Books › Growing up Amish
Growing up Amish
288 pages
A candid, bittersweet journey of untangling oneself from a deeply insular world to find a sense of true belonging.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting on a porch with a close friend as they recount the most difficult, defining years of their life. The pacing is steady and reflective, mirroring the slow, deliberate rhythms of the agrarian world the author leaves behind. It carries a deeply restless mood, capturing the agonizing push-and-pull between the warmth of a tight-knit community and the suffocating weight of its rigid expectations. The prose is unadorned and conversational, yet it pulses with a quiet, earnest yearning. It is a bittersweet, poignant experience that will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever had to break their own heart and leave their family behind in order to figure out who they truly are.
- Mood
- nostalgic
- restless
- insular
- bittersweet
- Tone
- earnest
- reflective
- candid
- poignant
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- search for identity · cost of freedom · religious departure · family expectations · tradition vs. modernity
- The writing
- Straightforward, conversational, and unadorned, reflecting the plainness of his upbringing while remaining deeply expressive.
- The arc
- Moves from the stifling comfort of a rigid upbringing through a turbulent period of restless searching, culminating in a bittersweet but liberating independence.
- Who it's for
- Readers fascinated by insular communities, religious deconstruction memoirs, and coming-of-age stories about forging one's own path.
Content notes
- religious guilt
- family estrangement
About the book
One fateful starless night, 17-year-old Ira Wagler got up at 2 AM, left a scribbled note under his pillow, packed all of his earthly belongings into in a little black duffel bag, and walked away from his home in the Amish settlement of Bloomfield, Iowa. Now, in this heartwarming memoir, Ira paints a vivid portrait of Amish life, from his childhood days on the family farm, his Rumspringa rite of passage at age 16, to his ultimate decision to leave the Amish Church for good at age 26. Growing Up Amish is the true story of one man's quest to discover who he is and where he belongs. Readers will laugh, cry, and be inspired by this charming yet poignant coming of age story set amidst the backdrop of one of the most enigmatic cultures in America today -- the Old Order Amish. - Publisher.
Description from Open Library.
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