Who is Laura Kalpakian? or Why We Need Gerald Lund

The title of this book caught my eye because of its apparent Mormon connection. A quick perusal of the dust jacket confirmed that it was the story of a Mormon woman living at the turn of the last century. Checked it out and read it with varying reactions.

Kalpakian has a mostly accurate grasp of the Mormon milieu. There were only a few places where she made substantive errors. The writing and pacing were good enough to keep me reading although in the early part of the book I kept thinking I had been suckered into a Harlequin-style romance. That feeling dissipated as the protagonist's journey became slightly more epic than being graphically raped by her new Mormon husband in her parent's Salt Lake City home. This is the first big clue that Kalpakian doesn't like us very much.

The heroine of the book is Ruth Mason Douglass who was raised in SLC. She married some stranger who was her last hope of escaping spinsterhood and was taken to a dirt hovel in Idaho. Her husband becomes deranged and sets himself up as a new prophet. Ruth flees with her kids and settles in St. Elmo, California. That's the book in a nutshell.

Kalpakian's command of description, dialog, and internal narrative are very good. An aspiring writer could have much worse role models. Her plot pacing is likewise sharp and well-ordered. If she falls flat, and I think she does, it is in the depth of her characters, especially the Mormons. 95% of her Mormon characters are either ranting lunatics or smug, self-righteous, holier-than-thous. The rest of her Mormons don't really have a testimony -- they leave the church and its culture in acts of heroic self-liberation.

The most engaging and three-dimensional character is a frontier medical doctor who is an avowed atheist and who in moments of great tenderness and compassion, entices Ruth to break many commandments.

I decided to post this review because I think this novel represents an effort by a mainstream New York press to show an historically accurate picture of Mormonism, but the writer, and her characters, have no grasp of Mormon expressions of faith, hope, and charity. I checked the AML archives for any review of this book and found one -- a rather positive report. This review suggested that Kalpakian refrains from Mormon-bashing. I find, however, that she engages in a sneakier, and far more corrosive poison. Kalpakian, who lives in Bellingham WA, is a fairly respected writer with a significant readership and this book will incline people who don't know any better, that we are not so much a peculiar people as a pustilent people.

Which leads me to Gerald Lund. I still haven't read any of his books and don't know that I ever will. But by all reports, he does present a necessary balance to the equation of a good writer who portrays Mormons as bad -- that is, a bad writer who portrays Mormons as good.