Review Essay by Stephen Carter Stephen Carter is the director of publications for the Sunstone Education Foundation. What is it that bothers mainstream Mormons about polygamy? Carol Lynn Pearson asked this question in a 2014 online survey and received more than 8,000 responses, 51 percent of them from active Mormons. Often the respondents …
Tag: Book Review

Book Review: Revelation, Resistance & Mormon Polygamy, by Merina Smith
Reviewed by George D. Smith Revelation, Resistance & Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830–1853, Merina Smith (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2013). With this book, Merina Smith, a graduate of the University of Colorado with a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego, has synthesized research …
Faith and the “As If” Factor: Review of Doug Thayer’s “The Tree House”
By Levi S. Peterson At 80, Douglas Thayer goes on writing impressive fiction, as this latest novel shows. Cast in short, simple sentences and concentrating on the concrete instead of the abstract, The Tree House not only captures the rhythms of Mormon life in Provo during the mid-twentieth century but also figures forth the tensions …
OK, Mormon: Review of Doug Thayer’s “The Tree House”
By E. George Goold Everyone familiar with Mormon letters knows Douglas Thayer. The veteran Brigham Young University English professor established himself with the landmark short story collection Under the Cottonwoods, built a long, distinguished career with novels including Summer Fire and The Conversion of Jeff Williams, and delighted audiences with his memoir, Hooligan: A Mormon …