah jah," and
Luise's and Daniel's closeknit, intergenerational families.
The story, though lengthy, had enough twists and turns that it rarely sagged, The only time it felt a bit draggy was very near the end, but then it picked up again to the harrowing finish.
All in all, I really enjoyed this bookboth the daytoday life of its characters and the big story aspect of itfor I too am descended from them, a Mennonite, not from those that stayed in Russia, but from forbears that emigrated to North America before Communism and the era of the Soviet Union.
Witnessing the faith of these people through testing was an inspiration, This book left me with a great appreciation of the fireproved faith of my ancestors,
Apparently Dick is working on a sequel according to this sitelinkBlog Talk Radio interview.
I hope so. I'll definitely pick it up when it comes out!
Read sitelinkChapter One of Other Side of the River.
Other Side of the River by Janice L, Dick: a review
As a Mennonite child growing up in Saskatchewan, Canada, and attending a country Mennonite Church, I heard many stories about Mennonites' experiences in Russia.
One ancestor of a local Mennonite family was thrown into a well because Communist officials considered him too wealthy.
A Mennonite relative of mine was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, Another, a woman, was threatened with rape by Russian soldiers, but distracted them from their evil intentions by singing and playing her guitar.
With stories like these lurking in my mind, I'm always interested in novels about the Russian Mennonite experience.
One is The Blue Mountains of China by Rudy Wiebe, Another is The Russländer also titled Katya by Sandra Birdsell, Janice L. Dick's new novel, Other Side of the River, stacks up well in comparison with these, In some respects, Dick's story is The Russländer on steroids,
As the novel opens, it'sin the Siberian village of Alexandrovka, The first page introduces us to the two main characters, Luise Letkemann and Daniel Martens, They're devout young Mennonites hoping to marry and live a peaceful life in their closeknit Mennonite community.
Also on that first page, we meet the arch enemy of their hopes and dreams, He's SeniorMajor Leonid Dubrowsky of the GPU, the dreaded Soviet secret police,
Dubrowsky isn't fond of Mennonites, He finds them too pious, successful, and independentminded, As the story progresses, Dubrowsky's shows himself to be especially opposed to Daniel and his father, who dare to criticize him and the totalitarian regime he represents.
The day after Luise and Daniel's wedding, the bridegroom's father, Peter Martens, dies as a result of complaints against the regime.
Daniel, hotheaded like his father, condemns the circumstances that led to Peter's passing, The young man is immediately shipped off to a work camp in the far north,
Back home in Alexandrovka, his wife of two days, Luise, faces a gutwrenching decision, Her family plan to move east, about as far east in Russia as possible, They want to settle in a Mennonite village near the Amur River, which forms the border between Russia and China in that area.
Luise's parents and other Mennonites believe that the GPU would bother them less in such a remote location.
Luise thinks this may be true, but agonizes over whether to accompany her family or not, What if Daniel returns to look for her in Alexandrovka How will he know where she's gone Will he be able to join her in the east with travel so dangerous, especially for a declared enemy of the state
Luise's life is further complicated by her prickly relationship with her stepmother.
Anna, the stepmother, is a complex character, She treats Luise harshly because she's jealous of the young woman's rapport with her father, i, e. Anna's husband. Sometimes Anna also shows symptoms of a mind dangerously unhinged from reality, On the other hand, she seems able to foretell the future, "God tells me things," she says,
Anna utters a prophecy about Luise and Daniel's future, but the author keeps us wondering whether and how it will be fulfilled.
Their lives unfold through danger, desperation, drudgery, and moments of delight, all illuminated by the faith that burns in them, however dimly at times.
Occasionally I found the story somewhat unbelievable, For instance, I'm not sure Daniel would keep speaking against the regime and getting himself into deeper and deeper trouble.
At the same time, I admire his courage,
The author sometimes uses him to comment on the political system of the time, For example, at one point Daniel tells Dubrowsky: "I have a mind and ideas that could help you and your cause, but instead you try to ruin me and others like me with preposterous laws that stifle any independent spark.
It is independence and individual motivation that foster success, not repression, "
The narrative includes enough touches of dialect to add flavour, but not so many that they hinder the reading.
For example, at one point a woman says, "I am just pulling out from the oven some perishky" Mennonitestyle fruit or meat turnovers.
On another occasion young people play knipsbraat crokinole, Such references sound wonderfully homey to me I grew up with them,
I would love to have written a novel like Other Side of the River, but Dick beat me to it.
You can read the first chapter at sitelink com/plnyd. Herpage novel, published by Helping Hands Press, sells for,and is available from Amazon as a paperback, You can find it by pasting the following link into your browser: sitelinkamzn, to/uFZQT. The ebook, which sells for about,, is also available from Amazon, The link is sitelinkamzn. to/qNGJS.
I enjoyed writing this work of fiction, creating characters that blossomed into real people in a setting I came to know as I researched and wrote.
The final scene is based on an actual event that grabbed me when I first read about it, and eventually I knew I had to craft a story around it.
It never fails to amaze me that people from all ages are just people like you and I.
They live and love and learn, they rejoice and suffer and fear, They believe or reject. But they are real and they bring to life the times in which they lived, The older I get, the more I appreciate history, and while The Other Side of the River is fiction, it is based on fact.
Facts that drew and repulsed me, inspired and horrified, Because the story behind this story actually happened, the struggles of Luise and her beloved Daniel broke my heart even as their faith and love inspired mine.
Author Janice Dicks descriptions put me right into each scene, I felt the cold, saw the forests and plains and experienced the fear,
My husbands background is Mennonite, and we recently learned that some came from Russia, making this tale very personal.
Wellwritten and haunting in its realism, The Other Side of the River earns five, Highly recommended.
Life was very difficult for the Mennonites in Soviet Russia during thes, The day after Daniel and Luise are married, his father is killed and Daniel is arrested and taken to a work camp in Northern Siberia.
There he is treated brutally and Luise is left wondering whether he is dead or alive, When they are finally reunited the Mennonites work out a scheme to escape into China, An amazing story!
This story kept me captive to the end! My husband's family made a similar escape from the Ukraine in, so I was familiar with their many hardships.
The author, Janice Dick, made it all come alive for me with her graphic descriptions, You must read this amazing story, I read this book on Kindle, I am not a reader of books via ebook but this book captivated my attention, The storyline is excellent. Characters are real. I loved learning geography and history,
Other Side of the River immerses readers in the world of Russian Mennonites, a persecuted people wherever they try to settle in the Soviet regime of.
Despite the growing turmoil in their village, Luise Letkemann is eager to marry her beloved Daniel Martens.
Her family wants to move somewhere safer: to Canada, or at least farther east towards China, But will anywhere be safe from vindictive officials out to break her people's hope
As the story opens, Luise is determined to remain optimistic and to see the bright side in everything, but sorrow brings change.
Elderly Tante Manya has some of the best lines, wisdomwise in the story, Here's my favourite:
Manya: The purpose of prayer is not to get what we want, Luise, but to lay hold of God Himself.
He seeks always to reveal Himself to us, Once we begin to see Him as He is, we can relinquish our tight hold on our will and trust Him for His.
Do you understand
Luise: Sometimes I don't understand anything, Tante, Kindle Location
In some ways this was a heavy book because of the people's struggles, but the way they dig deeper into faith and find the resources they need to carry on in the face of oppression is an example and an encouragement to readers today in whatever stresses we find ourselves.
It's not a traumatic read, These are resilient people and although some break, the community bond is strong and supportive, Luise, her gentle father Abram, her acidic stepmother Anna, Luise's stepbrother and stepsister, Tante Manya and Daniel are all real characters with individual struggles, weaknesses and strengths.
Other Side of the River originally released as a ebook series, This review is of the complete series in one volume, If you're looking online, be sure to get the full novel and not just a piece that leaves you wanting more.
Sadly, Amazon. ca does not yet offer the print version although the US and UK Amazons do,
Janice L. Dick is a Canadian author of Mennonite heritage, Her Storm series Calm Before the Storm, Eye of the Storm and Out of the Storm also traces the lives of Russian Mennonites.
I hope we'll see another novel to follow Other Side of the River, You can find Janice, and more about her books, at her website: sitelinkjanicedick, com.
copy from my personal library, .