Mormonville

Book: Mormonville
Author: Jeff Call
Publisher: Cedar Fort
2002


When Luke Manning, a famous investigative reporter and columnist from New York City is offered a small fortune to spend a year in Utah, he is hesitant. Not only does he have to live in a tiny LDS town, but he must become a Mormon. Give up cover girls, alcohol...Sunday sports? But the publisher who wants a book from this story is convincing and ready to pay a million dollars to have the church exposed and destroyed. Uncover a scandal, Luke is told, no matter what it takes.

Luke reluctantly accepts the challenge and heads off to the middle of nowhere, where he is greeted by the world famous LDS casserole, pastries, plants and invitations to church. He writes that what Utah lacks in caffeine it makes up for in saccharine. All this joy, kindness and happiness is making him sick to his stomach. But...niceness isn't a scandal, so he gets to work, befriending the family across the street. Ben, who has the world's worst luck in getting people baptized--even having converts die before the chosen date--becomes his best friend. It is Ben's little daughter, Brooklyn, age seven, however, who captures his heart. She presents him with a CTR ring to help him learn to live a good life and offers to teach him the gospel and later helps him find something within himself he never knew existed.

Luke has to start turning into a Mormon, so he allows Ben to talk to him about religion. He begins attending meetings and meeting with the missionaries. He terrorizes the poor elders, but continues to study, even finally committing to baptism. When he has a medical emergency just before his baptism, he postpones it, but begins holding down callings and even reactivating the inactive. Luke is soon living the life of a Latter-day Saint in spite of himself, even though he continues to seek for the much needed scandal. Can a hardened New Yorker really gain a testimony, especially when he is so determined not to?

This book was completely unexpected. It was not a nice, easy conversion story about someone who gains a testimony while living in Utah. Luke really is determined to find that scandal and hurt the church in order to insure his million dollar payment. He is hard, deceitful and completely believable. His gradual discovery that Latter-day Saints can be nice people who genuinely love their religion is also surprisingly believable. The outsider's view of LDS culture is unexpectedly accurate and enlightening for long-time members.

I admit that I approached this book with much skepticism. I expected something completely predictable and sugary sweet. It just did not seem possible to convert Luke Manning in any way I would be willing to believe. I was delighted when I found myself so immersed in the story that I had to double-check and make sure it really was fiction, and not a biography. The progression of the plot was astoundingly convincing, unlike most conversion fiction.

Readers should be aware that this book involves a child's death, which may be upsetting for some readers.

Jeff Call is a sports reporter for the Deseret News and a regular contributor to Brigham Young Magazine. His first book is an amazing entry into the treasury of outstanding LDS fiction and will appeal to both adults and teenagers.