Title: Bountiful
Author: Charity Shumway
Publisher: BCC Press
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Year Published: 2020
Pages: 392
Binding: Paper
Isbn13: 978-1948218313
Price: $9.95
Reviewed by David Harris
I grew up in a Mormon family in Utah. I find myself more on the fringes of that culture these days, but I never tire of reading books and stories set in that milieu.
I dislike art and literature that has an agenda because, in my view, that agenda almost always detracts from the quality of the work. For that reason, I’m generally uninterested in faith-promoting literature because, at the end of the day, that’s just another agenda.
So, instead, I find myself drawn to authors such as Levi Peterson (see The Canyons of Grace: Stories and his latest, Losing a Bit of Eden: Recent Stories), Robert Todd Petersen (see Rift) and Susan Palmer (see The Tabernacle Bar), who do not shy away from the warts of the culture. But these are not books and stories that faithful Latter-Day Saints typically enjoy because they are dark and often don’t come with a particularly happy ending. Plus I think the general consensus among conventional believers would be that stories such as the ones these authors write usually don’t provide much validation of their religious views. (I don’t believe this is true myself, but I can see how they can be read that way.)
The strength of this book is that it also does not shy away from certain negative aspects of the faith, or rather its culture, such as our inward-looking aloofness, at least here in Utah, and the scary aspects of the predominant American culture surrounding it. And the thing I really like is that you’re never really sure throughout much of the book if it’s supposed to be a faith promoting book or not. In the end, I think you get the idea that it is, but I like that the story was filled with authenticity and reality and did not resort to warm and fuzzy clichés the way so many other novels tend to.
For example, Heather’s dalliances with her neighbor, Ted, are described in pretty revealing detail, something which might put off some faithful Latter-Day Saints who might choose to read the book.
Moreover, I applaud the book’s willingness to explore such controversial topics such as women and the priesthood. I particularly like that one of the main characters, Heather’s mother, was a female candidate for public office, grappling with the failure of some men, among them her father and her husband, to take her seriously while, on the other side, her daughter was encouraging her to consider the why and wherefore behind the restriction of the priesthood to males. That created a useful tension that kept the story fresh.
Side note: I see from a GoodReads friend’s review that she didn’t find the experiences described in the novel as particularly authentic. I see her point. Heather’s turn-around probably does come across as a little simplistic to some. And, maybe, as a result, the book wraps up too nicely in the end. And yet the book does tackle themes and situations which typical faith-promoting works don’t, and I think the author deserves credit for that.
I would recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in Utah culture, and particularly to those who are interested in Utah politics.