Author: Keith Norman
Title: B U C: A Boy Among the Saints
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing Group (Charleston, SC)
Publication date: 2020.
Paper: $12.99. 345 pp. ISBN: 9781649900333.
Reviewed by Kathryn H. Shirts
Adventures of a Latter-day Tom Sawyer
I know Keith Norman as a New Testament scholar who explores how the early Christian concept of deification is reflected in LDS theology. I was surprised, therefore, to discover he has written a novel about a young boy growing up in a small town somewhere in Mormondom, then happily surprised to find it such a good novel. Norman is a master storyteller. Perhaps his fiction is not so far removed from his academic interests after all. The possibility of deification ennobles mere mortals, as C. S. Lewis reminds us, even though it can be quite a burden.
In B U C: A Boy Among the Saints, Norman convincingly channels the inner voice of an impressionable, free-spirited ten-year-old trying to live up to the high expectations of his parents and neighbors in Anti-Lehi-Nephi. The stakes are high, as Wilford Hyrum Bushman is constantly being reminded. After all, he is Born Under the Covenant, “the offspring of goodly parents who had been sealed for eternity in the temple of God’s true church” (2). Since falling short is not acceptable, Wilford seeks desperately to mask every innocent misstep—knocking bread from the Sacrament tray, “borrowing” his brother’s fishing pole, tossing an old wrench out the school bus window—with a series of cover-ups that inevitably and hilariously make everything far, far worse. While empathizing with Wilford at every twist of fate that carries him deeper into trouble, I could not stop laughing out loud at his misadventures.
The name Anti-Lehi-Nephi, reversing the Book of Mormon’s “Anti-Nephi-Lehi,” is an homage to Norman’s native Lehi back when it was farm town of less than 4,000. I was impressed with the mid-twentieth-century details that he weaves into the story. Calf- riding at the Roundup is the crucial right of passage for 12-year-old boys, and for 15 cents you can ride the Ferris wheel at the traveling carnival. At the family reunion, Grandpa Hansen leads his multitudinous grandchildren in games like “Every Man in His Own Den,” “The King’s Chest,” and “Stick Base.” Grandma Hansen gives a mournful rendition of “Babes in the Woods” right before Wilford leaves his little sister in the care of an inattentive cousin, supposedly just for a moment. I remember my mother singing that very tune. (Wilford careens down a cliff, is chased by a “wolf” and sends his mother to the hospital before he finds out what happened to the baby.)
Norman employs broad stereotypes to poke gentle fun at the idiosyncrasies of the good citizens of Anti-Lehi-Nephi, but his hyperbole reveals rather than conceals the faith and culture of the community. All the men are named after scripture heroes or Latter-day prophets. Parents favor creative hybrids like Lawana, Jewella, and Raylene for the girls. Brother McCannon threatens to call a church court on Wilford’s dad for refusing to heal his ailing, bloated cows with faith and consecrated oil rather than take the more practical approach of plunging a knife into the cows’ bellies to release the trapped air. Sister Evans testifies that one of the Three Nephites hitched a ride with her cousin’s brother-in-law on their way to the Manti temple, saving them from a fatal landslide. Brother Greggson is glad there are no other churches in Anti-Lehi-Nephi “to confuse you about which one was right” (45).
Since grown-ups are generally too busy with their daily concerns to explain things, Wilford does his best to piece together the world on his own. When his thirteen-year-old brother Heber inadvertently runs over a family of kittens with the tractor-mower, Wilford starts thinking about whether animals have a place in the afterlife. “Could you resurrect an animal that had been eaten?” he wonders, concluding, “Maybe that’s why most animals didn’t get resurrected” (115). Wilford’s curiosity leads us on a tour of the ideas he is absorbing from his elders, but his naivete often bumps up against adult assumptions. The stake president, disguised as Santa with a bushy white beard, can’t help phrasing the traditional naughty-or-nice questions in the form of a temple recommend interview. Wilford isn’t quite sure what to say when Santa asks, “Are you honest in your dealings with your fellow man?” but he replies with a confident “Yes!” when Santa leans forward to inquire, “Are you clean, Wilford?” since he washed his hands before dinner (286–287).
Wilford’s new teacher, from far-away Chicago, pronounces “Illinois” without an “s.” When the fifth graders at Seagull Elementary School ask why he chose to come all the way to their town to teach, he answers that he was looking for new experiences. “What I really liked was the name of this place. Anti-Lehi-Nephi. Now where in the world did your founding fathers come up with that? It’s not some Indian name, is it?” The class stared at him in stunned silence. Wilford thought to himself, “Actually it was an Indian name—sort of. There was only one way he could not know this” (182–183). The new teacher, of course, is a Gentile, the only non-Mormon in town.
Wilford is highly suspicious, but Mr. Sutton agrees to start class with prayer and gently leads the students beyond what everyone knows to what science and history might also contribute. The tales that go home, however, inevitably paint a darker picture, and Wilford’s mother leads the charge to get rid of the man before he poisons the minds of their children with philosophies of men. She gives up the fight, however, when it is the Gentile who sets things right after another prank goes horribly wrong.
Despite satirizing their insular attitudes, Norman’s affection for the townsfolk of Anti-Lehi-Nephi is clear. Even though it can feel claustrophobic at times, ward members look out for each other. People are resourceful and no one goes hungry, although some get close. Children are taught to work hard and are given responsibility at an early age. Families stick together and they know how to have fun. “I’m real proud to be associated with the Hansens,” Uncle Mosiah declares, “And if we ever get polygamy back, I just might marry another one!” (129).
It is all too evident that Wilford’s spiritual priorities cannot win when faced with material realities. During a long, hungry fast meeting, Brother Russell warns that “If you do not have this testimony, you will not be able to stand at the last day,” and Wilford admits that “if right now I had two choices, the one a testimony and the other a mess of pottage, I wouldn’t even stop to ask what was in it. I’d just start eating” (55-56). But in the end, Wilford’s spiritual education isn’t for naught. Whenever he is in a tight pinch, he prays for help and receives it in some form. When he runs away from home he is rescued by—could it be?—one of the Three Nephites in jeans and a flannel shirt encircled in brightness far too dazzling to be the headlights of a car.
Prayers for a much-wanted bicycle yield an unexpected windfall and even though divine help is not quite enough to make Wilford’s secret dream come true, his spur-of-the moment generosity provides the perfect Christmas for the rest of his family. For once, Wilford not only measures up to everyone’s expectations; he exceeds them. But that’s when he realizes he’s glad he doesn’t have the mysteries of faith figured out quite yet. The perfect ending to a story, experts tell us, contains an element of surprise that also makes you say, “But of course!” Norman has crafted a perfect ending to an engaging story. Wilford’s experiences are thoroughly Mormon—the author’s preface cryptically implies that many of them were Norman’s own—but they come to us bountifully alive and overflowing in a novel that anyone can enjoy.
Kathryn H. Shirts (kathryn.shirts@gmail.com) received an MTS from Harvard Divinity School in American Church History. She has presented at the Mormon History Association, BYU Women’s Conferences, and the Church History Symposium. Everything she writes is non-fiction, but she loves a good novel.