Review
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Title:The Lost Book of Mormon: a journey through the mythic lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri
Author: Avi Steinberg
Publisher: Nan A Talese/Doubleday
Genre: Non-fiction
Year Published: 2114
Number of Pages: 265
Binding: hardcover
ISBN 978-0-385-53569-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-385-53670-0 (eBook)
Price: $26.95
Reviewed by Richard C. Russell for the Association for Mormon Letters
The author, steeped in Jewish Torah from his youth, exhibits a reverential respect for anything claiming to be scripture. Though now a lapsed Orthodox Jew, he takes his subject so seriously that he undertakes a journey to “find” it by following the physical trail the book lays out. Don’t be misled by the word “seriously.” Steinberg is acidly funny and according to the jacket blurb by the Associated Press: “Steinberg’s writing is funny, poignant and accessible. Here’s the guy you want in front of the campfire because he knows how to tell a good story. The characters pop off the pages.”
While he takes us along for the ride he doesn’t “take us for a ride.” Believers and non-believers alike will respect his respect while being thoroughly entertained and surprised by his insightful connections, not the least of which is his examination and explanation of the so-called “Jerusalem Syndrome.” Jerusalem Syndrome is a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem.
Here is how he describes the author and translator, Joseph Smith, Junior: “I’d already learned a lot about Joseph Smith, but the more I read, the more facts I accumulated, the less I understood him. I couldn’t pin him down. To be honest, I could barely keep up with him. What was remarkable about Joseph’s talent for self-creation wasn’t simply that he remade himself so many times over, but that he never discarded the old selves along the way. As he pushed west–after the book’s publication–getting run out of towns from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois, the fictional selves just kept accumulating. He became the protagonist-author of dozens of different American stories. By the time he was murdered, in 1844, he had been the mayor of a rapidly growing city–a rival to Chicago–the head of a bank, a city planner, editor in chief, ditch digger, respected amateur wrestler, museum curator, church president, author, translator, seer, general of a large militia, chief of police, chief of secret police, renowned practitioner of white magic, proprietor of a general store, collector of ancient Egyptian mummies and papyri, land surveyor, fugitive in two states, farmhand, landlord, would-be arsonist, hotel manager, and Planet Earth’s one and only prophet of the living God. His bid to unseat James K. Polk for the office of president of the United States ended abruptly when he became a martyr. He died at age thirty-eight, survived by at least forty-eight grieving widows. After his death, he was sighted as an angel. And even then the beat went on. Records show that still more women, including medieval Catholic saints, were wed to him posthumously. Joseph didn’t just have plural wives, he had plural lives to match, as if he, a literalist to his core, had married each of his personas to a different woman.”
See what I mean about his unique approach?
He is equally interesting as he describes the many real-life characters he encounters on his journey. I was particularly struck by his travels in Central America with a Book of Mormon Lands excursion led by and inhabited by typically orthodox Latter-day Saints whose literal belief in the Book of Mormon story feels comfortably familiar to cultural Mormons.
The title could mislead fervent believers to think Steinberg has merely undertaken yet another attempt to debunk this Mormon scripture or poke fun at peculiar beliefs. Not so. Steinberg is more interested in how and why stories move us than in whether or not they are true.
“The Lost Book of Mormon” will appeal to readers of all stripes, especially those who have encountered the Book of Mormon but are looking for an innovative way to experience the text. The author is both witty and insightful, a combination that will delight and inspire. It may just open your eyes to a new experience with the Book of Mormon.