Books by Cramer

“Levi’s Will” and “Sutter’s Cross” both by W. Dale Cramer.

A novel we found in one of our recent thrift store shopping trips is “Levi’s Will”, by W. Dale Cramer. This is the first book by Cramer we have read and found it to be very rewarding. He has written four books, “Levi’s Will” being the third.
The main character is Will Mullet who was raised Amish but left the church as a young man in 1943 to find both the freedom he desired and to escape the harsh rules of the Amish. In leaving, Mullet condemned himself to a lifetime of being shunned by the Amish community, his father Levi Mullet and his family.
Once outside of the Amish community, he works various jobs but finally ends up in the United States Army because he is afraid that he will get arrested as a draft dodger.
In the Army he finds plenty of hard work but also starts to live a lie: he changes his name to Will McGruder to prevent his father from finding him, he also changes his birth date to avoid trouble with the Army and he changes his place of origin to Canada to explain his Amish Dutch accent.
He marries Helen, a southern girl, and they live in the Georgia. They have two children and he soon realizes that he is raising them just like his father raised him. The difficult and demanding relationship he had with his father was one of the main things that drove him away and he finds himself doing the same thing to his youngest son.
The book is setup in a series of alternating time periods, beginning with the characters in 1985 attending Levi’s funeral. The next chapter is in 1943, then back to 1985 and so on. By the end of the book, the past has caught up to the present, and we can see all of Will’s struggle to be accepted by his father, his brothers and sisters, his wife and his son. But to reconcile any of these relationships he must give up the lie.
We really liked “Levi’s Will” so we got another of Creamer’s books, “Sutter’s Cross.” This book is about a burned out biker, Harley, who found a relationship with God and the upset he causes in the small town of Sutter’s Cross. People in the town were comfortable in their church and businesses but Harley, in demonstrating authentic love and speaking the truth, makes everyone feel a little threatened.
“Sutter’s Cross” was Creamer’s first published effort. It was a good read and the plot is very creative, but we thought “Levi’s Will” had better characters. Still we highly recommend either of these books.
Now that summer is approaching, they would be great for reading at the beach or on the deck with a tall glass of ice tea. Additionally, for those on the go, complete and unabridged audio versions of both books are available on the internet at various music websites.