I’ve
read another Amish novel. One that runs pretty close to an Amish romance. Okay,
so it is an Amish romance. But it also has bandits, epidemics, kidnappings, and
a murder or two.
Perhaps
there’s a publishing genre called speculative
Amish romance?
The
book in question is The
Captive Heart by Dale Cramer. It’s the second in the Daughters of Caleb
Bender Series, the first being Paradise
Valley.
I
will read anything Dale Cramer writes, novels like Bad
Ground, Sutter’s
Cross, and Summer
of Light. Levi’s
Will is an Amish story, but more about a young man breaking away from
the Amish order and joining the army in World War II. It’s based upon the story
of Cramer’s own father. And Summer of
Light, well, let’s say I laughed and cried at this story of a man finding
himself.
Like
its predecessor Paradise Valley, The Captive Heart is based upon the true
story of Amish families who left Ohio in the early 1920s, fleeing from the
state’s compulsory education laws, and settled in Mexico. This is the Mexico
just past its revolution, and it hasn’t really left the revolution behind. Gangs
of revolutionaries have turned themselves into gangs of bandits, and they roam
the mountains and plains looking to pillage and plunder.
The
Amish, of course, are pacifist. Cramer plays that pacifism against the violence
of the bandits, and surprising, unexpected things happens.
That’s
the larger story within which two romances develop. First is Rachel and Jake;
Jake’s family had decided to stay in Ohio but Jake is able to come to Mexico
eventually with another family as a kind of indentured farm hand. But the focus
is Miriam Bender, the settlement’s schoolteacher and at 20 beginning to face
the possibility of an unmarried life. Miriam finds herself pursued by a young
Amish man while she’s attracted to her father’s hired man Domingo. But a
romance with Domingo risks banning and separation from her family.
Cramer
tells a good story. He builds suspense – and a growing sense of dread – at what
is going to happen. The characters come alive with their hopes, dreams and
struggles, not the least of which is the struggle of maintaining their faith in
the face of a very harsh, very brutal reality.
The Captive Heart is a fast,
enthralling read. I will even say I’m anticipating the next book in the series.
I may not have converted to the cause of Amish romances, but I have converted to
the cause of Amish romances as told by Dale Cramer.
Related:
My
review of Paradise
Valley.
