I consumed all of my mom's unpublished works in a single summer while I still haven't read all of her published material. Once anyone can read a work, it loses its sacredness for me. So I asked Beth Bentley if I could read her latest novel before it was released. She was gracious enough to oblige.

In a Dry Land is quite unusual for an LDS novel. Bentley's style is reminiscent of Virginia Sorenson. You could call it a bit dramatic and bogged with doctrinal discussion in areas, but its passion keeps you turning pages, or, in my case, scrolling the mouse. Like Sorenson, Bentley's perspective isn't what I'm used to seeing in LDS fiction. You can tell she wasn't born and raised in Utah. It gives her writing a kind of freshness.

In a Dry Land is Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant meets The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. It's about a family being dually split apart and held together by their handicap sister/daughter called "Baby."

The book has a slew of interesting characters. I had a hard time knowing who to attach myself to while the perspectives changed. Bentley is, in my opinion, better at writing from the male perspective than from the female. I think I found the characters of Jack (the family's twenty-five-year-old brother/son who is preparing to go on a mission) and Mick (a family friend) most interesting. Mick seems the only character with real stability in the book because he is looking in on the family as a compassionate outsider. Jack is the most troubled character, slowly rationalizing himself to serious sin and death. I might have found Jack's fornication far-fetched if I didn't personally know several young men who found themselves in similar situations before serving missions.

Bentley's writing is, overall, clean, direct, and insightful. One character loses their patriarchal blessing right after receiving it. Years later, after a long life, he finds it and opens it with anticipation. "How'd I do?"

With edgy courage, the book shows us three things. There is danger in having prayers answered you may later regret. There is beauty in suffering ("if you're suffering at least you know you're alive"). And the one-word formula for true love is service, not selfishness.

Although it could use a stronger ending and is rickety in parts, In a Dry Land's climax is mesmerizing. It turns the typical coming of age story on its head, by showing that Generation Y needs to transition into responsibility and accountability to avoid losing itself to disillusionment. It's definitely worth picking up, once it can be.

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Arianne Cope
April 6, 2006