[Book review of:] Magdalene Redekop, Making Believe: Questions about Mennonites and Art

Magdalene Redekop investigates an artistic “renaissance” that has been ongoing since the 1980s and ’90s among Mennonites in Manitoba. Transitioning smoothly between rigorous literary criticism and a personal memoir-like voice, she explores how and why the arts have flourished among Mennonites in the Canadian prairies and traces Mennonite “accents” discernible in writing, music, and visual artwork. She also shares stories about her experiences growing up in a rural Kanadier Mennonite family, and reflects on her relationship to Mennonite journey with clowning as a dramatic art form and presents her clown persona, Sush Binks—the “only living descendant” of the fictional Mennonite Sarah Binks, the main character in Paul Hiebert’s 1947 novel (118-23). [...]