Afternoon Book Club
Monday, May 20th at 2:00pm
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.
