If we were so disappointed in the last Beverly Lewis Amish romance we read, why are we reading another?
Answer:
1. We're looking to see if the last one was just a fluke -- the obligatory bad stretch for authors -- or if there are consistent patterns in her writing.
2. It makes us so much more confident in our own writing.
And no, Seasons of Grace was not a fluke. In fact, it was fairly good compared to this.
The Parting
Nellie-mae Fisher is a young Amish woman in the 1960s. Her younger sister drowned earlier that year and the entire family is badly shaken because of it. But Nellie's grief competes for the spotlight with Caleb Yoder and his "admiring gaze".
However, Caleb -- a 'free-thinking' young man -- must make sure that Fisher family has no dark secrets in their past to appease his father before his attraction to Nellie becomes too serious.
Meanwhile, in the midst of grief, Nellie's father, Reuben, discovers the truth of salvation and begins to question the traditions of their community.
The Characters
Oh, where to begin...
There are honestly enough terrible characters to be their own blog post...
We are introduced to Nellie-mae through a first-person prologue which begins with her asserting that her baking is far better than her mother's in every way.
That's basically all you need to know to about her personality.
This attitude continues throughout the book, with Nellie condemning her sisters for being gossips, envious, weak-willed, and stout while she is clearly too good to fall prey to such vices. She's the perfect Amish woman -- hardworking and traditional, no matter how much she may pine for forbidden guitars to be brought to the youth gatherings.
Also, every bit of her pettiness and self-centeredness is obviously fine because the other characters deserve it. Her older sister often leaves her waiting, so why not take the long route for an errand specifically to make said sister late for work?
At least her characterization is consistent, as horrible as it may be.
Caleb is a manipulative creep with the backbone of a pool noodle. Moving on.
Nellie's elder sisters, Rhoda and Nan, are portrayed as jerks because they don't spend time with Nellie -- though, considering her personality, who could blame them?
However, this is not to say they are without flaws.
Nan is snide and likes to spread discord among the family.
Rhoda, well.... Rhoda's personality really gets fleshed out in the second book. Let's say that in this book, her terrible, shameful personality flaws are 'works for Englishers' and 'fat'. (Excuse me a moment as I go on a tangent about this. Considering the setting of this story, I can understand how working for 'Englishers' would be seen as not-so-great, but the way her physicality is addressed is just plain cruel. Don't get me wrong, obesity is very unhealthy, but it seems to be the style of these books that anyone not distinctly slender or lean is immediately 'plump', or 'ample', or "like a pumpkin about to roll off." Yeah. Obviously that will have no impact on young women of stocky build who read this. None at all.)
I would talk about Suzy (the younger sister who drowned) but her character is only fully appreciable with the plot-twist development that happens near the end.
Nellie's older brother, Ephram, is an ice-blooded scum king. He and Nan are almost completely alike, except for the added bonus that he doesn't refer to his wife by name (using instead 'her', 'she', or 'woman') and oversees all her visits to make sure the conversation stays within his parameters of 'suitable for well-behaved Amish women.'
Nellie's mother, Betsy, is exceedingly codependent on her children and has a rather creepy fascination with her granddaughter who resembles Suzy.
Nellie's dad, Reuben, is unquestionably the best person in the entire family. His care for his family goes beyond just the physical needs, and he eagerly seeks to understand the Scriptures as well as he can and deepen his relationship with God (much to the disbelief and fury of their local bishop.)
And then we have the subplot of Rosanna.
Rosanna is Nellie-mae's dear friend (tells you a lot about her already.) She and her husband have not been able to have any children of their own, and this in turn has made her very discouraged. Now, I would sympathize with her except for what happens next. Her cousin Kate comes to her and cheerfully tells her that she's going to give her her next baby (with the context that she and her husband rarely agree about anything, but he readily agreed to this.)
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Then throughout the book Kate starts wavering about her promise, and Rosanna complains that it's so inconvenient and wonders what's wrong with her. Obviously she's never been a mother before, since she doesn't grasp the basic concept that a mother might maybe be emotionally attached to her children.
Though Kate's caveat that they might keep the baby "if it's a boy" doesn't make me that sympathetic towards her either.
Alternative Title: The Worst Community on Earth
I really hope that Amish society has changed since the 1960s.
Problem is, researching it is nearly impossible.
I need to see if my local library's open yet...
So in my review of 'Seasons of Grace' I mentioned that the community presented was rather cultish. Well, this community - of Honeybrook, Pennsylvania - makes it look like Sesame Street nextdoor to Panem.
Honeybrook boasts a variety of attractions, including (but not limited to)
- Churches where the sermons are only preached in High German, which nobody but the elders understand, so you've just got to listen close and you'll miraculously begin to understand what the words mean.
- Be advised, you are only allowed to read Scriptures sanctioned by the local bishop, and we openly discourage meeting together to study and discuss the Scriptures independently, as such would be rebellion against our ministers, who are "divinely ordained" by drawing lots.
- Social activities like laughing about animals literally being worked to death.
- Courting traditions, which involve the young woman sneaking out of her house without telling anyone where she's going, who she'll be with, or how long she'll be gone, to go and wait for her beau out in the woods - ALONE. AT NIGHT. Once he arrives, they'll drive all over the county together, and maybe (if they're the more risque type) go find a covered bridge to do some necking in (Beverly's words, not mine.)
- Embraced sexism! "God made boys to be tough and hardworking, and girls -- well, they were supposed to be soft and sweet and mighty submissive." (We would also hope that if any first-time mothers visit, their firstborn is a boy, because that's how it always ought to be.)
Yup.
Summary
You know those nightmares where something horrible is happening and you know it's a dream, but when you wake up you're hit with the realization that it could be real?
This book is like one of those.
I could go into a whole tangent about how dangerous the romanticization of the Amish lifestyle is in general, but this... this would require deep study just to know how far that tangent would have to go. Maybe some other time.
Due to overlapping circumstances, our reading schedule is sort of on hold right now, but our church library should be opening (hopefully) by mid-July, so we'll see what happens then.
I hope a meteor strikes the town and only Reuben escapes.
That'd be so nice.
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