Saturday Reads - Lancaster

Today's Saturday Reads focuses on Lancaster PA. The book, After the Fire: The Destruction of the Lancaster County Amish by Randy-Michael Testa follows one man's travels through Lancaster County in the late 1985 (the same summer as The Witness was released). With that said, the book is out-of-date, but due to the quirky nature of Lancaster County, it is still very much in date.

I picked the book up through my library system for some research. Having grown up in the area, I knew more than the average visitor might know, but I never had any Amish friends. I knew the Amish the way one knows about America - the culture permeates the world in ways that we don't readily recognize.

The book was an enjoyable read, more travelogue than anything else. We follow Testa as he talks, visits and travels around Lancaster County. Here, we see the initial reaction to the film, The Witness which basically set the Amish community on the world stage.

They haven't left the stage yet.

For me, it was interesting to read a book about Lancaster Pa, during a time when I lived there. As an adult reading it, I found insight into the culture that I wouldn't have otherwise. If you're looking for something that goes beneath the surface of Lancaster County, this is a good book. I also recommend reading books by those who have left the Amish community ... but those reviews are for another day.

By the way, it's warm in Western NY, and Lancaster County has dug itself out of the snow. Spring is a month away, and hopefully, this will be all the snow we receive until December.

One can only hope.

Saturday Reads-Buffalo

I picked up this book from my library system for two reasons: first, it focuses on Buffalo political history, and second, it provided a history for the current state of things in Buffalo.

The book Power Struggle: Politics, Patronage, And the Economic Future of Buffalo, New York (Prometheus Books, 2006) is written by a Buffalo native, Diana Dillaway. She interviewed Buffalo's political and cultural leaders to gather insights about the time covered: 1950-2005.

One thing I have enjoyed about the book is Dillaway's ability to explain the different parts of the situation. While many of us focus on one item (manufacturing leaving town), we ignore or do not realize the other struggles happening at the same time.

Every city struggles with the tensions between the different ethnic groups, and Buffalo is no different. During the time period covered, there were three primary groups at play. The first group was the WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) that were in the upper echelons of the economic system. The WASP group ruled the banks, papers, and many of the large businesses. The second group was divided into three parts: Italian, Polish and Irish factions. This was the immigrant/middle class section. Some aspired to enter the WASPs (some became rich enough), but were never fully accepted for one reason: Catholicism. The third group was the African-American community. Buffalo has always had a large population of free blacks because of its proximity to Canada. Indeed, to this day, houses around Western New York are rumored to be stations on the Underground Railroad.

The combination of economic and political troubles led to the situation in Buffalo. The premise of the book is when leaders fail to lead, which, Dillaway suggests is part of the reason that Buffalo went through the economic crisis it faced beginning in the Seventies, and is only recently recovering from.

If you're looking for a book to give you a good overview of the modern economic/political history of Buffalo, this is a good starting point.

One interesting side-note about the publisher, Prometheus Books, it is located in Amherst, NY.

Saturday Reads - Lancaster

Today's book is based in Lancaster County, and is probably the book that helped put Lancaster County on the radar of most people. For some people it is also the best and worst of Lancaster Co. It is everything kitsch, and it is what defines Lancaster County.

The Shunning follows the story of Katie Lapp, an Amish woman who longs for more, but because of her Amish community, feels constrained. As the series progresses, the character learns she is not Amish by birth, but by adoption, and she proceeds to seek her birth mother ... and find herself.

The story follows, in essence, the standard coming-of-age storyline where the main character must find herself both inwardly through her desires and dreams, and outwardly through her community and chosen path.

To that end, the story is an enjoyable read. It isn't a mystery with dead bodies, but it is an exploration of what it means to be English and Amish. The author, Beverly Lewis, is from Lancaster County, so she writes about a world she knows.

I first read this book while in high school. Oddly enough, I finished a good portion of the Amish romances before they became what they are. For me, the books by Beverly Lewis, the author of The Shunning, was a whiff of home while I was away. Many of the books, The Shunning and its two sequels, The Confession and The Reckoning came out in the mid-nineties, just about the time I moved from Lancaster area to Western NY. My personal favorite series, Summerhill Secrets, is currently out-of-print, but I will discuss that series at another date.

As I said before, The Shunning practically defined the Christian Amish romance genre: main character is Amish, may or may not remain Amish, but the romance is chaste, and the apple streudel fresh from the stove. The ones who are not Amish find peace and healing among the Amish community, and while they rarely become Amish, they feel as though they have discovered family.

I stopped reading most of the Amish romances about the time they started kicking off among the rest of the Christian community. For me, they had become predictable, and if there is one thing to be said against the genre, is its predictability. We know that the main character will ultimately remain among her people (unless of course, like Katie, her people aren't her people). In The Shunning and The Redemption of Sarah Cain, Beverly Lewis does a good job of exploring the relationships between the two peoples: Amish and non-Amish, whom they call English. I'll discuss The Redemption of Sarah Cain later. Beverly Lewis has written several books set in Lancaster County, so you'll hear about her often.


One other aside about the Amish genre: many of them take place outside Lancaster County. In fact, a good majority of them only refer to Lancaster in passing. Part of the reason is that the Amish community is moving away from Lancaster (this has always been a problem, and is nothing new), but if you want to find the heart of Amish country, Lancaster is still your best bet. You can visit it through the novels by Beverly Lewis, or you can visit if physically ... or find the film at your local bookstore or library

Saturday Reads

I'm gearing back into a fuller writing schedule, though I won't be back to full schedule until March at the earliest. Starting today, I'm going to focus Saturdays on books and series that take place in and around the Buffalo and Lancaster areas. Not all of the books are written by local authors, and not all of the books are still in print. Some, to be honest, aren't even really all that well-written, but all take place in and around the areas.

The first book is called, Black Irish by Stephen Talty. You can click on the book to take you to Amazon*. I borrowed this book from my library for a couple of reasons (a) it happens in Buffalo, (b) it's a murder mystery, and (c) I liked the title.

I expected a good read, and what I found was a great, edge-of-my-seat sort of novel. It kept me guessing from the beginning of the book until the end. The story follows Absalom "Abbie" Kearney, a Buffalo detective who has returned home to Buffalo to help care for her father who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. When a man in her neighborhood goes missing, she's the one who is called in ... when the murders begin, it's up to her to wade through the history and opinions that make up South Buffalo.

For those not from the area, South Buffalo is a heavily Irish territory, and it holds onto that history. I found Black Irish provided a good look at the views - good and bad - that make up the area. Ironically, for me at least, I could relate to Abbie as she struggles with trying to fit into the community. I felt that Talty captured Abbie's desire to be a part of the community, and her frustration of being on the outside.

All in all, it's an interesting read. It paints a good picture of Buffalo now, as well as some of the regions within the city itself. If you're looking for a mystery, Black Irish is a good one to read.




*Full disclosure - for every click on the book, I receive money as part of the affiliate program.