A masterful trilogy

Calm Before the Storm Janice L. Dick. Herald Press, 2002. Eye of the Storm Janice L. Dick. Herald Press, 2003. Out of the Storm Janice L. Dick. Herald Press, 2004.

“This is my story. These are my people.” These thoughts kept going through my head as I journeyed through the “Storm” trilogy by award-winning Saskatchewan author Janice L. Dick. Calm Before the Storm, Eye of the Storm, and Out of the Storm detail the fictional, yet very real, story of the Hildebrand/Suderman family, and their relatives and friends – Mennonites who lived in Russia and came to Canada.

This story is about life lived through desperate trials, young love, birth and death, adolescent fervour, famine, and battles on the land and of the heart. Dick does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere of the time. Set in southern Russia, the trilogy moves from the relative peace and prosperity of pre-Revolution Russia, through the horrors and persecution of the 1917 Revolution and its aftermath, to the journey to a new country. She does a masterful job of telling the story, the good and the bad without bias, clearly showing both the strengths and the shortcomings of the Mennonite people. The trials of faith Heinrich, Johann, Katerina, Paul and others face are real and poignant. Just when you think it can’t get worse, it does. When it looks like there is no hope, a tiny light glimmers. The imagery painted through persecution, famine and emigration give a very real picture of what the Mennonite people experienced as they forged ahead to create the life that we enjoy now.

With its excellent research, passion and drama, this trilogy keeps the reader turning the pages from the beginning of Calm Before the Storm straight through to the final page of Out of the Storm.

Lani Wiens is a freelance writer from Saskatoon who attends Hope Fellowship Church.