There’s something about the Amish culture and about Amish life that is fascinating to those of us who live outside, Englishers they call us. Perhaps we long for a simpler life and a more tightly knit community while at the same time we know that the rule-keeping and legalism required to maintain such simplicity would chafe and limit our freedom to an unacceptable degree.

Levi’s WIll by W. Dale Cramer is partly about that legalism and about what is gained and what is lost when a young man leaves his Amish home and family to live a life unrestricted by any rules at all other than the ones he makes or chooses for himself. As an Amish teenager, WIll Mullet, the protagonist of the novel, sees hypocrisy, unreasonable laws, and a father, Levi, who can never be pleased. He runs away from home because of one particular incident, but the author implies that Will is disillusioned with Amish life long before the crisis that causes him to leave. The problem, of course, is that Will Mullet leaves behind not only Amish rules and regulations but also his family, his own identity, and the God of his fathers.

The rest of the book is about Will’s life in the far country (Germany during WWII and then Georgia) as he tries to recover family, identity, and God. He begins by taking a new name, Will McGruder, and he becomes more and more entangled in the lies he must tell to keep his past a secret. McGruder joins the army and commits a crime by lying about his age and his name. He lies to the Georgia girl with whom he falls in love because he cannot think how to be Will McGruder and WIll Mullet at the same time. He tries over and over again to reconcile with his father and with his Amish community while at the same time he is losing and alienating his own two sons in the same way his father made him an alien and an outcast.

As in his previous book, Bad Ground, author Cramer explores the themes that have emerged in Christian pop-psychology books such as those of John Eldridge and Gary Smalley, themes of reconciliation between father and son, the blessing that a son needs from his father, and the possibility of finding what one needs from the Heavenly Father when earthly fathers are unable or unwilling to give the grace, mercy, or strength that is necessary for a man to grow into full manhood. The book leaves some questions unanswered. Why do two boys with the same father follow such different paths as adults? How does Will’s father finally get past his traditions and the obedience to the Amish rules that have kept his community safe to forgive WIll and welcome him into the family again? Why does Will’s wife, a strong woman in her own right, stay in a marriage that is based on lies and lived in isolation to some extent? Even these questions, though, indicate that the characters in this novel are intriguing and likeable enough to pull me in and make me want to know even more than the author tells about them.

The book also made me think about legalism and the value of the Law. I’m in a Bible study this summer studying Psalm 119, the psalmist’s poetic tribute to the virtues of God’s Law. As I read through the psalm I read over and over about how the psalmist loves God’s Word, how it is more precious than gold and silver, how it gives security and truth and delight. Many of the Amish surely delight in their laws, which are said to be God’s Law, and which give them safety and community and a foundation. Many more leave the Amish way of life seeing it as a man made structure that is in many ways contrary to God’s Word instead of being in accordance with it. Certainly God’s Word is a joy and a safe haven, but the temptation for fallen human beings is to build up a set of rules that can be kept however difficult the obedience may be, and to call those rules God’s Law. Then, we can justify ourselves instead of depending on the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ.

Christian fiction in general has come a long way in the past several years, and this book in particular demonstrates that fact. Instead of a hackneyed formula plot in which the main character meets a crisis, prays or gets saved, and then lives happily ever after, Dale Cramer gives the reader full characters, an unpredictable and suspenseful story, a picture of a different cultural milieu, and themes that will speak to any father, any son, or anyone who knows a father and son. I’m really impressed by the “maleness” of the setting and the story in both this book and Cramer’s previous book, and yet as the mother of two sons I enjoyed the story and found it to be thought provoking and particularly applicable to my husband’s relationship to our sons. If the father in your life enjoys fiction, Levi’s Will might make a welcome Father’s Day gift.