Overview

In this personal and moving memoir, Saloma Miller Furlong (Lomie) traces the genesis of her desire for freedom and education and chronicles her conflicted quest for independence. She recalls her painful childhood in a family defined by her father's mental illness, her brother's brutality, her mother's severe punishments, and the austere traditions of the Amish-traditions she struggled to accept for years before making the difficult decision to leave the community. Eloquently told, Liberating Lomie is a revealing portrait of life within this frequently misunderstood community.

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Reviews

This is a story of empathy and depth that reveals the wrenching decision that Amish people who consider leaving their culture must make. -Callie T. Wiser, producer of The Amish and The Amish: Shunned Stories about mothers and daughters have been circulating in society for as long as humans have existed. Liberating Lomie breaks new ground. It takes a hard look at Amish womanhood and describes the multifaceted harm that breaking a child's will can do. Writing against the grain takes courage, and Furlong masters that challenge with brilliance. -Sabrina R Voelz, Leuphana University Luneburg, Germany With unflinching honesty, Saloma Miller Furlong revisits a painful, often terrifying childhood that was also infused with the beauty of nature and, somehow, a drive to persevere. Rejecting the voices that sought to silence her experience, she instead sorts through the complexities of the past to remember and relinquish, finding, ultimately, the life she was meant to live. -Steven M. Nolt, coauthor of The Amish: A Concise Introduction From her early years in a seemingly happy Amish family, Furlong's story slowly morphs into hints and then scenes that swing between her deep joy in life that turns to bewilderment and then anger at the increasing manipulation and abuse she experiences from multiple family members. The author brings the intensity of these swings alive through her clear, direct, and unadorned writing. Her indomitable spirit shines bright throughout her story. -Kathleen Weaver Kurtz, author of The Blistering Morning Mist An Amish girl named Lomie comes to light in this memoir as honest, inquisitive, and imaginative. Despite the heart-wrenching abuses she experiences, the whimsical beauty of the rural countryside's birds, butterflies, and dew-touched grasses feed her unquenchable free spirit. She looks for a way out of her closed, secretive community. A superb storyteller, Saloma Miller Furlong keeps the reader entranced, wondering if she will ever find a door into the kind of life and love she dreams of. - Esther Stenson, author of Door Through the Great Wall.

Author Information

Saloma Miller Furlong was born and raised in an Amish community in northeastern Ohio. With the eighth-grade education of her childhood, she acquired her GED, enrolled in community college courses, and became an Ada Comstock Scholar at Smith College. She studied at the University of Hamburg in Germany for a semester. At fifty, she graduated with a major in German Studies and a minor in Philosophy. Furlong is the author of three books, and her story has been featured in two PBS American Experience films, The Amish and The Amish: Shunned. She is the mother of two grown sons and lives in Virginia with her husband, David.

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