I mentioned in a previous post that I am a proud member of LibraryThing, an online forum where booklovers can catalog their libraries and discuss books and why they love them. LT offers an Early Reviewers program, where selected members receive free copies of recently published and pre-pub books. A requirement of receiving these books is that one must write a review and post it on LibraryThing. Members who have blogs are asked to post reviews there, as well.
I received a copy of On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell late last week, and this is my review of it. I must say to my loyal friends and blog readers that I do not recommend this book. Well, read the review and you will see that.
On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell
As a life-long atheist who finds Mormonism to be one of the more ludicrous of the Christian sects, I don’t feel qualified to comment on the religious merits of this book. However, as an avid reader who deeply appreciates a well-written book, I can tell you unequivocally that this isn’t one. The author offers the book as an homage to Jack Kerouac, with frequent quotations from his work throughout. I must state that I find any comparison to Kerouac an insult to that fine author.
The novel, a thinly veiled autobiography, appears to end before the protagonist’s 20th birthday. Unless that protagonist’s name is Holden Caulfield, I am not interested in his teenaged, self-absorbed, philosophical musings. Perhaps this book would best be marketed to the Young Adult crowd, who may find these ramblings unique or meaningful; although I would be concerned that they might be impressionable enough to buy into some of the author’s conclusions.
The author, a former PR man for the LDS, uses the house publishing company, Zarahemla Books, in an attempt to package his adolescent life story as "a love story about a girl and a guy and their search for heaven – a lotta love, a little heaven, and one heck of a ride in between." In reality it is just a public relations guy trying a different tact to sell his product, the Mormon religion.
17 comments:
I know JUST what to get you for Christmas:
http://tinyurl.com/2klox6
Ah, the old "If it's positive about Mormonism, it's trying to convert me" complaint...
Okay for you, Anna. I was going to send you a copy of our postcard book for Christmas, but now maybe you will get this instead:
http://www.kpho.com/news/14502043/detail.html
Christopher - I calls 'em as I sees 'em.
Oh, I OBVIOUSLY already have that doll!
A very trivial problem with Mormonism, is that 'Mormon' and 'moron' look so similar. It really threw me in third grade or so, when I was first learning English.
I read this book too and I totally disagree with your undetailed and lame review. It sounds more like you have an ax to grind about religion (the mormon one inparticular) than an ability to accurately represent what you thought made this book such a bad read. I quite enjoyed it as an expose on what his experience of change was like. But I guess we each have our own opinions.
I honestly don't think a condensed review needs to be more detailed than Anne's. I read an excerpt to form my own opinion, and, seriously - it's plain bad writing. Suck it up.
FYI - I don't reply to anonymous comments.
You wouldn't be the SAME Christopher Bigelow that owns/runs the publisher of the aforementioned work, would you? I guess there COULD be two guys with your name in Provo who are in the fiction / publishing industry and are Mormon, but the odds seem rather long...
It seems to me like that would be a conflict of interest you might want to disclose when offering comment. To be fair, at least you astroturf under your own name...
I would think that when discussing a book called "On the Road to Heaven," the topic of religion would be fair game. You guys sure are touchy.
h/t: Bryan
It's too bad that this book is poorly written - it sounded really interesting when you first described it. I would actually be interested in reading a well-written book about someone's mormon young adulthood.
Unfortunately, poorly written novels aren't solely for Mormons either. Have any of you read any parts of the LEFT BEHIND *ominous organ chord* series? Someone gave me one of the books in high school and even back then (when I was trying to find religion) I could hardly stomach it - it was that bad.
Kristy - I agree. I really like memoirs and was looking forward to reading this one. After reading Under the Banner of Heaven earlier this year, I was interested to see how things might look from the inside out instead of vice versa. My biggest complaint truly is that it was so poorly written.
Oh man, those Left Behind books! When I worked at the library as a reader's advisor, we used to get requests for those or sometimes a patron would just be unable to find them on the shelves. Well, we shelved them with the other "science fiction", which did not sit well with some of the more strident readers. One of them even asked me if I had read any of the series, and when I admitted I had not, she told me, "you should really read these. They're true, you know." All right-y then.
I just went here: http://www.leftbehind.com/
Speechless, seriously. And what an odd name. I instantly thought of poor Harlequin-type romances, but rather focusing on disgruntled and/or scorned women. 'Left behind'... because of the hot secretary.
> 'Left behind'... because of the hot secretary.
Now that's funny. Seriously. The title of the series always reminds me of those bumper stickers that read: After the rapture, can I have you car? 'Cause, you know, the cars will be "left behind".
I will have to dig out the file for an exact quote, but my minister brought up the Left Behind series in a sermon once. He quoted an interview with Tim LaHaye, one of the authors, who was asked -- since he's a Biblical literalist -- if he thought he should follow the scripture about the camel walking through the eye of a needle, and give up his riches. LaHaye's response was that he felt he could do more good for the world by keeping his money and continuing to write more books.
Hmmm...
I love the rapture bumper stickers! Especially the ones that say "In the event of rapture, this car will be unmanned." People that have them are all "ME SO HOLY" and I'm all "SWEET! Free car!" Although, usually the cars that have them are beaters :( Alas.
*Edited to include the reference to which rapture bumper sticker.
Ah, rapture bumper stickers.
You know, say what you will about the tenets of Mormonism, it boggles the mind that, while still belonging to "mainstream" Xtianity, people can believe that:
1. They will be swept up into the sky by an invisible wizard to avoid a global holocaust of sinners
2. Aforementioned sinners have it coming because a woman who never existed allegedly ate an apple that was a metaphor and they, the sinners, who are somehow guilty of this offense too, consequently refused to adopt the mythology of a bunch of desert nomads as their personal weltanschauung
3. Bwa-ha-ha-ing about (1) and (2) is the epitome of humor
I guess it's fair to say that I'm just no fan of organized religion. I wonder where I get that from.
Bryan - Why am I not surprised by that? People like that can rationalize anything.
Tom - I will gladly take the "credit" for that, but I think you are not a fan of organized religions because you are a thinking, intelligent man. Also, your dad would like to point out that disorganized religions are much more entertaining, so we like those better.
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