Runaway Amish Girl

The Great Escape

By: Emma Gingerich

Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Growing up Amish and leaving the fold, Emma Gingerich left her Amish community in Eagleville, Missouri, at the age of 18. Her memoir Runaway Amish Girl: The Great Escape captivates even the timid listener. Disagreeing with the beliefs of Amish traditions and upbringing, the pressure became too much for her to bear. Forced to make a personal decision, Emma found the courage to leave the only life she had ever known. She had no idea the emotional turmoil she'd inflict on her family and friends. The emotional reactions of her parents, brothers, and sisters, were gut-wrenching. Considered no longer a daughter or a sister, temporarily exiled, Emma found a way to be free. Education became her priority as she found her place in the "English" world. This true story is a rare glimpse into the life of a brave young woman.

©2015 Emma Gingerich (P)2019 Tantor

Enjoyed learning

Reading like an Amish person might speak, I enjoyed learning the customs and lifestyle she walked away from.

Recommended Read

Very interesting, well written, and informative. Having escaped a similar situation, I could really relate, and the author often put words to things I've gone through in my recovery. That helped me. Thank you. I wish Emma continued happiness and I hope she is proud of how far she has come.

Some parts were Interesting, others not so much

I saw Emma Gingerich on a talk show and thought she was a lovely young lady and well spoken. I was impressed with her seeking education and finding ways to make that happen. In the book, I was expecting more variety about growing up, but I guess it would be hard to provide variety when the Amish lifestyle is pretty simple. It is sad that when the teenagers decide that they want to leave that it is so hard for them to find a way to make that happen. I was surprised that she was allowed to return home for visits.

Great story

This was a Great story. I wish Emma all the best and her story was enlightening.

Enlightening

I was pretty naive about the Amish culture and this really opened up a bit more and quite realistically.

Fascinating view of Amish life

I knew less about Amish culture than I thought I did. Runaway Amish Girl gives a personal account of the customs and details that guide Amish people’s lives. The book was engaging and never boring. I did feel, however, that Emma was a whiner and that was hard to take. She wanted to cherry pick the parts of her life that suited her, leaving the parts that irritated her by the wayside. That’s impossible in a close, strictly-mandated community.

I do think leaving her family and everything she knew behind was brave. It is a huge transition, especially since Emma’s English language skills were so limited, it surprised me that she was allowed to visit her family even after she left for her new world. I expected she would be totally shunned.

The Amish community is very male-dominated, with women remarkably limited in their life options. It’s difficult to imagine anybody being happy in that environment but I suppose when that’s all you know, it feels safe and comforting.

I thought the narration was pretty stilted and I never got any depth or honesty from the narrator’s intonation. The writing is better than the narration.

Love this

This gives people a look into the Amish community from view of someone who was member of it.

NOT the picture painted in the romance novels....

Of course each person's experience is her own, but I was shocked at Emma's raw portrayal of her life in the Amish Community. I had only listened to light, Christian, Amish/Mennonite. fiction novels. Emma describes a much darker view into family life, dating rituals, and the hierarchy in the very strictest of Amish sects. I appreciate and respect her candor as she described the dangers brought on by her naivete and lack of education.

What a strong woman.

The nararrator is also perfectly matched to the work.

I wish the author had read this herself

The narrator isn't bad-- she reads with expression--but I can tell these aren't her words. Every once in a while, there's an awkward turn of phrase, and I can't tell if it's because English is the writers second language or if the narrator messed up the phrase. I think the story would have felt more natural if the author had narrated it herself.

As for the story itself, it's a window into another world, but it's a narrow window because it reflects only the author's perspective. As many details as she shares about her family's Amish culture and day-to-day life, she doesn't seem to understand that life at all. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand. It would be like me writing a book revealing the culture of Southern Baptist Christians. Now that I'm not longer a follower of those doctrines and no longer participate in that culture, it seems odd and wrong. This is how Emma depicts her family culture...from the outside in. Even when she lived with her family, she felt like an outsider, and that is compounded the more years she spends in the English world.

The writing itself is just okay. The story is disjointed at times; it seems to lack a narrative thread beyond "Here is the next thing that happened." Some of the anecdotes are out of place or just unnecessary to the central narrative of Emma's feelings of isolation and oppression, which drove her to run away. Then, some of the more frightening experiences are layed out as examples of the oppression and limitations of Amish culture without any true connection to the greater lessons she learns along the way. Maybe it's her language barrier, but even in moments where she's expressing her inner thoughts and feelings, she doesn't fully connect to that emotion in her writing. She comes off as superficial.

Overall, it was interesting and a story worth hearing, but it's not one of the better memoirs I've read.

Narrator spoke very well and pleasantly

I listened to the audio version of this book. The topic I felt would be interesting, except that a couple Chapters in the storyline seems to be jerky and skipping around. It was a quick listen at just about 5 hrs, I would have rather listened longer and gleaned more information about Amish life and about Emma herself. Even at the ending, I know she finished schooling and it seems that she did well but … what happened after? Did she stay in Texas? Did she marry? How was the family towards her in later years? Did she find a job? Friends?