Book Review: Levi's Will

I started reading this book several weeks ago, and had a hard time getting into it. It was not because of the author's writing or because I found it uninteresting, but it was words that poked at my inner being that brought back some childhood memories and memories of legalisim I "escaped" from. If you are one that went through rejection as a child or adult, and/or dealt with religious legalisim, though it may be hard to keep going at first, you will find yourself relating, and find healing along with the characters of this book. Today I dug into this book and could not put it down.

Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer, is about a young man, Will Mullet, that leaves the Amish community, knowing he'd be excommunicated. The book begins in January 1985, but has flashbacks and how this young man grows into adulthood. He leaves behind a pregnant girl, his large family, and an especially condemning father and Amish religion. The author wrote the book in the third person and at this point says of Will, "No soul could long thrive in the glare of such withering and justifiable wrath. Will chose exile because it seemed like a lesser kind of death." He joins the army under a false identity, finds his wife and builds the first years of their marriage of lies of the past.

As Will grows older, he confesses to his wife, raises a son, and much of the story is his going back "home" and yearning for reconciliation with his father. Because of his running away from home, he is shunned, and even has to sit at a separate table than the rest of the family. He thinks that he will never have this much needed forgiveness, and wants to give up, but his brother reminds him, "He [his father] still grinds his teeth when he thinks about you, every day. Every day, Will. He thinks about you every day! No man spends fourteen years being mad at somebody he don't care about."

The reconciliation yearned for is not only with his dad, but reconciliation with God, and how he has to first make things right with Him. Then it was very important to forgive his father, even if his father did not forgive him. He realizes the need to break the sins of the forefathers. I found this statement very hard hitting: "The sins of the fathers are indeed visited on subsequent generations, he thinks, as his mind slips back into the past. What he knows now to be a hereditary anger born of a hereditary disapproval has cause him to lose great chunks of his son's life in precisely the same way he had lost great chunks of his father's".

Another person to watch the life of in this book, is Will's wife, Helen. She is a very encouraging woman, who also seeked out God, and had a quiet testimony for her husband in being servanthearted. I also appreciated the way she stayed not only faithful, but loving and encouraging to her husband and family who went through many ups and downs. Too many marriages are destroyed when emotions take over, and she was not one to allow this to happen.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS - I highly recommend this book. The story is interwoven with many different personalities and life issues, that would be common to many, and can be a story that can help lead to healing and finding God. The book begins in January 1985 and flashes back, beginning in 1943. Sometimes, (at least for me) it was confusing. Because I was reviewing this book, I highlighted sections, and it helped me to put some of the puzzle pieces together by going back and reviewing some of what I had highlighted.

I noticed in reading the author's webpage, that "he was the second of four children born to a runaway Amishman turned soldier. . ." I wonder how much of his childhood and family history brought about this book.

When I have a chance, I would like to read it again, knowing the full story, and I am sure will find more of those puzzle pieces, enlightening and thought provoking. I also plan to seek out the author's other books, Sutter's Cross and Bad Ground.

NOTE: As a Mind & Media Reviewer, I was not compensated for providing this review. I received a complimentary copy of the book in order to review it and am thankful for this opportunity. Your purchasing it from the link below or one of my links above, does help me raise funds in my Amazon account, and if you do, THANK YOU!