Reviewer Gordon Osmond : Gordon is a produced and award-winning playwright and author of: So You Think You Know English--A Guide to English for Those Who Think They Don't Need One, Wet Firecrackers--The Unauthorized Autobiography of Gordon Osmond and his debut novel Slipping on Stardust.
He has reviewed books and stageplays for http://CurtainUp.com and for the Bertha Klausner International Literary Agency. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School and practiced law on Wall Street for many years before concentrating on writing fiction and non-fiction. You can find out more about Gordon by clicking HERE
Gordon can also be heard on the Electic Authors Showcase.
Author:John Draper
ASIN:B017GCC9MQ
Author:John Draper
ASIN:B017GCC9MQ
As a boy and later as a teenager, the song that was Number One on my parade of hits was:
A Mormon Boy
A Mormon Boy
I might be envied by a king
For I am a Mormon Boy
Later, in my late teens, the question of a Mormon Mission arose. My chums were being sent to Paris, Rome, Rio, and such. With my penchant for good luck, I had the distinct impression that Teaneck, New Jersey would be in my missionary future. So I decided not to go on a mission, and while I was at it, in a negative mood, having reached the age of reason, decided to give up the Mormon Church and God as well.
I mention all of this to confess to a certain bias in favor of John Draper’s totally delightful account of two Mormon missionaries whose stories manage to expose the soft underbelly of one of the most controversial religious cults in contemporary life.
The story is told, primarily in the first person, by Kenny (Elder) Feller about his newly assigned companion—the Mormon Church doesn’t allow missionaries to proselytize singly—Jared (Elder) Baserman. The pair has a convert success rate roughly equivalent to Obama’s training of Syrian soldiers.
We learn, in third-person background, that Jared was blackmailed into going on his mission, by a rich aunt. This relative, along with Jared’s sister and father, figure prominently in the later telling of the story of Jared, who eventually becomes the book’s central focus.
Mormonism is, of course, a mass of contradictions and hypocritical judgments, and author Draper lays them all to waste with rapier wit. Among his targets:
Until recently, blacks could not hold the all-important priesthoods, be they Moronic, sorry, Aaronic, or Melchizedek. What’s a mulatto to do?
As recently as today, women cannot hold any kind of priesthoods. No priestesses allowed. What’s Bruce Jenner to do?
Homosexuality is given the lightest touch in the book. But still we ask whether Jo’s Emily has any future in the Mormon community in the unlikely event she should want one.
Along the way, Draper vividly describes the infighting that pervades the Mormon hierarchy at every level. Seekers of Mormon political prominence are about as passive as Patton.
Draper is an absolutely wonderful writer. He has a gift for the absurd. Indeed, I kept thinking how the Coen Brothers would have a field day putting some of the book’s more hilarious scenes on film. And what a relief to see a master author portray sex scenes with imagination, delicacy, and overall excitement. A master of change of pace and delicious irreverence, Draper knows just when and how to spice up the narrative.
A Mormon Boy
A Mormon Boy
I might be envied by a king
For I am a Mormon Boy
Actually this is a pretty good expression of the theme of Draper’s wonderful work: Mormons take themselves and their silly religion VERY seriously.
So, the next time a couple of aggressively clean-cut youths show up at your doorstep bearing books, consider the possibility that they may not be as boring as they look.