London Street
A Memoir
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2020
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Publisher's Description
Within a Dutch enclave already removed from the larger world, Janie's family is further isolated and odd. Janie struggles within the tight-knit community to understand the secrets and events involving her family. She knows the line her father draws between the holy and the sinful. His boundaries and rigid belief system nearly destroy the very family they were meant to protect. Persistent rumors and shunning by church members add to Janie's heartache and confusion. Her endurance to preserve a loving relationship with her family is an intimate story of triumph over community bigotry and religious zeal gone too far.
Endorsements (4)
“With poetry and humor Jane Griffioen tours London Street, where an immigrant world is both held together and strangled by rules. Her eye is keen and loving, as she introduces us to an old-fashioned father who gave himself to his family and worked himself to the bone for their survival. She allows us to meet her mother, a woman tormented by judgment and held in a prison of secrets. Into all of this Jane brings honesty and light, as she shares a story in which depravity is inescapable and grace irresistible.”
“Jane Griffioen’s London Street is one of the finest portraits of family life I have ever read. On London Street, in the heart of a Christian Reformed Dutch-American enclave, the too-frequent reminders that we are not like God are examined by a very curious girl named Janie, who grows up trying to solve all the big puzzles of family life—love and betrayal, coping with loss, and faith. We share both Janie’s joys and sorrows in this startlingly intimate examination of a family that we all recognize, at least in part. This fabulous book should not be missed and is a must-read for book clubs!”
“This memoir of growing up in a Calvinist enclave on the southwest side of Grand Rapids in the fifties and sixties focuses on a family whose life turns out to be complex in all the ways that readers find fascinating. The narrator, a very observant young girl, becomes a young woman intent on making sense of her family’s suffering and her father’s dogged belief system. Jane Griffioen pays close attention to time and place and detail. She pulls no punches; at the same time, her story shows loving concern for her family, herself, and her community.”
“Why is it sometimes so hard to learn the truth from those we love the most? Young Janie discovers why. As did I, reading London Street. Her story, her education, will stay with me a long time.”
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