"Saints" (first published way back in 1984) begins in Manchester,
England, in 1829, in the midst of the horrors of the industrial revolution.
A family falls on hard times and you quickly get caught up in their day-to-day
struggles for survival. But no sooner do you think you are reading
a latter-day version of Dickens, then the Latter Day Saints appear.
Young Dinah Kirkham and her mother and brother convert to Mormonism and
emigrate to America -- extraordinary events that the author makes seem
inevitable, from his thorough build-up of the characters and their circumstances.
Dinah becomes the focus of the book, which follows her from age 10 to age
100, marrying Joseph Smith, and later Brigham Young. She becomes
so real, so believable, so necessary to the history of the Mormon Church,
that when you are done reading the novel, you'll be impelled to do one
Google search after another, looking for evidence that such a woman really
lived. The author also succeeds remarkably in making the strangest
beliefs and practices of the Mormon Church -- including polygamy -- seem
natural and inevitable: psychologically "true".
Published by B&R Samizdat Express, PO Box 320-161, West Roxbury, MA 02132-002. 617-469-2269 seltzer@samizdat.com
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