Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Does anyone else think from the cover that it was going to be an Amish lesbian romance?  I guess it’s the shoulder-to-shoulder Brokeback Mountain-esque pose that does it.

It does sound interesting, though perhaps a little too much like Witness with a sex change, but I’m intrigued.  I had no idea that there was a whole sub-genre of Amish fiction.

It DOES sound like a variation of Witness.

And *Snort*—Brokeback Amish!  Oh my!—LOL.

Excellent review!

To Elizabeth: I didn’t think that about cover until I read your comment & then it was like “Huh. It does remind of Brokeback Mountain!” It does remind me of witness also.

As for the thoughts & ideas you brought up Sarah, very thought provoking. I would probably agree with you. I have not read the book, never even heard of it til this post but from what you have said here I would probably feel the same way about the moral questions. I wonder what the author was trying to project? Was she saying that it is right and okay to judge the daughter for the sins of the mother or that you shouldn’t judge? With a more conservative reader it would probably seem that the heroine deserved what she got in the way she was judged.
I am not sure I am making sense but I might now spend the rest of the day pondering the points you brought up over a book I haven’t even read. One I might read now just to see if I end up with a different perspective on the story. It is doubtful that I would view it different than you since my mother’s family (except for my great-aunt) shunned me & my sister because our father is not Jewish. To this day I do not know any of them an entire family I will never know because they believe that by my mother’s choice to marry a non-Jew my sister & I are not good enough.
Look at what you have done now you have me thinking!

Ya know, stuff like this really burns my biscuit. Gah.

The Conservative Reader, I don’t think, is actually interested in what’s really going on in the Amish Community
(http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2005/feature_labi_janfeb05.msp)

It’s the *myths* they like so much…

I feel sick. Furious. And hopeless. It really doesn’t matter what part of the world one goes to, women and children are oppressed and abused in the name of religion.

I read the article, and I feel nauseated. All I can think of is that girl having all of her teeth pulled out. Insanity. Grotesque.

I might actually read this one; most books in Amish/Mennonite settings are so bad—and get the details so wrong!—that I don’t bother with most such books anymore…. I say this as someone who lived in two different Amish/Mennonite communities and attended various A/M churches for a while.

Plus, many seem to be from evangelical publishers who either get the A/M theology wrong or have the A/M characters come to the realization that a more mainstream evangelical position is right :-( {Writer/publisher agenda, anyone?}

Oh, and as an aside: in Sarah McCarty’s newest, Tucker’s Claim —she completely blows the Quaker dialect. Badly enough that I haven’t finished it yet, as every other sentence from the heroine has a major issue….It’s thee is, not thee are, for example….. Ugh

That article was so upsetting that I kept wanting to stop reading it but couldn’t because their stories need to be heard if people don’t know what is going on it will never change. I believe that everyone should be allowed to have their beliefs and live by them but I firmly draw the line at any type of child endangerment especially sexual abuse. There is no sicker or more damaging crime. Ugh..I wish there was something we could do to help those who want it and force help even on the ones who don’t. In mainstream society those children would have been taken from the homes without a second thought. Why not so just because they have a different value system & don’t subscribe to outsider laws? It’s just not right.

I am a conservative reader so here’s my opinion for what it’s worth. Sorry about the length.

That article was horrible. I feel so sorry for all those girls trapped in these communities. The Amish are pretty much trapped in time, and people did turn a blind eye to abuse in the past. I think we can all agree this is not a part of the past we want to keep around. Frankly I find it insulting that anyone would think that as a conservative reader I’m not interested in what’s really going on in the Amish community. This abuse is…it’s beyond words really.

As for the book, I haven’t read it. I stopped reading Amish books a few years ago. It got to the point where I felt you’ve read one Amish book, you’ve read them all. They all seemed to focus on the same issues. Maybe we need one that addresses the real abuse that is going on in these communities. So this is how I felt about Amish books I read in the past.

I admired the Amish for having the courage of their convictions. I liked their focus on family (this is obviously Amish portrayed in the books, not in the article). I thought there was something to learn from their simple lives. Sometimes our lives can get so hectic and crazy, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s really important.

I do think they’re too rigid. The Amish seem to think that everything has to be just so. They’re very conforming and I don’t like that. There is a lot of judging that goes on. I really hate the shunning. I wondered how common shunning really is, but from the article, it sounds pretty common. You know, you could say I shunned my sister during high school. But I was a teenage girl. I was immature and stupid. We live together now and have a very good relationship. I regret wasting those years. I think yelling and fighting with her would have been better than just not communicating with her.

So to sum up, why do I think conservative readers like the Amish? They are fastinating b/c they live a life extremely different from us, but they hold a lot of the same core beliefs. These books did make me consider two things. (1) What am I comprising on in my own life? and (2) What are my beliefs that are unnessarily rigid?

That article was so upsetting that I kept wanting to stop reading it but couldn’t because their stories need to be heard if people don’t know what is going on it will never change.

It was awful, beginning to end—the unending, multi-generational abuse, the blind eye that the community turns, the active punishment of the victims for daring to trying to fight back in any way possible, the “he said he was sorry and now you have to forgive him” band-aid that they slap over the whole thing.  It’s all sickening and infuriating.  What really pissed me off, though, was that, for all the hand-wringing and the excuses (“They just won’t talk to us.”), when the State has received credible testimony from girls seeking help to make it stop, they either give the men a slap on the wrist or they don’t do anything at all.  How can any of those people that let Anna just continue to suffer sleep at night?  It’s utterly appalling.

It really doesn’t matter what part of the world one goes to, women and children are oppressed and abused in the name of religion.

Also, the Amish are heavily involved in the puppy mill industry and are noted for their abysmal treatment of their dogs. *shudder* No way I could become a devote of this subgenre. Too much reality smacking me in the face via the news . . .

While I’m all for freedom of religion, I just don’t understand how Amish people are exempt from the law. If you live in the United States, you must obey the laws of the land regardless of what your religious beliefs are. It is a crime to abuse and/or sexually molest anyone. Period. So why aren’t these people arrested and convicted and sent to prison? I get that many victims won’t cooperate, but for the ones that do, what excuse can there be for the lack of response?

I’m so disheartened to read that article. It’s important to avoid labeling an entire group or community based on the actions of some of its members, but after reading about what goes on, my inclination is to think very badly of the Amish for letting things like this happen.

Kalen, thank you for mentioning the puppy mill issue.  Abuse of animals and of children very frequently go together.

Count me as one physically nauseated by the article. 

I’ve known about the puppy mill issue for a while with the Amish and purposely avoid books like this that whitewash the issues with their society.  I’m sickened but not surprised by the child molestation issues.

The problem here is that all religious extremists (that’s what the Amish, particularly Old Order, are) come from the same mold.  The letter of the law is far more important than the spirit.  Always.  And because of that,  *looking* like you obey the law is far more important than actually obeying it. 

I have no doubt that many Amish are good people - but what kind of level collusion is required by the community to rob a teenager of all of her teeth? (But they used novicane - what charmers…)  Count me out… including from the “gosh it’s hard to be Amish” books.

The Amish fic is a big chunk of my chosen market. The commenter above who said that evangelicals seem to like Amish or Mennonite themed fiction—you’re right. They sell like crazy.

I don’t personally care for them, but the one or two I’ve read were written by very fine storytellers and the “toxic” nature of some of these groups was fully exposed and appropriately deplored, I think. I do get a sense that the Christian fiction reader who likes the A/M books may possibly be hankering for a simpler way of living, and maybe some of the appeal lies there.

@BJ, if you like this kind of setting, you might also check out titles by Kim Vogel Sawyer.

(She did not pay me to say that.)

I guess I live with my head up my…ahem. I never even considered the possibility of this kind of abuse in the Amish community. My knowledge of the Amish is largely limited to social studies classes waaay back in school, and by a very few novels. Oh, and of course, “Witness.”

I am disheartened, disgusted, and disillusioned. Not to mention disturbed, disgruntled, and PISSED OFF at the State authorities who continually turn a blind eye to these things.

I rarely read “Christian Fiction” because so much of it is so lamely written (and the name of the category strikes me as oxymoronic), but I will now institute a personal boycott of the Amish sub-genre…

i had no idea this genre existed, and was very surprised to learn about it. the only thing i knew about the amish was a non fic book called plain and simple that i read a long while ago. the amish family in that book was quite lovely.  i know there is another genre now, much like the ‘i escaped the polygimists’ genre, of amish abuse, like that horrible story. and god god god, it does cause such despair, to think that women and children will forever be hurt by wicked fucks.

i grew up in a very conservative religon, not amish, but i understand the group thinking of ‘we have the real truth, we don’t answer to anyone, we are the answer.’ and i also have experienced firsthand how women are overly accountable in these groups, and men again and again escape almost any accountability, specifically re: sexual abuse.

what about an amish romance novel about a woman who escapes this sort of horror? is there a book like that, or jesus, even a book about a woman just THINKING about things differently? i’d love to read that book. i absolutely believe that i’m here, instead of where i was, today, because i read stuff i wasn’t supposed to, or even stuff that i was supposed to, that spoke to me and nurtured my rebellion and gave me the courage to leave. groups have power, and religious groups even more so, but so do words, and books, and ideas. it’s all i have to offer, because god, that article takes me back, in such a bad way. and when i try to cheer myself by thinking hey, i got out, it just isn’t enough. a few women, here, and there? it’s not enough.
oh. how about that, my spamword is enough 27.

It’s not just among the elders that sexual abuse gets winked at by the authorities.  Here in British Columbia, Canada, there’s a community called Bountiful.  They are Mormons, and the men have multiple wives, frequently underage.  If other men can’t get away with having sex with girls of fourteen, why does calling yourself a Mormon enable you to do it?  Just recently, the local authorities decided not to prosecute. Those girls should be taken into custody by Child Protection Services and the lecherous old farts sent away for so long that they never see the light of day again !

In general, it has been my experience that the English tend to romanticize the Amish. In point of fact, they are people as are everyone else. There are wonderful Amish and there are some who are not wonderful as is true of all populations. Having worked in PA for a while (and probably knowing some of the people mentioned in that article) and having a grandfather who farmed in Warren, I would like to say that Children and Youth in some of those counties treated all children that way, not just the Amish (though some of the workers in Crawford County were heroic and deserve much praise). Equally, many of the women there in Oil City, Tidioute, Tionesta, Sparty, etc. were toothless. I remember the Head Start lady telling me that they couldn’t get the moms to agree to fluoride treatments for the kids. “Why would I want him to keep his teeth? I felt so much better when I had all mine pulled?”

So I am reading that article with a grain of salt. Certainly abuse happens in the Amish community, certainly the authorities leave them alone to an extent. But some of what I am reading about is part of living in that area that is hard to understand until you have been there. After all, if we wouldn’t take an English kid out of an incestuous home, why would we take an Amish kid?

run 79 - yes, that is what I finally did

Thank you Vicki- well said. There are good people and bad people, period. My parents are friendly with several mennonite and amish families in this area, and they are some of the sweetest, most selfless people I have ever met in my life.

I am a little surprised at how everyone jumped on the Amish Are EEEEEVVVVVIIIIILLL bandwagon. Usually I find this site to be open minded.

Let’s consider that A) Lawrence county (which I am sadly familiar with as it is local to me) is not know for giving a shit about any of their residents. You travel there and can hear faint strains of the theme song to Deliverance. Children all over that county are poor, mistreated, etc. and the CYF workers are disgustingly overworked and underpaid. B)sexual abuse of minors is by no means limited to the Amish orders and neither should it be a measure to judge all Amish… anymore than I shall use abuse by Catholic priests to judge all Catholics or Teddy Haggard to judge all Baptists.

While I fully agree that the actions of a few people within a group don’t reflect the actions of everyone, an aspect of this situation that I find very troubling is the lack of action by the “good people”. From what I get out of this article (which I admit is only one source of information), if a man/boy is accused of sexual abuse, he is punished only by shunning. Then he is permitted to rejoin the family with no assurances that such abuse will not happen again. And it’s the “good people” of the community who agree with this form of punishment rather than insist on the kind of change necessary to stop such things from happening.

Accepting it as part of your history and/or culture is not acceptable. Look at the backlash against the Catholic church once it became well known that the church leaders turned a blind eye away from the handful of priests who sexually abused kids in their care? Those priests weren’t punished, they were simply moved to a new place where they could continue their sick ways. No one would every think that this course of action was “okay” because the church wanted to handle things “in-house.”

I don’t care if you are Amish or Hasidic Jew or Rastafarian. If you learn that an adult of your community is sexually abusing children and women, IMO it behooves you to make sure that person is removed from society. Anything less makes you indirectly culpable. You may be a wonderful, giving, law abiding, God-fearing person, but if you turn a blind eye while a man rapes his daughters repeatedly, then all of that means nothing.

I am a little surprised at how everyone jumped on the Amish Are EEEEEVVVVVIIIIILLL bandwagon. Usually I find this site to be open minded.

I don’t think all Amish are evil, myself, but the level of community-wide collusion in these cases is frightening, it really does paint the entire culture as complicit. That does not mean that all Amish men rape their children.

Frankly I find it insulting that anyone would think that as a conservative reader I’m not interested in what’s really going on in the Amish community.

Then you are, indeed, a unique human being. Most folks who read entertainment that’s set in a different milieu are not interested in the nitty gritty of that milieu—I remember the discussion here about Historical Romance and the Ewwww Factor in the hygiene of the past… and how it’s glossed over as unimportant to the point of the story.

I think it’s similar in the subfields of EspionageRomance, FoodieRomance, and, yes, even AmishRomance: readers, as a general rule, doesn’t care about what’s accurate—it’s only there for spice. Because this reading is for fun, see? Not analysis, etc. The General Reader really wants her/his own culture’s story with a different flavor of frosting on top. Reality’s ugly face has no place there.

Most folks who read entertainment that’s set in a different milieu are not interested in the nitty gritty of that milieu—I remember the discussion here about Historical Romance and the Ewwww Factor in the hygiene of the past… and how it’s glossed over as unimportant to the point of the story.

I think that’s a little unfair, actually. The comparison, I mean. I read historical romance quite a lot—my favored period is the nineteenth century. And I dislike nitty-gritty historical details not because I want to pretend that they don’t exist. Actually, I dislike them because I KNOW they existed. I specialize in the nineteenth century and can speak with no little authority on working conditions, hygiene, legal problems, etc.

Romance fiction is my happy place. If I want to read a book about the realities of the situation, I’ll read a scholarly historical text.

I can’t speak for all readers, but I think being aware of the problems in the Amish communities does not preclude a desire to read a book that doesn’t bring in every sordid possibility imaginable.

I’d recommend Tom and Sharon Curtis’ Sunshine and Shadow as genre Romance dealing with the Amish that does work and is beautifully written.

Romance fiction is my happy place. If I want to read a book about the realities of the situation, I’ll read a scholarly historical text.

Uhm, that’s precisely what I"m saying…

This is entertainment. People don’t want to see ugly reality in it. Readers of HistoricalRomance don’t want the grotty details of the unfortunate historical realities in their Romances, and I think it’s applicable to the grotty nasty bits in other subgenres.

and neither should it be a measure to judge all Amish… anymore than I shall use abuse by Catholic priests to judge all Catholics or Teddy Haggard to judge all Baptists

I don’t think I know any Baptists, but I’ll admit to a strong prejudice against the Catholic church in general, based on my only exposure to it: the news.  Decades of reports of pedophile priests being shuffled to new pastures, with yet another lawsuit this morning, following hard on the heels of the news about the Nova Scotia bishop with child porn on his laptop.  I can’t help it.  I think anyone who admits to being a faithful Catholic is being willfully blind.  And don’t even get me started on the whole birth control thing.

Their culture is one thing; but turning a blind eye to this abuse in the name of religion is a cop-out. I have yet to find anything in my Bible that condones fathers raping their children, or standing by and doing nothing while someone is being harmed.
Citing obedience as an explanation is b.s., because that stipulation goes hand in hand with ‘husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church’. Well, that abusive behavior sure doesn’t sound like love to me!