I was whining on the list a few weeks ago about the difficulty of finding quality literature for my LDS bookgroup. I've received many suggestions from members of the AML list, directing me towards promising titles. Unfortunately, most of them are either out of print or nearly impossible to find. That makes it very challenging for 10 women to scrounge enough books at the public libraries to share, or barring that, hunt them down from inconveniently located (for us) booksellers. The mainstream places like Deseret Book, Seagull, Barnes and Nobel, are packed with insipid formula novels but very few challenging, mature or literary LDS-themed works.

Shortly after my latest rant, D. Michael Martindale, an AML list member, contacted me off list and offered his unpublished manuscript to our group. We thought it would be interesting to have a dialogue with an author over a work-in-progress...which I guess you can consider anything that's unpublished. Always time to tweak before it hits print, eh?

I had read a review of the work on the list by, I believe, Jeff Needle, but as I checked the list archives for the review I couldn't find it there. I may be wrong on that point. Maybe it wasn't in the archive because this is an unpublished (as of yet, hopefully) manuscript. However, the comment that stands out in my mind from that review: Brother Brigham is so different, where would it find a home?

When I received the manuscript from Michael in electronic form, I printed out all 199 pages and took them to a copy center. We've made an explicit agreement with the author that all copies will be returned to him at the end of the one month reading period and the bookgroup discussion. He was generous to share the work with us; participating more intimately like this in the writing/publishing process will be a real learning experience for our group. They were willing to pay about $17 each for the manuscript copies, as we spend about that each month for whatever book we're reading. We just won't get to keep this one. And that's ok too, as shelf space is at a premium with most of us anyway. It's a good trade-off for the opportunity to participate with an author.

Now that I've explained how I came to be writing a review of an unpublished work for the list, my first impression is that D. Michael Martindale is breaking new ground here. He has written a Mormon horror novel. I know, I know, you're thinking that O. Scott Card has been there done that, particularly in his Lost Boys novel. I've read everything Card has written, and as a big fan, purchase it in hardback (my contribution to a writer's career). But I still think Martindale's Brother Brigham moves more into the Stephen King side of horror, and that it's a daring move for an LDS author.

In brief, the protagonist, Cory Horace Young, third generation descendant of Brigham Young, has been indoctrinated/instructed his entire life as to his unique nature and to find his "special mission" in life. As the book opens he's somewhat ambivalent about where his life has taken him -- the normal Mormon road of mission, college, marriage, struggling young father trying to support a family financially and emotionally. Martindale has created a likeable enough character, but not particularly strong or outstanding in anyway. This becomes central to the story. He's an average Joe, doing average things, until something decidedly NOT average happens to him, but which has historical precedents in the LDS faith. He begins having visions of Brigham Young, who has been sent by God to reinstate plural marriage within the church. Cory Horace is told that God is having to take the route of finding a replacement prophet outside the church's power structure, as the current prophet and all of his apostles have been "led astray" and refuse to follow God's instructions regarding celestial marriage.

I was compelled to read the book, feeling like Sean Connery's character, William Forrester, in Finding Forrester, when he scrawls a note to a budding writer -- "where are you taking me?". The book is a quick read, not presuming to literary depth, but rather driven by plot and character. It's a fascinating story. Martindale has taken a step back from Mormon beliefs in visions, revelations and cultural myth and asked "what if?". He paints a scenario at once believable and shudderingly delusional. As a reader you can't quite figure out which side of the fence you're one. At first you find yourself wondering if the naive, sincere Cory Horace Young, is really having the visions we see him have. Is Brigham Young really appearing to him as an emissary from God? Or is C.H., as he likes to think of himself, mentally ill? There is nothing in his character to support that supposition, so we travel a bit further with the author, watching Cory's life unravel as he follows the instructions of his supernatural advisor.

Martindale convincingly explores how this impacts Cory's wife, his co-workers, even his babysitter. Young's wife, Danielle, compares herself to Emma and struggles with her faith, even after receiving a vision of her own. Is it a Laman and Lemulesque side of her, or is her heart trying to tell her something? By the end of the book there is an escalation in the number of visions received by various characters which adds to the mounting tension...but to discuss it further would give away the essentials that make the climactic moments so horrifying.

The thing that makes this book real, and that will challenge some LDS readers, is the focus on the intimate physical relationships of marriage. How can you discuss the ramifications of plural marriage without taking a candid look at sex, and yet that what Mormons do all the time when the discuss the history of polygamy in the church. Martindale takes it out, examines it under the harsh light of day, the dim illumination of candle glow and even by starlight. As opposed to most novels that have sex as a major theme, I was made to feel neither like a voyuer, as is erotica's goal, nor like a saccharine-drenched romantic as in most bodice rippers. The focus is not on the action, but rather on the conflicted feelings of any participants. It was very well handled, but the book would definitely have a PG-13 rating at least. Maybe that's why concern was expressed as to what publisher would look at it.

There is one thing about the sex in the book that bothered me, and that was the "loose woman" character, Shelia. Twice in the course of the book, Shelia is described as masturbating. I am not sure it is the act that bothers me so much, or if I just can't believe her behavior as something a woman would do -- even one as hardened as the author paints this character to be. something doesn't ring true in those scenes to me . . . or maybe it just goes too far for my sensibilities. That is the one point where I as a reader said "OK this is a man writing this, and I see him behind the scenes". For me, that interrupted the dream. It will be interesting to hear further feedback on this point at my bookgroup in a couple of weeks. Maybe the whole thing would work if it were left a little more "told" and less "shown". Those were the only two times the writer crossed the line for me.

I am just sorry for the rest of you that you won't have access to buying the book and reading it. Not only is it a great horror story, it explores all kinds of deep LDS fears -- theft of temple recommends, manipulations of records, true visions, where is the line when a woman questions the "righteous preisthood holder" in her life, the power of discernment and many others. It's a book I would recommend to all adult readers.