From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #535 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Tuesday, December 4 2001 Volume 01 : Number 535 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 07:07:27 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] Marilyn BROWN, _House on the Sound_ (BYU Newsnet) Acclaimed author acheives aspirations By Charity Brunson NewsNet Staff Writer 11/30/2001 After wading through a pile of accolades accumulated over 16 years, author Marilyn Brown is finally achieving her dream of publication. The BYU graduate recorded her family's World War II experience in 1986 in a memoir entitled "House on the Sound." The book is available at the BYU Bookstore. The work won an honorable mention in the 30th Annual Utah Fine Arts Contest in 1988; four years later its sequel won first place. But despite the critical praise of Brown's work, which also earned her the first Mayhew prize ever given at BYU and the Association for Mormon Letters award for novels, she said she was unable to find a publisher because of the book's literary nature. "What sells in Mormon writing is easier to read," Brown said. "But I wanted to write things that were not quite as accessible." She said she's wanted to have a career in writing for about 40 years, ever since reading the work of George Elliot when she was 10 years old. "I wanted to write something that good that was Mormon," Brown said. She said she knew "House on the Sound" had the quality she sought, but was frustrated by the ambivalence of publishers. Finally, she decided to make her dream happen - she went to Springville publisher Cedar Fort and arranged to work for the company in exchange for the publication of her work, an arrangement she said is mutually beneficial. "I love being involved in publishing, and lo and behold, the book is selling," she said. Apparently, the book was worth the wait. "I've been waiting for 'House on the Sound' a long time - since I read the early pages of it a decade or more ago," said Bruce Jorgensen, a BYU English professor in a review. "It's a good read - - funny, scary, sometimes lyrical." The book explores Pearl Harbor from the perspective of a child whose father works in the Navy shipyard. It incorporates the story of her family's conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. "My dad was working at night in the dark hull of a ship, and he'd read by the single light bulb the Book of Mormon," Brown said. Both of her parents were eventually baptized in the Puget Sound in the Seattle area and shortly after, her father sent the family to Provo to keep them out of danger. Brown said the story is one of hope and inspiration. "It's a memoir of how my father was trying to build a sound house while the war was going on - he gravitated towards religion and peace," she said. She said she enjoyed writing from her own experience. "You don't have to look things up - you can concentrate more on the story and characters, what they're saying and doing," Brown said. The account of family endurance in a time of war is particularly relevant in light of today's conflict, she said. "I hope the readers put themselves in a different world and realize how war effects the characters and how incredibly important it is to try to build a sound house for their kids," Brown said. Copyright =A92001 BYU NewsNet Home | Campus | Lifestyles | Opinion | Sports | Religion | Features | World= =20 | Utah | Text Only LEGEND Live Audio Video Photos Advertising | Classifieds | Web Cam | Email Briefs | Palm Version Copyright =A92001 BYU NewsNet _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 21:19:26 -0700 From: katie@aros.net Subject: [AML] Cheri CRANE, _Kate's Turn_ (Review) Crane, Cheri J. _Kate's Turn_. Covenant, 1994. Paperback, 355 pp.,=20 $10.95. Reviewed by Katie Parker Sixteen-year-old Kate Erickson is on the wrong path. She's experimented=20 with drinking and smoking, hangs out with the wrong crowd, and she's=20 been leaving her job at Burger King early and meeting her loser boyfriend= . =20 Furthermore, she's a grouch around her family and determined to ruin any=20 family bonding activities. And she doesn't have a testimony. Her parent= s,=20 particularly her mother, are upset about it and have tried talking to her= as=20 well as yelling at her. The plot heats up a little when her mother catch= es=20 her in what appears to be a compromising position with a boy. During the= =20 ensuing spat, Kate tells her mom what she seems to be suspecting: that=20 she's "been with more boys than you can count on both hands" (68). This=20 is actually a lie, and once the heated moment passes, Kate can see how=20 hurt her mother is over this "confession" and she tries to tell her the t= ruth. =20 Her mother, however, is so upset that she refuses to listen to anything K= ate=20 has to say. This alienates Kate further; it really hurts her to know tha= t her=20 mother would actually believe these things about her. Something strange happens when Kate storms off after another=20 confrontation and is hit by a car. She ends up in a coma in the hospital= ,=20 but she also somehow ends up in the year 1848 with some of her ancestors=20 in a wagon train headed to the Salt Lake Valley. After disposing of the=20 provocative clothing she's wearing, they accept her as one of their own,=20 believing her to be a niece rather than the great-great-great-great=20 granddaughter that she really is. They have to get after her occasionall= y=20 for her language, and Kate sorely misses modern-day conveniences, but=20 she learns to cope with pioneer life and to love the people she's with. = Her=20 4th-great grandmother, Colleen, shows true pioneer strength as she leads=20 her family on the daily trek and eventually buries yet another of her you= ng=20 children. She also helps Kate on her quest for a testimony. Colleen's=20 daughter Molly, who would be a distant great aunt of Kate's, is another=20 story. Molly is actually very much like Kate, and the two quarrel for=20 much of the book. Molly is engaged to David, a fine priesthood holder,=20 but hasn't agreed to a wedding date because of her weak testimony. =20 Meanwhile, Jedediah, a greasy but charming nonmember who is traveling=20 with them is also pursuing her. Everyone can tell that this man is only=20 trouble, except, of course, for Molly. She runs off with him and leaves=20 David high and dry. Kate, however, gains a testimony of her own. When Kate finally awakens from her coma, her family is overjoyed and=20 she plans to make a fresh start in life. The story doesn't end there, th= ough. =20 When she was with her ancestors, she learned about a secret compartment=20 in Colleen's trunk. Her aunt now has this trunk, and Kate opens the=20 compartment and finds Molly's journal. Eagerly, Kate reads Molly's=20 tragic account of her marriage to Jedediah, and how he abuses her and=20 keeps her locked up in his mountain cabin. Eventually Molly makes it to=20 Salt Lake and finally marries David. Kate renews her promise to herself=20 to be careful about who she dates, and starts dating a guy who's about to= =20 leave on a mission. On the plus side, I thought Molly's journal was a good touch, as were=20 Kate's stories of Superman that she tells to the pioneer children. =20 Unfortunately, a large portion of the book didn't work for me at all. Mu= ch=20 of the first part of the book is told in Kate's mother's point of view. = While=20 it does show her mother's concerns and frustrations over Kate's behavior,= =20 it also portrays Kate in a negative light, through her frustrated mother'= s=20 eyes. Seeing the mom's point of view may be educational for young=20 readers, and the book in fact is billed as one that mothers and daughters= =20 can read together. But this shouldn't be done at Kate's expense; after a= ll,=20 she's the star of the book. I wanted to sympathize with Kate, not with h= er=20 mom. Perhaps this is a deliberate technique used to prevent young reader= s=20 from feeling comfortable with Kate's poor choices. Or perhaps the author= =20 just didn't feel much sympathy for Kate, either. Point of view on the whole is handled sloppily. Most of the story is tol= d=20 from either Kate's or her mother's point of view, but occasionally Crane=20 cuts in with another voice: her dad's, or Molly's, or Colleen's, or=20 Jedediah's, or the guy Kate is currently kissing. This happens repeatedl= y=20 in the same scene without warning. Many times I got confused as I read,=20 only to realize too late that I was now in someone else's head. I soon=20 found that the only consistency is within a single paragraph. =20 The back of the book proclaims, "You'll want to take sides with Kate one=20 minute and punish her for her outrageous behavior the next." I didn't fi= nd=20 her behavior too outrageous, or interesting for that matter. Yes, the gi= rl=20 has problems, but I found them to be rather two-dimensional. Her antics=20 at home include general grouchiness and insults, banging her fist on a=20 wood fence and getting splinters, and getting stung by a bee and falling = in=20 the lake. Not until her "confession" to her mother about her promiscuity= =20 did I have much interest in the story, although even this situation was=20 milked a bit too long. But I thought that it added some much-needed=20 depth to Kate and to the story. Although we are assured that Kate's reading the scriptures and trying to=20 gain a testimony happens over a period of time, her repentance is too eas= y=20 and complete to be real. This especially bothers me at the end of the bo= ok=20 (pages 344-345), when Kate's mom gives her a letter that her loser=20 boyfriend Jace had sent her while she was comatose: <<<<<< Hey babe, If your mama, the hag-woman, ever gives this to you, I'll be in total sho= ck. =20 I called the other day and thought she was gonna hang up on me! When ya gonna haul that firm little tush of yours outta bed? (Can you=20 believe I said that, knowin' what my goal for the past two years has been= ?) =20 Our little get-togethers just aren't the same without ya. Linda got so h= igh=20 the other night, we thought she'd never come down. I guess she's worried= =20 about ya. We all are. Some vacation. I told ya to stay here with me. = I=20 would've shown ya a better time than your family did! Guess it'll have t= o=20 wait until ya come home. Hurry up, sweet cheeks. A guy like me can't=20 wait forever! Jace >>>>>> Kate lets her mother read this, and then says, "Mom, I want you to know I= =20 will never have anything to do with Jace again. I don't ever want to end= =20 up with a Jedediah!" Then she adds, "The Church is true, Mom! I feel it= =20 inside, all of those things you used to tell me about. It all makes sens= e=20 now. I've still got some changes to make, and there are some things I'll= =20 have to take care of=85but I can do it. Especially if you'll help me" (3= 45). This is about as two-dimensional as it gets. Where is Jace's concern ove= r=20 Kate's comatose condition? His profession of love? Even guys with low=20 moral standards have feelings, or at least pretend to. And where are=20 Kate's feelings? She's only been dating the guy for the last two years. = =20 Doesn't she feel any sorrow at letting him go? Any confusion? The blurb on the back of the next book in the series, _Kate's Return_,=20 promises that in this next book Kate will now have to deal with her old=20 friends and prove to them and to everyone else that she really has change= d. =20 Hopefully it will address some of the feelings that are missing in _Kate'= s=20 Turn._ =20 My overall opinion: The story about Molly was a lot more interesting. =20 The book should've been about her. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 04:01:04 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? What's the point of reading all those novels all the time? Don't you have anything better to do? This is the question for this month's Andrew's Poll (well, bi-monthly maybe). It is inspired by Richard H. Cracroft's article in the recent issue of BYU Studies (40:2, 2001): "'Cows to Milk Instead of Novels to Read': Brigham Young, Novel Reading, and Kingdom Building". Cracroft goes over the development of Brother Brigham's attitudes towards reading novels, from disinterest to public denunciation. You theater people like to quote Brigham Young because of his support for and participation in plays. The novelists out there don't have that luxury. Although he thought many novels were immoral, the thrust of Young's arguments was that they were a waste of time for a community with so many important jobs to be done, particularly building up the kingdom of God on earth. He did not condemn reading in general. He lauded the benefits of reading doctrinal works, histories, and other non-fiction of a practical nature. Although he usually used dime-store romances and westerns as examples of frivolous fiction, his criticism covered the entire genre of novels. In his last letter to his son Brigham Young Jr. he advised him to throw away his set of works by Charles Dickens. (It has been a few months since I read the article, and I don't have it with me, if anyone would like to correct or add to my summary, please do so.) Now, of course Young's comments did not become doctrine, or even remain a well-remembered aspect of his legacy. Many leaders of the Church after Young have publicly lauded works of fiction, if in no way else than by quoting them in their talks. The Relief Society used those "Out of the Best Books" series in their cultural enrichment meetings for a time. AML-list writers sometimes quote Orson Whitney and Spencer Kimball on the uplifting nature of great literature. Still, Brigham is not a man to be ignored. If you had the chance to talk to him, what would be your justification for time spent reading fiction? I'm not talking about writing, that is a different question. Andrew Hall Fukuoka, Japan _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #535 ******************************