Book: The Parting

[Erudite]

Title: The Parting: The Courtship of Nellie Fisher, Book 1
Author: Barbara Lewis
Genre: Fiction based on known historical events
Pages: 345

I checked the book out from our library, because it showed an Amish girl on the front and a reasonably "safe" overview on the inside cover. I like fiction, but I don't like the crap that many feel necessary to have in fictional stories of today so I'm fairly careful. At first, I was just happy with the simple life that is described, but now that I've finished it, I find myself wanting the experiences that they have in the story, because this is a profoundly spiritual book.

The story is set in Pennsylvannia Dutch country in 1966, though because the story is told from an Amish perspective, it really could be anytime in the last 100 years. However, the author was specifically wanting to convey 1966, because that is a time when the Amish community was rocked by dissension and divisiveness.

The main character is Nellie Fisher and she is 17. She has a crush on Caleb Yoder, also 17. She also runs her own business, a bakery. As the story unfolds we learn that just before the book begins, Nellie's youngest sister Suzy died in a drowning accident, but none of Nellie's family know the whole story, so they are left with a rumor mill that says that Suzy was leaving the People to go a worldly way. This possibility also makes Nellie's growing romance with Caleb a bit shaky, because he won't be allowed to associate himself with a family that has such a person in it, even if the person isn't alive.

But Suzy's death does more than the family realizes. It opens their hearts to question the "faith" they've been brought up in. They begin to question the possibility that their daughter might be consigned to hell because she died without baptism. This question sends first her father, then her mother to the scriptures in a way they've never before done. It seems that studying beyond certain scriptures is taboo in this community, and they've never done it before. They've always lived on tradition. But when they do question and begin to search for the answers, they find their hearts changing and reaching toward their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, the "Old Ways" and those who follow them without thought of questioning them, require that those who want to follow new ways are shunned from the society of the people. Thus putting a further damper on Nellie's and Caleb's romance...Nellie wants to be free to consider these new thoughts and Caleb, and his family, won't have her if she does.

The story describes Nellie's father's conversion and then her mother's conversion and their joy at finding the Lord Jesus and His salvation offered to them and to their children. It is heartwarming to see how much impact the gospel makes on their hearts and how strong they are in the face of the coming storm in their society despite the newness of their belief. They are like our own pioneers in that way and it was good to read another story which describes these feelings.

The writing itself isn't as well done as other things I've read and the characters, beyond Nellie, feel a little forced, but despite that, this is a book I can highly recommend. It is clean and wholesome and filled with good things to understand about a people I knew only a little about. It is a romance leading to marriage, so it might not appeal to a younger audience, but I think most females would really enjoy this book.