Return to Mormonville: Worlds Apart - Jeff Call

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

01 Dec 2006 09:35 AM

In Jeff Call's first novel "Mormonville," we meet Luke Manning, a somewhat hardened New York City journalist who is sent to Utah to get the goods on the Mormons for the purpose of writing an expose. What Luke didn't expect was to meet the girl of his dreams, find a best friend, and feel completely at home in this tiny, Podunk little town called Helaman. At the end of the book he calls his publisher and refuses to do the story, and converts to the Gospel. The plot sounds a little cliché, but Call is a talented author and threw some twists in there that took the book out of the ordinary. I especially liked the conversion story; too often in LDS fiction, conversions are cookie-cutter imitations of each other, but I found Luke's story fresh and appealing.

With "Return to Mormonville," we find Luke and Hayley as happily married newlyweds, trying to have a baby but not having any luck yet. Ben, Luke's best friend and now his bishop, asks Luke if he would be interested in taking some humanitarian aid items to Sudan on behalf of the ward. Luke jumps at the chance. His journalism career has been slowly plummeting since calling things off with his publisher, and he would love to kick it into high gear again. Surely the magazines and newspapers would love to see stories written behind the scenes in Sudan.

Linking himself with a Christian charity with their own plane, Luke heads off to Africa, laden with toys and supplies for the children. He has only been in the country for a few days, however, when he is captured by Islamic terrorists and thrown into jail, tortured, and starved.

The media is all over the story, and Hayley is a wreck at home. Watching the news reports only makes her more agitated, and when it is discovered that she's five weeks pregnant, her condition becomes all the more precarious.

Through it all, Luke maintains his sense of humor, sometimes campy and at other times, downright hysterical. My favorite comment from him came when the terrorists were listing all the things that had gone wrong with America, and they included Michael Jackson. Luke quickly replied that America doesn't claim Michael Jackson. I laughed out loud - I really did.

I enjoyed this book for the plotline and the look into the terrorist camps. I did feel, however, that the author could have shown us more and given us a better understanding of the emotions of the journey, and I felt as though I was reading the rough draft to an incredible book as opposed to the finished product. I was impressed that he delved into the world of terrorism as he did. All in all, it was a courageous undertaking by a talented author and I hope to read more by Jeff Call.

Related Blogs:

Remembering 9/11

Home and Homeland Security

Michael Jackson: a Tormented Talent

Provident Living

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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