What Price Zion takes place in mid-19th century England, and tells the story of Ann Littlefield and her family. We meet her as Ann Fry, married to seaman John Fry who dies at sea. Widowed and poverty-stricken, she and her sister, Sarah, take in laundry from wealthy neighbors.

One day she meets Will Littlefield, and they marry. The marriage is happy until Ann and Sarah attend a meeting of the Mormons, and they hear and accept the Gospel. Will is furious, and the marriage relationship deteriorates steadily.

The call to Zion is irresistible, and Sarah sets sail for America, leaving Ann to only dream of making the voyage. Will is adamantly opposed to any such nonsense, and begins a program of punishing Ann and the children of her previous marriage.

But Ann is strong, and she finally succeeds in leaving Will and taking her children to Zion.

Opinion

Among the many LDS novels I've read over the years, I must admit that this was the most depressing. This slim volume is filled with more illness, despair and death than any I've ever written. The Littlefield family moves from one disaster to the next. Every so often a glimmer of hope shows through, but it is overshadowed by some tragedy.

The book does indeed end on a positive note (you have to read to the last two pages to find it), but then a postscript brings us yet another tragedy.

I have no doubt that those days were difficult for poor families like the Littlefields; I have no question about the sacrifice they had to make to follow the call to come to Utah. But given the liberties a fiction writer has, I would have preferred to have had some sporadic release from the depressing narrative.

On the positive side, the characters are well defined, and the story moves along at a quick pace. The plight of the poor in mid 19th-century England is drawn nicely. The stress of both poverty, and the tension brought when one member of the family converts to another religion, is portrayed well.

Some light moments would have helped this book considerably.

... nfx v3.1 [Jeff Needle] jeff.needle@general.com