Saints

Saints by Orson Scott Card

Caution..........this book is FICTION!! It won't seem like it, but it is.

I'm nearly certain this could be Card's ticket to Hell. Yet I loved it.......so maybe I'll be on the train next to him. Do you feel like this is turning into the unofficial Card blog? I do..........

This book begins in Manchester England in the 1820's. Dinah is a ten year old girl. The books opens with her father John abandoning her family. Tough, tough times follow during the industrial revolution in England. Anna her mother must find work as a servant just as she loses her last baby. Robert, the oldest brother is sent to work in a factory. Dinah soon follows Robert into the factory to earn what she can to help the family. Seven year old Charlie is sold away as a chimney sweep.
The book follows the family as the children grow.........Robert owns his own factory, Dinah is forced into marriage with Matt (Robert's friend), and Charlie runs away from the sweep that owns him and tutored by his mother's employer, then given a job. Soon the Heber Kimball enters the picture as a missionary for the LDS church. Charlie, Anna and Dinah are converted. Dinah's husband is furious. Just as their lives are changing John comes back. Anna takes him in and he is also converted. As the new Saints are leaving the country to travel to Zion........Matt and Robert try to thwart their attempts by having Dinah declared insane. When that doesn't work they take the children.........Valiant and Honor, and Dinah goes to America without them......never to see them again. This is just the tip of the iceberg in their sacrifice.
Dinah meets Joseph Smith as he is wrestling (not the stick kind either) some unsavory men at the rivers edge. Joseph went looking for a fight and got one. He wins the fight but Dinah is let down, thinking that she would meet God, but seeing a man, a man she desires......instead.
Eventually Dinah is taken as a plural wife of Joseph.
Charlie marries Sally. Within a year their baby dies and Charlie is asked to live the Principle also. He marries Harriet, Sally's sister.
This book paints a picture of its historical characters (Joseph, Emma, Heber, Vilate, Brigham.....) vastly different from anything else I have ever read........even actual history. I'm sure Card took liberties.........but I liked them. It did not make me change my mind about what I already thought of these people.
The beginning of the book takes up about 200 pages before we even hear about the missionaries. Like I always say.....it takes Card time to lay out the story but it is usually worth it.
The whole polygamy deal left me feeling mentally torched. This is something many LDS people have probably pondered on from time to time. I know this book has been offensive to many but I enjoyed seeing the more human aspect of the characters and the Principle. It made me question what I would actually give up. I came to the conclusion that I hope to God I never have to find out.
Rating 5 Don't read this book if you don't have a strong testimony, it's a heartbreaker.
Rating PG 13...........Card is always forthcoming about sex...........within marriage of course, and not just in plural marriage. Also, despite this being about LDS history, there is swearing. Attempted rape, child abuse, sexual abuse.