I was excited to find this title though the author's interview published in the SL Tribune. Fiction about Mormons has little legacy to stand on, with quality production mostly in film. There has been a fair amount of good fiction written by Mormons about other topics, and a stunningly famous body of work produced by a Mormon that is absolute shit (Stephanie Meyers' oeuvre). I was excited to see where this new offering landed.



"Elders" gives a provocative (seriously, that's the best word for it)

I was excited to find this title though the author's interview published in the SL Tribune. Fiction about Mormons has little legacy to stand on, with quality production mostly in film. There has been a fair amount of good fiction written by Mormons about other topics, and a stunningly famous body of work produced by a Mormon that is absolute shit (Stephanie Meyers' oeuvre). I was excited to see where this new offering landed.



"Elders" gives a provocative (seriously, that's the best word for it) look into the life and mind of a young Mormon struggling to find his place in a tradition that at times seems as foreign to him as the land he is 'serving' in. Given the author's background as a former Mormon and a former missionary, one feels that this book must be somewhat autobiographical. Coming from the same background myself, I appreciated seeing Mormon missionaries treated as real humans with doubts, desires, ambitions, and complex motivations. A lot of the interaction between the Elders seemed overdramatized compared to life, but I saw that mostly as a necessary evil for converting the content of the experience into a novel of readable length. I thought that the social background of each Elder was well delivered, with exposition interspersed throughout the book. You slowly gain a picture of what brought these two young men to such an unnatural and challenging situation.



My experience as a missionary was a fusion of both of these Elders'. Though a highly-driven, leader type, I also felt the pangs of doubt and serious misgivings about how "the work" was being conducted. Rampant corporatism, emotional manipulation, and an emphasis on sales techniques are intermixed with truly transcendent experiences as I forged human connections with people and discovered the "kingdom of God" that exists within each of us. McIlvain captures this messy smorgasbord of lived experience well, though some of the other characters end up as caricatures. There's the missionary who pines for his far-away sweetheart, the football-obsessed natives, the sanctimonious-business-asshole Mission President, the golden investigator, etc. Some of these tropes may not carry the same complete image that their mere suggestion holds for the author (or me), and a reader unfamiliar with this peculiar culture (Mormonism, not Brazil) might feel that the author does not develop the world of the novel fully enough.



The book ended a bit abruptly, though not unbelievably. I loved to see Elder McLeod own his decisions and his doubts. The book will leave many readers unsatisfied, feeling as though McIlvain ran out of time on his assignment and wrapped it up the night before it was due. McIlvain shows promise and I look forward to his next effort.