Under The Banner Of Heaven

Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I found this little prize stuck in the back corner of my library.  I picked it up under a misguided assumption that it was about polygamy.  Honestly I was in it for the dirty details.  Polygamy is something I can't wrap my brain around and I was interested in what this book might entail.

The book happens to center around the murder of a young woman and her baby.  Her husband's brothers and himself begin straying from the path of mainstream religion and become beyond fundamentalist.  When one of them receives a revelation that she and a group of others must be exterminated because they are in the way of the work, the young woman and baby end up with their heads nearly severed in small town America.

Krakauer, in order to illustrate his point about the violent faith of fundamentalist, deems it necessary to pull forth the ugly past of the current LDS church.  His writing style is gripping.  He is a truly skilled writer and his historical and nonfiction accounts are made palatable by his gift of writing.  On the other hand, from the blurb on the front cover until the last page, you are inundated with ugly and terrifying facts (?) that make a mainstream religion seem like its VERY ugly stepsister, the fundamentalists.  Although some say that the distinction is clear between the LDS church and the other fundamentalist groups, including various polygamous sects, it really wasn't.  Krakauer delves back to the roots of the LDS church.  It is understandable why he does this. But his back and forth style, from past to present and right to left, leaves the lines blurred, and a harmless, God loving community pegged as the murderers and rapists next door.

I did enjoy Krakauer's skilled writing ability.  I wasn't scared off by what I read.  I am however saddened that a service and faith oriented religion is even spoken of in the same breath with the other crack job, spin offs.  And I am sure as I say that, that those people probably shouldn't be pigeon holed either. Also the LDS religion's faith in God was basically ignored and replaced with the worship of Joseph Smith.  Not at all factual in that instance.

Rating 4 for skill 2 for sticking to what should have been the main idea.  It would be like me wanting to bring to light what I consider to be misdeeds of Catholics and going so far back in history that I drag in the Jews and turn on the spotlight.
Rating R Murder, rape, incest, drug abuse, language.

The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm by Kenneth Tarr

This is an end of days book. Just the kind of book I should never read........mostly because I will never have built my food storage to its maximum requirement.

Steven is raising his children alone in Utah County. He lost his wife to a polygamist group in Southern Utah. His brother John is obsessed with dooms day preaching........and is therefore prepared. There are earthquakes, dam breaks, floods, tornadoes, plagues, wars, nuclear bombs, asteroids, tsunamis, break down of government, martial law, the mark of the beast, weapons removed from all Americans, the rise of the Antichrist, the desperate need for food storage and bomb shelters, and the need to know how to build a handcart. Yes this book has it all.
After natural disaster, plague, riot and death, Steven and his brothers are called to take the first company of Saints back to Missouri. Steven also finds a new wife from his new ward. She helps infiltrate the polygamist group that kidnaps one of his children.

I was pretty entertained........and scared witless. All I can say is I hope the end of the world is nothing like this, or I hope it is ages away because I don't want to be there. Steven and his family, although stricken with many trials don't seem to have the anxiety factor that I would feel. They get along fairly well.
In some ways the book seemed over the top with doom, but I guess if the world is going to end there is probably more than one way to do it. Sure it isn't the best lit out there but all in all I was truly entertained and plan to read the second volume to see what happens when the Saints move east.
Rating 4
Rating PG The book is clean of filth like sex and bad language but the natural disaster alone is terrifying.

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.