He Flew Too High [Paperback]

Ken Yoder Reed (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Winepress Publishing (May 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606150065
• ISBN-13: 978-1606150061
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,497,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ken Yoder Reed calls himself a "refugee Mennonite" who left his heart in southeastern Pennsylvania when he moved to Silicon Valley. His grandparents on both sides--one set, Amish, the other, Old Order Mennonite--drove horse and buggy teams. Ken spent a great deal of his boyhood reading books when he was supposed to be working the fields on the family farm.

After graduating from Lancaster Mennonite High School, Ken attended Eastern
Mennonite College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. He also attended the Japanese Language Institute in Sapporo, Japan, and completed his military alternative service as an English teacher in Japan.

Ken then spent seven years in Lancaster as a journalist, publishing his first novel, Mennonite Soldier (Herald Press), two full-length plays produced in summer stock theatre, numerous investigative articles, dozens of stories, and a monthly column for Christian Living Magazine.

After moving with his family to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1991, Ken founded an international recruiting company that finds managers for U.S. high-tech firms growing their businesses in Greater China and Korea.

Now a Presbyterian, Ken remains loyal to the servant Jesus he followed as a youth, and he still prefers a capella music and shoofly pie. He and his wife, Patricia, have a blended family with six adult children.

Ken enjoys swimming, cooking Japanese food, writing a monthly column for the Milpitas Post and laughing with his granddaughter, Zoe.
To view a video trailer of He Flew Too High or for more information on Ken, visit
www.kyreed.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He Flew Too High, June 27, 2009

By 

Irvin Zachary Goron (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: He Flew Too High (Paperback)

He Flew Too High is the new novel by writer Ken Yoder Reed, set in the Pennsylvania Dutch country of the 1950's. As never before the 1950's saw the spread of a mass popular American culture that threatened to undermine the centuries old communitarian values of the Mennonite community. Into this maelstrom comes Saul McNamara, an outsider who marries a local bishop's daughter and thus gains access to the inner workings of Mennonite religious life. McNamara, however, is drawn to his own individual charismatic ministry thus setting himself at odds with the traditional mores of his host's community. There begins one of the trenchant paradoxes of which the book abounds. By seeking to protect the Mennonites from the deleterious effects of Modern American materialist culture, McNamara by his own overriding individualism and sense of personal purpose, actually becomes a far more potent threat to the their way of life. In a sense it is McNamara's own 'modernity' that sets him at odds with the Mennonites even as he attempts to 'save' them from the pervasive modernity that threatens them.
Beyond this ' He flew too high' is also an engaging family drama, filled with hope, tragedy, and ultimate redemption. I highly recommend he flew to high.
P.S. Please also note the engaging cover art by Michaela Rodriguez, which appropriately gives the book the look of the serious literature of the 50's and early 60's.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mennonite parallels, June 27, 2009

By 

SHC - See all my reviews

This review is from: He Flew Too High (Paperback)

Ken Yoder pulls back the curtain of the closed Mennonite community where we see how the separatist religious community exists in modern times. But it is not just the Mennonites we see; we recognize universal human traits very like in other groups that have strong belief systems. What happens when these beliefs rub up against popular culture? What does the fervor of the group do to the individual who may be open to change? What happens when a new, prophetic voice is heard in a new generation? What happens behind the scenes and in relationships? These issues are explored with a fascinating, insider's perspective within an engaging story.