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2009 review contest entries
Monday, March 9, 2009
Five winners of the annual "A Tale for Three Counties" book
review contest will have lunch with author P.L. Gaus on Friday afternoon.
A total of 11 entries were submitted. Judging was conducted by members of the Tale for Three Counties Council Inc., the group of librarians that organizes the annual Tale for Three Counties community reading project.
Writers were encouraged to write about a single topic that interested them, and avoid summarizing the book. Reviews were limited to 150 words, though some writers wrote longer.
Here are the winning entries:
Julie Caton, Oakfield
Paul Gaus depicts three professional men as the heroes of his murder mystery. But in the wings of this book's stage, three women take on the role of the true heroes. Cathy Billet, a college sophomore, stands against the murderer by threatening to divulge his fake research. She is killed for her integrity. Rachel Ramsayer, a lonely lady, writes to Pastor Cal Troyer asking boldly if he might be her biological father. In the end Rachel not only meets her father, but learned about the Amish community from where he great-grandfather originated. Finally, Caroline Branden, the professor's wife, surprises us with her hidden skill, pistol shooting. She stands "in the doorway with a double-fisted grip on a black revolver, her feet planted wide." It is Caroline, not a man, who ends the life of the murderer. Praise to Mr. Gaus for including three empowered women as heroines in his story.
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Linda Daviau, Batavia
While weaving his mystery, "Separate from the World," author P.L. Gaus shares with his readers a glimpse into the Old Order Amish culture, often for many of us, a mystery unto itself. This mystery skillfully intertwines the lives of the Amish and English. His Amish characterizations bring to the reader insight into their desire for life's simplicity while having to face conflict from the outside world. This story begins with an Amish man, knowing the history and importance of being "separate," reaching out for help from the English to solve the suspected murder of his brother. Through the eyes of his character, Professor Michael Brandon, Gaus tells his tale of murder, kidnapping and deception. As a lover of a good mystery, there was a smile on my face as I read the last few pages. Read "Separate from the World," to see what I was smiling about!
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Meghan Hauser, Perry
The rapid fire series of murders, kidnappings and intrigue that unfold over a short few days in P.L. Gaus' "Separate From the World" made me sympathize with the book's Amish community and their desire to insulate themselves. However, turning our backs does not keep the world's events from infiltrating and affecting our lives, and so both the book's Amish community and the reader are compelled by unexpected events to get involved in solving the mystery.
In this sixth Ohio Amish Mystery Series book, I learned enough about main characters to recognize their motives and to care about their fates. Supporting cast members were more caricatures than characters, perhaps an unavoidable consequence of the story's fast pace. The author's layering and eventual collision of the frenetic mayhem of the "English" world (on steroids) with the simple life of the Ohio Amish made for a startling and successful contrast.
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Frances McNulty, Batavia
Friday, January 23
6 a.m.
JUST FINISHED the book. I liked Caroline immediately upon meeting her. The author portrayed her as an understanding, intelligent, and supportive partner to her husband, Professor Michael Branden. It was probably intentional that she was not presented as integral. Her distaff role as wife and homemaker, although a worthy career, is often considered insignificant today.
Although most of us probably know few (if any) Amish people personally, the book offered interesting details about the sect's beliefs and lifestyle. Their genetic aberration (dwarfism) is another aspect about which we were probably unaware. It seems the Amish have always been a curiosity and somewhat of a tourist attraction to us "English" folk.
Caroline's insightfulness in dealing with the Amish families during their time of crisis provided evidence of her compassionate character and her sensitivity. Therefore it was a delightful surprise to have her revealed also as so heroic.
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Joyce Thompson-Hovey, Pavilion
From the very beginning, I could easily relate to the main character, Professor Branden, whether it was from having taught for 30 years, loving history and mysteries, attending college in the 1960s, living near an Amish community once, or by currently contemplating retirement. The author goes about masterfully interweaving several subplots and smoothly transitioning from one event to another, making for a very fast paced page turning story. There is something there to interest everyone - murder, suicide, fact or fabrication, which is it? Even a kidnapping occurs, but for what purpose? It is a very well written story with the use of interspersed similes that creatively describe seemingly unimportant things. However, as you read, you become increasingly aware that many of these incidents were both relevant and important. By the end of the book, you discover that the inner turmoil, emotions and feelings of each character somehow seem to be all interconnected somehow by a common thread.
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Here are the additional entries:
Linda DeVito, Oakfield
In all of P.L. Gaus' Amish mysteries, including his latest, "Separate From the World," Michael Branden is the central character. He solves mysteries with his friends, Sheriff Robertson and Pastor Troyer, but Gaus never reveals much about Branden. We know that he is respected by the Amish because of his past sensitivity to their culture, but little else.
Integrity is an important theme in this book, both to the story and to Michael Branden himself. Branden questions whether he should continue teaching when the routine papers, grades and tests have become burdensome. He is disappointed in the self-serving antics of his colleagues, Aiden Newhouse and college president Arne Laughton. In the end, Branden realizes that he has an important role to play in restoring integrity to the college. He must work to remove Laughton as president, a story that may be told in Gaus' next mystery.
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Sandra Kushner, Bliss
"But we've trained for that, Michael."
"Because if you can't shoot back...," Caroline started.
"You're just a target," the professor finished.
"Caroline was standing in the doorway with a double-fisted grip on a black revolver, her feet planted wide. ... Caroline shot him (Eddie) three times in the chest."
Caroline Branden is not just the thoughtful housewife of professor Michael Branden who reminds him, "Try not to be morose," and a good friend to Pastor Cal Troyer when she urges him to meet the daughter he didn't know he had. She somehow gains the trust of Hannah and Arthur Erb, when no one else seems to be able to reach them, to assess the effects of Arthur's kidnapping and torture.
She proves in the end, that she would fight with her life, if she had to, for her husband, her friends, and even strangers.
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Corliss S. Murphy, Attica
When thinking about the Amish, beautiful quilts, great food and quaint dress come to mind, not dwarfism. In "Separate from the World," Gaus uses this genetic mutation as an important thread throughout the story.
After reading the book, I did a little research, finding that those in the Amish community are all descended from 200 immigrants from 200 years ago. Because of their cultural and religious choices to be separate from the world, families have intermarried, increasing the chances of genetic mutations within their closed community. A doctor from John Hopkins has undertaken a long term medical study, finding among other things, a kind of dwarfism almost unique to the Amish - only four non-Amish dwards of this type are known in the world.
With this background, Gaus's use of dwarfism as a theme in the treatment of the Amish is natural as well as thought-provoking.
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Leatha Taber, Albion
The 2009 Tale for Three Counties is “Separte From the World,” a novel of multiple mysteries by P.L. Gaus. A student jumps from the roof of a school building in front of her boyfriend, a soon-to-be graduating senior. A local Amish farmer is at a professor’s office at the same time, asking for help because his brother’s death was ruled an accident. an accident? A suicide? Or two murders?
The medical mystery of dwarfism affets a larger percentage of Amish than the rest of the population, and the possibility of a cure divides its community.
Parenting is the remaining mystery. An Amish child is kidnapped and then returned. A friend of the professor may be the father of the child his “dear John” girlfriend gave birth to while he served in Vietnam.
We are all separate from the world, but loving another connects us profoundly.
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David Stevens, Le Roy
P.L. Gaus's latest novel, "Separate from the World," is a study of two worlds. One of those worlds exists inside the mind of Eddie Hunt-Myers, a senior at the local college. The other world is the Amish community near that college. Eddie Hunt-Myers kills one member of that community and kidnaps two of its children in an effort to hide the fact that he didn't really interview anyone for his senior thesis, which portrays the Amish as a religious cult.
Eddie paints the Amish community in this light because he wants to please his psychology professor, Aiden Newhouse, who hates religious cults. But Eddie's evidence is based on fake interviews with members of the Amish community, and he intends to kill anyone that knows about them, including his girlfriend, Cathy Billett, whom he pushes off the campus bell tower.
And that brings us to the main problem with the story: it is hard to believe that Eddie would start killing people just to cover up the fact that he cheated on his senior thesis. After all, even if Eddie were expelled from college, he still had a job waiting for him at the family boatyard back home in Florida. But if Eddie lacks any credible motivation for his murders and kidnapping, then he must be some kind of psychopath; and that present a problem for anyone trying to interpret Gaus's novel.
For if Eddie Hunt-Myers is seen as a psychopath, Gaus's novel is not a study of conflict between evil and innocence, as first presumed. It is rather a study of the conflict between sanity and insanity - the ultimate sanity of the Amish community in contrast to Eddie's destructive insanity. And that is the basis of my ultimate conclusion concerning Gaus' novel: it is, in the end, an account of the sanity of the Amsih people as seen against the background of the insanity of the Amish people as seen against the background of the insanity of the present-day college community.
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Jim Gillen, Warsaw
"History in the Making, A brief story of the Amish in Wyoming County"
On or about the year 1995 the first Amish family settled in Wyoming County - New York. They had left their home in Northern Pennsylvania to start a new life here.
They were not entirely alone, however, as just across the county line in the townships of Hulme and Centerville, Allegany County, were about 35 other Amish families that shared the same beliefs.
Today, in the towns of Pike and Eagle, Wyoming County, a sizeable group of Amish reside. All told I estimate that 55 to 60 families of Amish live in the nearby area. Three Amish schools exist. This is where they receive their education up to the eighth grade. After which time they start their working lives.
Many of the men are employed in the forestry industry. Many directly in the woods, as lumbermen, log skidders, etc., etc.
A few sizeable sawmills exist. Also, a number of very small one-man sawmills turn the logs into lumber products.
Most family units own and operate small farms, keep a few dairy cows for their own use and many raise much of the food that they consume.
One will observe several small general stores that cater to Amish needs. A furniture manufacturer lives and works in Pike. One man designs and sews custom built tarps, patio drapes and welding tents. Also some of the women have small retail bake food stores operating from their home.
Historically, the Amish are good, honest, hard-working citizens of their communities. Asking very little from the outside world but to be left alone. Time will tell what the future holds for the Amish in Wyoming County. I for one welcome them to the area.
Courtesy of Batavia Newspapers Corporation