Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amiish

Joe Mackall has lived surrounded by the Swartzentruber Amish community of Ashland County, Ohio, for over sixteen years. The Swartzentrubers live without gas, electricity, or indoor plumbing; without lights on their buggies or cushioned chairs in their homes; and without rumspringa, the recently popularized "running-around time" that some Amish sects allow their sixteen-year-olds. Over the years, Mackall has developed a steady relationship with the Shetler family (Samuel and Mary, their nine children, and their extended family). Plain Secrets tells the Shetlers' story over these years, using their lives to paint a portrait of Swartzentruber Amish life and mores. During this time, Samuel's nephew rejects the Amish way of life; his bright young daughter reaches the end of school for Amish children; and Samuel faces difficulties in his new role as a church leader. These and other stories from the life of the family reveal the larger questions posed by the Amish way of life.

Review :
"In simple but elegant prose that matches the values of his subject, Joe Mackall takes us deep into the Amish community. He neither romanticizes nor condemns an alternate way of living, but provides stunning insight through the generosity and compassion of his own heart." Chris Offutt, author of "The Same River Twice" and "Kentucky Straight""Joe Mackall's "Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish" meets the biggest challenge of a book such as this by living up to his subtitle: Mackall is both outside and among in equal measure, and it's the most difficult terrain to occupy. "Plain Secrets" vibrates in that in-betweenness, in ways that only songs or poems usually can, and it does so in prose that's as clear as water. It s built the way the Amish build their barns everything here is plumb and level." Diana Hume George, author of "The Lonely Other: A Woman Watching America""Joe Mackall's patience, empathy, and dogged curiosity illuminate this fine, fascinating study of an elusive culture. "Plain Secrets" is a provocative, humbling, and soulful book." Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln s Melancholy" "Mackall breathes life into a complex group often idealized or caricatured . . . it is a deeply respectful account that never veers toward sensationalism." "Mackall describes the details of family, farming and church life with sympathy, accuracy and good will... His particularistic description of one family is a welcome addition to what had often been a sociological literature." --Christian Century "Mackall explores this paradox with rare honesty and insight . . . Another strength of the book is that while maintaining a personal narrative voice, Mackall folds in a succinct and engaging history of the Anabaptist religious tradition and the polity of the Amish church. This added context greatly enhances the more personal stories." "Plain Secrets is a moving exploration of a little-known world and friendship across a cultural divide." "Wonderful and enlightening . . . This is a loving portrait, warts and all, of an often-misunderstood people." & quot; Mackall breathes life into a complex group often idealized or caricatured . . . it is a deeply respectful account that never veers toward sensationalism.& quot; & quot; Plain Secrets is a moving exploration of a little-known world and friendship across a cultural divide.& quot; & quot; Wonderful and enlightening . . . This is a loving portrait, warts and all, of an often-misunderstood people.& quot; " Mackall breathes life into a complex group often idealized or caricatured . . . it is a deeply respectful account that never veers toward sensationalism." " Wonderful and enlightening . . . This is a loving portrait, warts and all, of an often-misunderstood people."