The main character finally gets a clue about grace, and learns that God is good and kind and merciful and loving. The best: I was really moved by the ending. And I appreciated reading a realistic book about the themes of love, lust, God, guilt, repentance, forgiveness, relationships, & responsibility. I was really drawn into the story, and had to know how it ended. I grew to really care about him, and wish for his happiness. The good: The main character was complex, three-dimensional, and fascinating. It was a little jarring to realize how different their culture (rural Utah in the 1950's) was from my experiences (suburban NY/Boston/Seattle over the last 30 years). The perplexing: The characters are all LDS, so I kind of assumed they'd seem like comfortable old buddies, or extended family. I don't really handle blood, guts, or gore very well, and I now have some images in my mind that I kind of wish weren't there.
The bad: There's some horrifying, stomach-turning stuff in there.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what to say about it, or how to rank it. His attempt to exorcise this hypocrisy and the confusion about how to atone for it result in an epiphany that restores equilibrium to the world. He comes to see dating as an evil indulgence in sensual fantasy and his work on the ranch as a tool of avarice. The sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic posturing required of Frank in concealing his humanity behind a mask of forced righteousness makes for comic, painful, and moving scenarios.įor instance, he punishes himself for lapses of self-denial by fasting and tying his hands to the bedpost.
It is an extraordinary landmark in Mormon fiction - the first novel to consider the ubiquitous tension between religious guilt and sexual frustration.Set against the backdrop of southern Utah's canyon country, the protagonist manifests exuberance and innocence that is constrained only by strict moral education. This is a story about sin and salvation, written with raunchiness and reverence. He has an ultra-pious mother, a brother who is more than just a little touched in the head, and a comfortable Lutheran girlfriend who knows she has been saved. Frank Windham is a Mormon cowboy - hard-working, trying to be honest, convinced he is going to hell for incurable lust, and convinced that he deserves to.
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