W. Dale Cramer Reviews

Added May 9, 2005

Levi's Will

Author: W. Dale Cramer
Publisher: Bethany House
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: June 2005
Genre: Fiction: Christian
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $13.99
ISBN: 0-7642-8100-3
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

Levi's Will, the third book by literary author W. Dale Cramer, is perhaps his best, most detailed account to date. Cramer uses words to tell a story the way an artist uses color to paint a picture. The book is filled with eloquent prose, and yet the narrative remains fast and concise.

The story attempts to trace the life of Will-an Amish runaway. What it actually does is tell the story of three generations. The Amish do a thing called "bundling". Basically, the family of a boy allows their son to sleep over the house of a girl. The family of the girl allows their daughter to sleep in the same bed as the boy. Without coming out and saying it, they hope that the two will...fall in love...to put it politely. But then the Amish look disapprovingly at the couple when the girl becomes pregnant out of wedlock. It is almost like a trap. The families hope to ensure that the younger generations will remain and work the farmlands.

Unable, or unwilling to take his punishment, Will decides to run away. This is where the novel begins. Will is the second oldest in a large family. One of his younger brothers, Tobe, decides to tag along. Eventually Will does the unthinkable and enlists in the military-the Amish are peaceful people, peaceful to the extreme. He falls in love to a woman named Helen and gets married. His new life, however, is built on and surrounded by lies.

Eventually Helen and Will have a family of their own. And eventually Will must tell his wife about his past-that he was, or is, Amish, and that to escape punishment he ran away. She encourages him to seek the forgiveness of his family. What she soon learns is the Amish-people of God-are not always the most forgiving. But she does not know the entire truth about why Will is no longer Amish, living with his family.

The distance between Will and his father, in a history-repeats-itself way, is almost duplicated in his relationship with one of his sons, Riley. Riley, a rebel, gets caught up in the flesh of the world. As Will ages, and as his father ages, and as he sees the fact that he is losing a relationship with his own son, things quickly spin out of control. Things must come to a head. And they do. There is so much hurt, anger, resentment, and lost love that forgiveness dopes not seem likely, or even possible. The question becomes, who can ever have enough within to forgive a lifetime of mistakes?

W. Dale Cramer writes with profound simplicity, with poetic rhythm and with demonstrated insight. He takes readers into the masked dysfunctional community of the Amish and exposes the truth-that people and families and problems with the two groups are common, and similar regardless of time and/or technology. Levi's Will is an incredibly heartwarming story. I loved it and I look forward to more from this authentic literary wonder.

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Added May 27, 2004

Sutter's Cross

Author: W. Dale Cramer
Publisher: Bethany House
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: December 2002
Genre: Fiction: Christian
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0764227831
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

Author W. Dale Cramer's first novel Sutter's Cross is a literary piece that invites readers into a modern-day Mayberry. Colorful and poetic prose paint the setting and enhance the flavor of the book scene by scene, while well-crafted characters, crisp dialogue and building tension moves the plot along at a perfect pace.

When a seemingly homeless man, Harley, stumbles upon a church picnic and helps himself to a plate of food, one of the first things Jake Mahaffey notices is that the man is wearing his pants. After a bizarre and potentially dangerous incident takes place at the picnic, Mahaffey decides to keep a journal, documenting the story of a string of events that unfold in Sutter's Cross. In a town where mundane is a normal and expected way of life, it is no wonder that rocking the boat in any way would cause waves instead of ripples.

Introduced to God from a Bible given to him by Agnes Dewberry, Harley becomes prone to spending days along the trails and at peaceful points like Joshua's Knee in the mountains. As their friendship grows with the old widow, Harley decides that God has sent him to Sutter's Cross for the purpose of protecting its residents.

As an agnostic, Web Holcombe is the richest man in town. Like the song, The Cat's and the Cradle, he is too busy making money and working deals to spare spending any time with his son, Eddy. Caught up in his own wants and needs, Holcombe is interested in buying up prime property in town for a variety of lucrative and personal reasons. The problem he faces is simple. No one wants to sell. Ruthless, and cunning, Holcombe enlists help from mob-type Benny T. to get what he wants.

When Harley realizes that Web plans to snatch away Dewberry's land out from under her, he attempts to put a stop to the millionaire's plans. Instead, Benny T. uncovers Harley's secret past and exposes it. When Web puts a price on Harley's head the, once peaceful and Christian-filled town is quickly corrupted into a posse set on finding and turning Harley over to authorities.

Meanwhile, a brewing storm gathers strength and is headed directly for Sutter's Cross. When it strikes, the town is buried under raging floodwaters. Several people become missing. Web, who once considered Christians weak, and in need of a spiritual crutch like God in order to get by on life, is now forced to confront his fear, his mortality and his Faith.

It is obvious that W. Dale Cramer took heartfelt care when creating emotional chapter after emotional chapter in this beautifully touching debut. The relationships are introduced, nurtured and matured from the beginning of the book until the climactic ending. Sutter's Cross is engaging and memorable. It is easy to pick up and get into, while near impossible to set down. I look forward to more works by this obviously talented storyteller.

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