{"id":320,"date":"2010-05-06T12:44:08","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T17:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=320"},"modified":"2011-02-18T15:58:35","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T21:58:35","slug":"cmu-press-publishes-novel-by-dora-dueck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2010\/cmu-press-publishes-novel-by-dora-dueck\/","title":{"rendered":"CMU Press Publishes Novel by Dora Dueck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Offers one woman\u2019s compelling, ordinary, and surprising life<\/em><\/strong>\"\"<\/a>
\nFor release May 6, 2010<\/em><\/p>\n

CMU PRESS is pleased to announce the publication of a new novel by Dora Dueck, This Hidden Thing<\/em>. The book will be officially launched on May 19, 8 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.<\/p>\n

Beginning in Winnipeg in the1920s, This Hidden Thing tells the moving story of Maria Klassen, a newly landed Mennonite immigrant. Maria becomes a domestic for a prosperous Canadian family in order to support her family as they struggle to build a life for themselves on a farm near the town of Winkler.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was writing Maria\u2019s story, I thought of it as a way of expressing the immigrant experience,\u201d Dueck reflects. \u201cI think too that I\u2019m always looking at how people, especially women, live their lives \u2013 as a way of navigating my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secrets are a major theme in the novel, but not necessarily in the way one might expect. As Dueck notes, the theme of \u201chiddenness\u201d captures something of the Mennonite immigrant experience. \u201cOne of the hardest aspects about being a newcomer in another culture is not being \u2018known.\u2019\u201d And for many Mennonite women, this sort of invisibility was already a fact of life. \u201cWomen did their theological work privately, and resistance to received wisdom, or knowledge against the grain as it were, would have to be held secretly, perhaps even subversively.\u201d She continues, \u201cIn thinking about Maria\u2019s decisions and use of silence, I\u2019m hoping readers might be drawn to reflect on the ways in which secrets might be powerful, even life-giving, and the ways in which they destroy, or build one false wall after the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among Mennonite writers, Dora Dueck is somewhat unusual for her portrayal of individuals who have remained loyal to their communities of upbringing. Dueck\u2019s previous novel, Under the Still Standing Sun<\/em>, focussed on the pioneering story of Mennonites in the Chaco. According to Ann Hostetler, who is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Goshen College, This Hidden Thing<\/em> \u201coffers a worthy female, urban counterpart to Rudy Wiebe\u2019s Peace Shall Destroy Many<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut above all,\u201d continues Hostetler, \u201cthis is a novel of character. Dora Dueck inhabits her characters in such a way that the reader is drawn into a living, breathing world that lingers even after the covers of the book are closed.\u201d
\nDueck comments: \u201cIn my two novels, the protagonists remain \u2018insiders\u2019 as it were. It means they reference and use the religious categories, language of the church, the piety, as they live within that world. I\u2019ve tried to present them and that world with integrity, but it shouldn\u2019t feel less complicated for all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Hidden Thing (CMU PRESS) is available from the CMU Bookstore at 600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg. Contact cmubookstore@cmu.ca<\/a>; telephone 204.487.3300. The cost is $19.50.<\/strong><\/p>\n

CMU PRESS is an academic publisher of scholarly, reference, and general interest books at Canadian Mennonite University. Books from CMU Press address and inform interests and issues vital to the university, its constituency, and society. Areas of specialization include Mennonite studies, and works that are church-oriented or theologically engaged.<\/p>\n

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in arts and science, business and organizational administration, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music and music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).<\/p>\n

For CMU PRESS information, contact:
\nJonathan Dyck, CMU PRESS Project Manager
\ncmupress@cmu.ca <\/a>
\n204.487.3300<\/p>\n

For CMU information, contact:
\nNadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
\nnkampen@cmu.ca<\/a>
\nTel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Offers one woman\u2019s compelling, ordinary, and surprising life For release May 6, 2010 CMU PRESS is pleased to announce the publication of a new novel by Dora Dueck, This Hidden Thing. The book will be officially launched on May 19, 8 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Beginning in Winnipeg in the1920s, This Hidden Thing tells […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[26,43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/1009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}