To be honest I've probably given this a star to many, the book itself is fairly good but I don't really feel like I know anymore about Amish living than I did already which isn't a lot. The book is mainly about the author growing up and struggling with the Amish church and not feeling like he belongs in that environment. A lot of the book follows him as he runs away from home then goes back then leaves then goes back and so on. So to be honest it's more a story of someone struggling with who he is and trying to find where he belongs, so I think if you want to find out more about how Amish people live I think you will be left feeling disappointed. This book reinforced a few home truths:1.You cannot force anyone to believe in God, they need to come to God by themselves in their own individual way.You can only lead them, but not force them.2.You cannot scare people (or your kids) permanently into living in a cult type environment with a greatly restricted lifestyle.3. To try is abusive.4. To adopt a greatly restrictive lifestyle one must want to live that way. One can't be forced into it because the parents, community, peer group lives that way.5. God is not punishing and will not send people to hell, because they can not abide by greatly restricted cult type environments.6. the young generation will always question and restrictions placed upon it by the older generation.7. To deliberately chose a 'mod con free" lifestyle for yourself may greatly impede your children's chances of finding their way in a mod con riddled world.8. You may chose not to use mod cons, but you can't stop your kids from wanting to use them.I felt really sorry that Ira had to suffer so greatly till he was able to find his own path to a forgiving God who would love and welcome him in any community he chose to live. This is the second book written by a person who as a young adult had to make the decision to leave a "cult like" lifestyle they had been born into. Both times they had been greatly hampered in their ability to live and adjust to the normal world due to educational and living restrictions which contributed little or nothing to the child's spiritual welfare.In my opinion great care needs to be taken as to how restrictive a life parents impose upon their children in the name of religion.
