New Mormon Books

In his book, “Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian,” Levi S. Peterson describes a woman who lived two distinct lives. In one, she was the Bunkerville, Nev., native one or two generations away from early-Mormon pioneer life, bred to be a farmer’s wife and live a life similar to her mother and grandmother. But there were life changes in store for Brooks (1898-1989), a remarkable individual who experienced most of the 20th century. Left a young widow with a baby, she entered academia. As middle age approached, she made another life change. She married a sheriff, Will Brooks, and quickly had four more babies. Had she stayed single, opines biographer Peterson, she likely would have had a distinguished academic career, editing and writing literary criticism. Instead, her return to a domestic life signaled the career of Mormonism’s most tenacious historian. Brooks’ achievements brought much-needed candor to Utah and Mormon history.

Political Surf on biography of Juanita Brooks, Utah historian
by Doug Gibson
Ogden UT Standard’s Political Surf Blog, Jul 17th, 2009.
http://blogs.standard.net/2009/07/17/political-surf-on-biography-of-juanita-brooks-utah-historian/

[Ashby's] speedy rise and spectacular swan dive from Tinseltown’s high board is an old story, but a fascinating read as relayed by Nick Dawson in his scrupulously researched “Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel.” Ashby came reeling into the movie business from a dysfunctional Mormon (!) upbringing, his father’s suicide and the first of five marriages. Editing brought order to his chaos and an Oscar (for “In the Heat of the Night”) and a shot at directing. He directed — to Oscars — Lee Grant (”Shampoo”), Melvyn Douglas (”Being There”), Jon Voight and Jane Fonda (”Coming Home”). He also directed “Bound for Glory,” the cultish “Harold and Maude” and “The Last Detail” — edgy, eclectic, eccentric, like the man who made ‘em.

Author looks at courage of those willing to stand against the Third Reich:
Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel
By Star-Ledger Book Contributors
Newark NJ Star-Ledger, July 17, 2009.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2009/07/author_looks_at_courage_of_tho.html

Lance Allred is a bit of a sentimental favorite around these parts. Not only did he get his first break in the NBA with the Cavaliers two seasons ago, but he’s written a fantastic autobiography covering his youth growing up in a fundamental polygamous Mormon compound, to his deafness, to his struggles at Utah under Rick Majerus, to overcoming everything that had been placed in front of him and realizing his dream of making the NBA.

Keeping Up With Lance Allred.
By Vince Grzegorek.
Cleveland Scene, Jul 7, 2009.
http://www.clevescene.com/64-and-counting/archives/2009/07/07/keeping-up-with-lance-allred

The Actor and the Housewife is completely unbelievable and totally credible. The dialogue is witty, the romantic suspense genuine, and the finale? It ends the way it should.

Chick-lit confections: A shelf full of great summer reads
By Sherryl Connelly, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
New York Daily News, July 5th 2009
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/07/05/2009-07-05_chicklit_confections_a_shelf_full_of_great_summer_reads.html#ixzz0Lfi2gdKQ

SOME Mormons have weird perceptions of New York City. In “The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance,” out in October, comic Elna Baker recalls her mother’s horror when Elna chose NYU over Brigham Young, telling her, “The first thing that will happen when you move to New York is you might start to swear, and swearing will lead to drinking, and drinking will lead to doing drugs. And, Elna, what would you do if a lesbian tried to make out with you?” Labeling Manhattan “Babylon,” her mom also begged her not to become an exotic dancer. Writes Baker: “I left thinking, ‘Great, my mom thinks I’m moving to the big city to become a lesbian stripper.’ “

BIG-CITY HORROR
By Richard Johnson
New York Post, Page Six, July 5, 2009.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07052009/gossip/pagesix/big_city_horror_177731.htm

“Trespass” is McHarg’s memoir, following her as she scurries to the outskirts of her Utah homeland. She grew up an insider, a sixth generation Mormon rancher, but finds herself at odds with the predominant culture as she becomes an environmental advocate. As McHarg processes her father’s suicide, she finds herself pushed both figuratively outside the church’s reach and physically outside the Deseret boundaries, in Norwood. It was here, away from the onus of her Utah roots that she was able to finish the book.

Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land, has won the Colorado Book Award for creative nonfiction. Last year it won the 2008 Orion Book Award and earlier this year it won the Ellen Meloy Fund’s 2009 Desert Writer’s Award.

Norwood novelist wins Colorado Book Award
Amy Irvine McHarg’s ‘Trespass’ honored again
By D. Dion
Norwood CO Post, July 1, 2009.
http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2009/07/01/norwood_post/news/doc4a4bb64493b06208156066.txt

This was a fascinating book and a good introduction to the issues surrounding such polygamous sects. It’s also a little violent for tweens, but ought to be fine for older teens.

That said, I also think that it’s written in such a way that it distances this cult—The Chosen Ones—from the sources of most of these polygamous sects in the West, which has historically been the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

You don’t want to be chosen
By Kel Munger
Sacramento News & Review, June 30, 2009.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/blogs?date=2009-06-01

Between describing horrific episodes of abuse from her own childhood in Colorado City, Ariz., the fundamentalist compound where she was raised, Jessop railed against governments in Utah and Arizona that have not done enough to shut down these cults, in her opinion. “It’s been allowed to go on, because it enjoys the shield of mainstream Mormonism,” she said.

Author takes aim at polygamy
By Tim Sampson
Kerrville TX Daily Times, June 27, 2009.
http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=dd16fa2b81e388a0

When Flora Jessop was 16, she was forced to marry her own cousin. She was forced to do it because a “prophet” told her to. Jessop spent the first 16 years of her life as a prisoner to a fundamentalist sect … [that] alienates its followers from the outside world, practices polygamy and strips women of virtually all autonomy, she said. She chronicled her experience in the memoir “Church of Lies.”

‘Church of Lies’ details woman’s life in FLDS
By Tim Sampson
The Kerrville Daily Times, June 24, 2009
http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=608a5a4d7d5efb59

Renowned author and rabbi Harold Kushner acclaims Pearson and her latest work “for reminding us that the task of any religion is to teach us whom we’re required to love, not whom we’re entitled to hate.” The potent Facing East also succeeds in this regard.

Reverend’s Interview: Facing East with Playwright Carol Lynn Pearson
By Rev. Chris Carpenter
Movie Dearest, June 9, 2009
http://moviedearest.blogspot.com/2009/06/reverends-interview-facing-east-with.html

Pearson makes her case, often even eloquently – but her polemical, black-and-white, no-subtle-shadings script often rings of artifice, with lines that may be poetic on paper but which lack realism when spoken.

What happens when Mormon parents have a gay son?
Despite its overly polemical nature, ‘Facing East’ poses some valid points.
By ERIC MARCHESE, Special to the Register
Orange Co CA Register, June 17, 2009
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/alex-ruth-andrew-2465523-marcus-east

Pearson, a fourth-generation Mormon, deftly sketches a world in which ritual and propriety are all. Alex hosts a popular radio segment, “One-Minute Dad,” and has been offered a promotion. This means getting even cozier with the same Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officials who ex-communicated his son. Meanwhile, Ruth has bought into the notion that preservation of family is everything, even if it means thwarting individual happiness. The play doesn’t condemn Mormonism, but openly questions whether the religion’s strict dogma really stays true to its message of love and community. That critique isn’t news, but it is deeply felt.

Review: ‘Facing East’ at International City Theatre
By Charlotte Stoudt
Los Angeles Times Culture Monster Blog, June 16, 2009
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/review-facing-east-at-international-city-theatre.html

Pearson, a Mormon, drew from the death of her gay husband who died of AIDS, and young gay Mormon men she knew who took their lives. She calls the play “an indictment and an invitation.” This, in itself, is tricky business. It would be easy for the play to become just another screed against religion. At times, it teeters. At one point, Alex preaches that Utah is “a flaming red state” then points at the grave and says “here is the collateral damage.” But the play self-corrects and is at its best when Mormonism is subtext to the human relationships.

Emotions run high in angst-ridden `Facing East’
By Greg Mellen Staff Writer
Long Beach CA Daily Breeze, June 17, 2009.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_12603590

Carol Lynn Pearson’s three-hander is an often-searing indictment of rigid values integral to monolithic systems like organized religion, as well as the impact such systems have on Ruth and Alex, a Mormon couple mourning the suicide of their gay son Andrew.

Facing East
at International City Theatre
Reviewed by Eric Marchese
Backstage, June 17, 2009
http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-la-theatre/facing-east-1003985114.story

In spite of unspeakable pain from three diverse points of view, Pearson leaves us with a bright shining glimmer of hope. Ruth may hold on to generations of beliefs that are un-reconcilable, but Alex and Marcus reach out to each other. They even make a date to have dinner — and maybe, just maybe, they’ll come to realize the shared loss and grief that binds them together. Slowly but surely, change is in the air over the next horizon.

Playwright’s Experiences, Insight In “Facing East”
By Shirle Gottlieb
Long Beach CA Gazettes, June 17, 2009.
http://www.gazettes.com/articles/2009/06/17/lifestyle/on_with_the_show/doc4a3978291784a079104793.txt