In today’s world of cell phones, laptops and cable television, it’s sometimes easy to forget Amherst’s past. Certainly, the Pioneer Valley remains an area dominated by a rural, agrarian lifestyle. A five-minute drive down Route 9 is all that’s needed to remind the 21st century college student that Amherst and the surrounding towns are – and have always been – made up of farmland. However, even today’s farmers have access to all the modern conveniences that college students enjoy. Jerome Charyn’s novel “The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson” serves not only to offer a hypothetical look at one of Amherst’s most mysterious celebrities, but also to give readers a sometimes entertaining, sometimes sobering window into Amherst’s 19th century past.