1903: a Mennonite woman gives birth to a daughter named Agnes. The child bears a birthmark known in Low German as Tieja Kjoaw, the Tiger s Scar. The mark portends greatness or tragedy. Agnes becomes the matriarch of a family struggling for greatness: her husband shaves his entire body to win God s favor; a tornado carries her daughter away on a clear winter day; convinced he is a modern Moses, her son frees a truckload of cattle; her granddaughter butchers a cat to save her marriage; a tiger residing in her daughter s backyard claims to be the love of Agnes life. ...compelling, disturbing, and engaging... Ann Hostetler The reality of the world Jessica Penner creates in Shaken in the Water is never quite what it appears to be: love can so swiftly shift-shape into hatred, rage into compassion, understanding into rejection and longing. But for the reader there is always the Voice calling, Herein! Come in! Rudy Wiebe
Where I got the book: review copy provided by publisher. This review first appeared on the Historical Novel Society website and in the February 2014 issue of the Historical Novels Review (where, at my suggestion, it was an Editor's Choice).
This multigenerational story is set in early 20th-century rural Kansas, in a German-speaking, Ukrainian Mennonite community rooted in tradition yet marching inexorably into the modern world. The tensions of belief, tradition, and change pull against an interleaved narrative of human experiences – love, loss, despair, lust – that darts back and forth over a period of around a hundred years.
Penner’s writing style is lyrical and precise, a pleasure to read. The absence of quotation marks in dialogue and the use of both High and Low German – sometimes translated, sometimes not – help to build a sense of otherness, of a community that understands its own rules even as it chafes against them. The sense of place is very strong; I could feel the blinding sun and smell the wheat and dust of harvest.
The cast of characters is vivid, each of their stories quickly sketched and yet memorable. They center loosely around Agnes, her husband Peter, and his sister Nora, whose story forms the core of the novel. It is Nora’s presence – as a memory, as a white tiger, as a disembodied Voice – that provides the dissonant note to lift the narrative further out of ordinariness and reinforce the feeling of tension I found to be present throughout the text.
Altogether I found Shaken in the Water an enjoyable, compelling literary read that gave me a sense of how the Mennonite community is evolving.
Somewhat experimental Mennonite fiction about a multi-generation family shaped by an unusual birthmark in the matriarch and the spiritual giftedness/insights of one of her daughters who departs the conservative Mennonite fold.
It took a while to get into the story, partly because of the jumping around in time and getting to recognize the characters. A rewarding read, though I was a little put off by the author's pasting some Amish customs on to a Russian Mennonite group.
Magical realism in a Mennonite novel, likable characters, wonderful sentences. I don't wholly understand what the novel means, which usually happens with me and magic realism, but I loved it nonetheless.
I had a lot to say about this book while I was reading it, but now that I'm finished, I find it hard to say more. I'm filled with emotions and thoughts and questions and a lot of that is coming from where my story touches the stories of the wonderful characters in this book.
I loved every second of reading this. It's one of those rare books that becomes a friend, and I didn't want it to end.
I guess I'll simply say that I found the book powerful, In part, because of the way Penner weaves so many family stories together, easily slipping and flitting through a century in a non-linear narrative that made me feel, in a way I rarely face honestly in my own life, the way memory and history, and even future, co-exist with this present moment.
Penner's conceit of a tiger as a spirit of strength, patience, stillness, power is another aspect of the book I loved. For me, it gave voice and image to my own longing for rescue, for a miraculous companion who could teach me the kind of strength I need to live now without being burdened or hardened by suffering—to have the courage and grace to stay "porous," as Penner writes.
Finally, there is pain and grief here, too, as well as joys and victories. It felt to me that intimacy eluded the characters in countless ways: rage, fear, confusion, punishment, taboo, fatigue, death, and so many others. Some characters were physically together but spiritually distant, and others longed to be intertwined but we forced apart. The sadness of this struck me as part of the sadness of being human—the reason why moments of intimacy, if we're honest, feel like such precious gifts.
This is an enthralling novel the whole journey through. It's magical yet believable. It's historical and present day. The characters are complex. The storyline draws you in and won't let you go. This book was a joy to read.