Why I left the Amish
Subtitle: a memoir
By: by Saloma Miller Furlong
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: East Lansing
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
ISBN-13: 9780870139949
Subjects: Social life and customs; Amish; Families; Family; Parent and child; Childhood and youth; Biography
Description: Overview: There are two ways to leave the Amish - one is through life and the other through death. When Saloma Miller Furlong's father dies during her first semester at Smith College, she returns to the Amish community she had left twenty four years earlier to attend his funeral. Her journey home prompts a flood of memories. Now a mother with grown children of her own, Furlong recalls her painful childhood in a family defined by her father's mental illness, her brother's brutality, her mother's frustration, and the austere traditions of the Amish - traditions Furlong struggled to accept for years before making the difficult decision to leave the community. In this personal and moving memoir, Furlong traces the genesis of her desire for freedom and education and chronicles her conflicted quest for independence. Eloquently told, Why I Left the Amish is a revealing portrait of life within - and without - this frequently misunderstood community.
Table of contents: title: Datt's struggle with life; title: A frolic; title: Do you remember me?; title: Funeral circle; title: Reckoning with Joe; title: In the shadows of the buggies; title: A grain by the wayside; title: What do you mean by love?; title: Wrapping a plan; title: Out of the woods; title: Into daybreak; title: Appendixes: Naming practices among the Amish; Differences between Amish and Mennonites; Terms for "outsiders."