Is Amish Romance a Legitimate Literary Genre?

I don’t want to cause a fuss, but lately I have been noticing a lot of books at places such as my local grocery and bulk purchase palace with more than a display or two of what looks like romance novels, usually with Christian themes, featuring women in bonnets from an era when family farms were the norm.  It makes me almost nostalgic for the bodice rippers with heroines in pretty dresses accompanied by Fabio during his youth. 

                Since I have witnessed the rise of vampire fiction aimed at the teen reading market, I suppose that these romance novels are aimed at Christian women who want stories that demonstrate their faith in Jesus, hard work, and a one woman man who looks for the inner beauty of his chosen mate.  Points are also scored when the female central figure of the novel can resurrect her love interest (sometimes they are bad boys – not really bad boys, no prison tats, just misunderstood) to become a better man.  One book had the man give up pot smoking but that was after an Amish home burned to the ground which killed half the Amish family living inside…but I digress. 

                We are all familiar with the quote that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, I suppose one shouldn’t judge a genre by the reading of one book, but I’m going to do a little of both.  Based on the one book that I read, I want to say by accident, but the truth was that I didn’t read the back flap thoroughly enough and thought it was going to be a murder mystery until it got mega church preachy about a third into it.  That was when I found myself praying (would that be too harsh to write?) that the main character would be killed in some way that included a tractor cutting off an appendage and she dying in the freshly harvested hay – BTW, not because she was Christian, but because she was as annoying as the hot place spelled with double toothpicks.  The thing about me is that I totally buy into that saying; fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.  Because of that book I became hyper aware of other books with what seemed promising premises but had underlying Christian themes – and not the regular Christian do onto others as you would have them do onto you, but horrible Christian stereotypical parody of judgmental characters who are shocked when they discover that others are judging them (HOW DARE OTHERS JUDGE THEM FOR JUDGING OTHERS!).  Probably the biggest insult I can lob at this genre isn’t about their mean spirited beliefs (listen, I know I can be a tad witchy poo at times, but at least I own it) but that these propaganda novels are written at the level of a home schooled third grader.  Oh looky at me, see how I am branding a whole subset of books and their readers based on one book and certain prejudices! 

                The other thing that bothers me is that the covers on these novels have the sort of sex appeal as those mug shots of meth heads (the after shots of course, although one could argue that the before photos aren’t that appealing either).  It should be a general rule in storytelling and publishing that bonnets, oh hell I’ll go one step further anything pilgrim, is not sexy.  Honest to God I really don’t know how Hester got an A considering that she was probably wearing a dress ensemble that was as shapely as a potato sack and probably smelled worse…and don’t get me started about how dorky men look in that sort of Amish dress either.  Yet somehow, even I have to admit, they got the job done.    

                Based on the one novel I read, I imagine that most of these books are fairly chaste in terms of sexual congress.  I’m sure that a lot of the dialogue has to do with the utterances of sweet nothings in the ear of some female that doesn’t quite realize that she is as beautiful as she really is.  The thing of it is I wouldn’t necessarily call these books chick lits because although they are aimed at a female audience which is a different sort of female tribe than the ones who typically picks up the September edition of ‘Vogue.’  The women in these novels, no matter the century, either already know, or learn, what it is like to work hard (as in hard labor in every sense of the phrase).  They aren’t cute young things looking for a chipper man who loves them for their kooky accessories or shopaholoic tendencies.  No, at the end of the day the heroines of these Amish styled novels want to feel as if they have conquered a new land and made a niche for themselves in a life well lived while sharing love with the one man who honors them above all else – their man.  In many ways it could be argued that the women in these novels are probably more real in their expectations as well as more feminist oriented in their actions (although these characters would never admit to anything feminist).

                Speaking of which, I should come clean and admit that I have superficial friendships with some of the folks who both read and write these books.  All of them I know from the Internet from various writing sites, but I can’t deny that most seem as if they are decent folks who neither wish nor cause harm except that they write and read a category of books I don’t personally enjoy, then again, within the last two years especially I have been reading vampire novel on top of vampire novel – and yes, I am writing either a short story or something longer featuring a vampire and a breast cancer survivor. 

                I guess in the end what I am really asking is if I am the only one who has noticed these books?  Or am I the only heterosexual female that doesn’t lust after a bearded man in suspenders?

Westerfield © 2009