Mill Creek — Omar Eby

Mill Creek tells the story of the age-old struggle of an adolescents attemptsto understand himself and his world. Peter Martin, the brainy, shy, farm-boynarrator, pious beyond his years, fi ghts a private war: whether to remain withhis strict farm people or whether to embrace his best friends anarchic approachto Mennonite life. Arthur Nyce, with his fl ashy clothes, his repertoire of poptunes, his dereliction of a schools prescribed piety and his open affectionthrows Peter off balance again and again.
Mill Creek records Peters fl uctuations between accepting and denying thediverse aspects of these two approaches to Mennonite life. An almost amorousfriendship, the threat of the draft (Korean War), the lure of art, a pregnancyand a tragic drowning aid Peter to make compromising moves to pay tributeto his friend Arthur. In the end, Peter resolves to fi nd a way out of what hehas come to understand as the religious oppression of his own community.

Set on the campus of a boarding school, this wry, affectionate depiction of twoboys struggles towards adulthood illuminates the golden era of conservativeLancaster (PA) Mennonites in the early 1950s. The youth in Mill Creek are pious, sentimental and romantic. They blend a serious intent to imitatetheir stolid elders and to mock lightly without fully discarding their heritage.Tender and passionate, innocent and sentimental, rigid and heartbreaking,the novel is a requiem for joy.