A...My Name Is Amelia

A tale with a difference and about being different in the USA, the setting is Colorado during the 1800’s.

Amelia Anne Polley is determined to make a life outside of the Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes. Her parents left her there after a severe illness had left her deaf, and she has now begun to build a new life working at the Gazette.

When local rancher Aaron Zachary comes in with an advert for a mail order bride, Amelia wonders why such a good looking young man needs to send away for a woman, not that she is offering her services. So different in many ways, she is convinced they’d never be suited, but still dreams of him. Aaron likes the look of Amelia but is sure such a beautiful girl would never look at a man like him. He does not want to be alone, and has no idea Amelia dreams of having a family with a man like him. When her co-worker Harvey, plays cupid it changes all their lives in ways none of them could have imagined.

The plot of A… MY NAME IS AMELIA is filled with conflicts and difficult problems for the characters to solve. Life was still hard for most in the 1800’s and the description of Aaron’s home brings the era alive. Aaron has never known the love of a family, all he knows is work. Can a man who can neither read nor write well, find a way to communicate and express his feelings? He obsesses about getting a wife, but is also afraid of the complications.

For Amelia to suddenly be deaf and considered a lesser person because of it has toughened her. To suddenly find that people who knew her now found her abhorrent had broken her young heart, but left her more determined to get on with a new life. The Institute had become Amelia’s life and to gain confidence she goes outside to work. The story tries to put a bit too much in at times, although the written dialogue is good, the description of hand language pulled this reader out at times.

April 2007