His Guilt

His Guilt by Shelley Shepard Gray                Audio Book: 7 hours     Hardback Book:  304 pages            

O.K., I like to read stories about the Amish.   I have been to Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, took the tour, listened to the tape and I learned a thing or two about the Amish.   Now, I get it that perhaps the Pennsylvania folks may be old order and more traditional stricter to the precepts of the Amish faith, but, it is my understanding that one of the differences between the old order Amish and the Mennonites, which is a similar but different religious faith (think Catholics and Lutherans sort of example), is that Amish do not go for the colors of the rainbow in their dress while the Mennonites don’t have a problem adding a little dash of spring to their wardrobe.     Amish wear the traditional black and white colors of clothing.   I saw this first hand.   I even saw clothes hanging on the line outside in back of Amish homes and from baby to child to females of all sizes and males of all sizes the clothing was black and white.   Mennonites on the other hand spritz their wardrobes with a bit of color here and there, blue or purple shirts and blouses with black pants, jackets and skirts.   All the gals wore white aprons and white bonnets in both religions.    Old Order Amish to my understanding shun modern conveniences.   Mennonites, a little more lenient in that respect but not completely.    I know about Rumspringa which allows Amish teens to go kick up their heels in the “English” community to see if after sowing a few wild oats and/or checking out what a walk on the English side is like to see if they truly want to commit to a life of foregoing Pepsi’s and t.v. etc. and commit to the church for life and return to the ways of the Amish community (driving buggies to town, dressing plainly, turning the other cheek when the English pick on them and renouncing the modern world ala in the world but not of the world).    I get all that.   So when I read a tale about the Amish and someone is wearing a yellow dress and a guy has Gatorade in his refrigerator?   I grit my teeth a little bit.   If you are going to tell an Amish tale get the details right.   Having said that, I also understand that maybe there are other orders like the Hasidic Jewish people who follow the Orthodox ways and the Reformed Jewish people who don’t (all) have a problem eating ham – maybe the Old Order Amish are stricter than some other Amish communities.   Perhaps there are less strict Amish that I don’t have a clue about as yet.   It just goes against my sensibility to have to integrate what I find to be, shall we say, playing loose with what I think is the way of a thing.   It’s like riding along in a car then hitting the brakes really hard.   It jars me to be caught up in a story then read something that to my mind is not right.   It makes me want to question the author’s facts.   It takes away from the story for me, and that is what happened with this one.   I like the story, but, the few little things that just did not stay in keeping with the cultural life of this group as I understand it grated on me.    Again, I like the story but do the Amish in Hart County, Kentucky really go off the Amish grid that much?  Maybe they do.   I’m willing to learn just not in the midst of a story I am reading.    Give me a clue in the beginning of the tale stating that this sect of folk are a little in touch with their English town more than say the Lancastrians are.   But to just be going along then bump in the road ummmm not so much.   So kudos on the writing, but boo dos on not giving the reader a heads up that these Amish characters may be a little more Quaker or Shaker in their world within the storyline.