First off I have a problem with a portion of the mentality behind the book, simply because the Inspirationalists were basically Anabaptists (like Mennonites and Amish) who were very into believing that peace is important and to live out the way Christ lived His life. I am a Mennonite so I understand this mentality because I share it. The difference about the Inspirationalists were that they believed highly in the power of prayer which is definitely wonderful (I agree though I don't see as much of an emphasis on prayer today as then). I think this book, being written by a non-Anabaptist doesn't understand fully the mindset of the people she wrote about, and wrote it more with her own Nationalistic American Christian mindset which is not how the people of Amana lived at all. She partly got it right but tried to make it seem like some things are right for some people and other things are right for others regarding how they decide to take the Bible for their personal life. The Amana Kolony believed that war on all counts was wrong but loving the soldiers and standing up against slavery, though not through the use of violence is right.
I did read the first book she wrote about these Kolonies (Love Finds You in Homestead) and liked that as well. This one is set earlier on during the Civil War period while the other book was set near the last years of the Kolonies.
Now, the story itself was lovely and made sense to me. Amalie grew up in Germany and New York with her family. We don't hear much about her upbringing other than a little about her mother and the fact that she spent much of her childhood with her fiance' Friedrich. She is excited to go to Amana after being apart from Friedrich for three years. Only one problem. . .he is being called to war. The people of Amana tend to be conscientious objectors which is mentioned, but after seeing a slave who was freed, he starts to fight about what is the right thing to do. This is where the normal mentality of fighting for country and such comes in line, of course, but she did base it off of an actual person who lived in Amana (without knowing much about him though), so it does make sense that this struggle can exist, definitely. Matthias is Friedrich's best friend and he wants to stop his friend from making a mistake and to see how important it is to act with love and in a peaceful way without war.
The ending and how each of the three characters' stories tie up is done really well though and I do think pretty realistically. I shed tears while reading it. It was beautiful and held true to the Anabaptist thought too, which cheered me up.
I did read the first book she wrote about these Kolonies (Love Finds You in Homestead) and liked that as well. This one is set earlier on during the Civil War period while the other book was set near the last years of the Kolonies.
Now, the story itself was lovely and made sense to me. Amalie grew up in Germany and New York with her family. We don't hear much about her upbringing other than a little about her mother and the fact that she spent much of her childhood with her fiance' Friedrich. She is excited to go to Amana after being apart from Friedrich for three years. Only one problem. . .he is being called to war. The people of Amana tend to be conscientious objectors which is mentioned, but after seeing a slave who was freed, he starts to fight about what is the right thing to do. This is where the normal mentality of fighting for country and such comes in line, of course, but she did base it off of an actual person who lived in Amana (without knowing much about him though), so it does make sense that this struggle can exist, definitely. Matthias is Friedrich's best friend and he wants to stop his friend from making a mistake and to see how important it is to act with love and in a peaceful way without war.
The ending and how each of the three characters' stories tie up is done really well though and I do think pretty realistically. I shed tears while reading it. It was beautiful and held true to the Anabaptist thought too, which cheered me up.
