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'Tale' is a mystery, but no longer secret Selection looks to Ohio's Amish country
Oct. 28, 2008
Local News
By Ben Beagle
bbeagle@batavianews.com
BATAVIA - The mystery of what would be the next book in the "A
Tale for Three Counties" community reading project has been solved.
Separate From the World, the sixth book in a mystery series set in Ohio's
Amish country by retired chemistry professor Paul L. Gaus, was revealed
as the 2009 Tale selection during a Monday luncheon at Richmond Memorial
Library, 19 Ross St.
Tale, which began in 2003, encourages readers in Genesee, Wyoming and
Orleans counties to pick up the same book, read it and discuss it, and
then meet the author during a series of visits in each county. The goal
is to foster literacy, promote discussion among all kinds of people
and create a positive experience for the community.
Gaus is looking forward to his visits, scheduled March 12 to 14.
"I think what will happen is people in Batavia and nearby will
very much get to look inside my mind and discover why I write these
Ohio Amish mysteries and what I do to research Amish culture,"
Gaus said in a telephone interview with The Daily News. "And on
the other side, I expect very much to learn a lot from readers.
"It's always fun to talk to readers. I enjoy that as much as the
writing," said Gaus, who has lectured frequently but never before
had his work featured in such a large-scale reading project.
The counties' public libraries and Genesee Community College will schedule
a series of book discussions in early 2009 leading up to the author
visits. A book review contest, in which winners have lunch with the
Tale author, will also return.
About 25 invited guests, librarians and representatives from some of
the program's 20 sponsors, were the first to learn the book that would
be the seventh Tale title.
"I can't begin to tell you how difficult it is to select the book
and author for the year," Leslie DeLooze, the Richmond librarian
who has spearheaded the Tale project since its debut, said moments before
removing the piece of cardboard that covered the 2009 Tale poster featuring
the cover of Separate From the World.
"We consider many, many books for this program, looking for just
the right one," DeLooze said. "This year, our choice is very
different from our past selections, although it still has a central
theme of rural and small-town family life."
Separate From the World is set in Holmes County, Ohio. As another college
year is drawing to an end, professor Michael Branden gets an unexpected
visit from an Amish man who claims his brother, a dwarf, has been murdered.
Their discussion of odd details of the case is interrupted by a commotion
on campus, which turns out to be an apparent suicide of a young woman
who may have leaped to her death from the college bell tower.
The investigation of the two deaths soon become intertwined as Branden
teams with recurring characters Pastor Cal Troyer and Sheriff Bruce
Robertson.
"The story provides an interesting look at the Amish community,
as well as a view of campus politics and concerns and how these two
worlds intersect," DeLooze said.
Gaus' 184-page novel has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly,
which said "a convincing plot and credible, sympathetic characters
make another winner in this fine regional series," and Kirkus Reviews
said the novel was "a perceptive look at problems that have no
easy solutions." BookList called it a "too-little-known series."
The New York Times has called Gaus "a sensitive storyteller who
matches his cadences to the measured pace of Amish life, catching the
tensions among the village's religious factions."
Gaus, an Ohio native, taught chemistry - and co-wrote a best-selling
chemistry text - at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, where he
also taught a seminar on different American cultures that included Navajo
and Amish. It was through this course that Gaus became acquainted with
late author Tony Hillerman, who encouraged Gaus to use fiction to illustrate
and explain the differences between his Amish neighbors and the "English,"
or non-Amish community.
"I found it to be a useful way to step outside the lab and do something
different for a time," Gaus said. "I would be a professor
of chemistry during the academic year, and for a couple of other months
each summer take time to work in this other arena."
Previous titles in Gaus' series have explored such topics as repentance,
pacifism, greed, child abuse and Amish rites of passage.
"As time went by I found Tony Hillerman to be right," Gaus
said. "Fiction was a completely different challenge. I found it
refreshing and stimulating after a long career writing science."
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Copies of Separate From the World are available for loan at libraries
in each of the three counties. Books will be available for purchase
in early November at Richmond Library, Lee-Whedon Memorial Library,
620 West Ave., Medina; and Perry Public Library, 70 North Main St.,
Perry, and area book stores.
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On the Net:
Tale for Three Counties Web site: www.taleforthreecounties.org
Paul L. Gaus "Ohio Amish" blog: http://blogs.ohioswallow.com/gaus/
Courtesy of Batavi Newspapers Corporation