tani reviewed on
When I began reading this book, I was afraid it might not hold my attention. However, as I read on, I became more and more interested in the parallel and somehow entwined stories. I ended up looking forward each day to my next chance to spend time reading the book and even stayed up rather late several nights to make faster progress.
The characterizations seemed real, the frequent switching from the early days of Mormonism to the present, and from narrative to (sometimes made-up, but convincing) documents, newspaper articles, and letters, far from confusing me, enriched the story. I learned a lot--something that always increases a book's value for me. Obviously a great deal of research went into the writing of this one, and the author is careful not to leave the reader feeling deceived by the way he has fictionalized the story.
All things considered, I found it a really satisfying read, in spite of certain distracting mistakes in English grammar (for example, after a series of three plurals, the singular "it" is used to refer to the items in question). It is all too easy to fall prey to the trickery of a word processor, so I do not blame the author. Rather, I think this book deserved a better job of editing.
The characterizations seemed real, the frequent switching from the early days of Mormonism to the present, and from narrative to (sometimes made-up, but convincing) documents, newspaper articles, and letters, far from confusing me, enriched the story. I learned a lot--something that always increases a book's value for me. Obviously a great deal of research went into the writing of this one, and the author is careful not to leave the reader feeling deceived by the way he has fictionalized the story.
All things considered, I found it a really satisfying read, in spite of certain distracting mistakes in English grammar (for example, after a series of three plurals, the singular "it" is used to refer to the items in question). It is all too easy to fall prey to the trickery of a word processor, so I do not blame the author. Rather, I think this book deserved a better job of editing.
