Book #17: The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison

This book tells the story of Linda Wallheim, the bishop's wife in her Draper, UT LDS ward, over the course of a few months. She is a somewhat typical stay-at-home mom who's almost finished raising her five sons (only one still at home) and who spends most of her time helping her husband serve the members of their ward. When a woman in their ward supposedly leaves her husband and daughter, Linda thinks there's more behind the surface and does more than she probably should to try and figure out the truth behind what has happened. She ends up trying to solve this whodunit mystery and contributes in a very real way to solving the crime--at some danger to herself and going far beyond the normal parameters of the duties of a bishop's wife.

This is not a typical LDS fiction book. Usually, most LDS fiction I've read is written for an LDS audience, and doesn't delve into complicated issues of history or culture. This book is written for a non-LDS audience and therefore spends a lot of time explaining LDS terms and cultural concepts, through the perspective of Linda. I really liked how even though Linda seems stereotypical from the outside, she actually has a lot of semi-radical views (aka liberal) that are probably not super common in Draper, UT, even if she doesn't talk about them with members of her ward. We get to see things from her perspective, which is pretty realistic and straightforward--she balances her faith and belief in God and the gospel with a skepticism of confusing doctrinal issues and Utah LDS culture. She is totally active in the gospel, but has things she doesn't understand or comprehend, and even things she doubts and major things she struggles with (like losing her daughter who was stillborn twenty or thirty years ago, and not knowing whether she's really a part of their family or not). I really liked how Linda felt very REAL--she shared her innermost doubts and struggles with us, and the things she really believes in. That made me really like this book and the nuanced view it gives of the LDS church and LDS people.

The thing I didn't like about this book was that it kind of felt like Harrison was trying on purpose to reference every single controversial thing about the church. Homosexuality and gay marriage? Polygamy? Blacks and the priesthood? Priesthood being used to control and abuse women? All of the above were mentioned at least. It seemed like every single man in the story had a somewhat controlling view of women--and many of them were downright insane (like the murderer in the end, of course), but Harrison made it seem like they got their insane and dangerous ideas from the doctrines on the priesthood in the Church, which I am sure is not unlikely but which I HATE. Even the good men, like her husband, seem like they're still semi-controlling of the women in their lives, or at least like they don't really understand them, and I don't feel like that's a fair representation of all LDS men either. I know that Tommy, and most of the LDS men that I know very well in my generation, are not like that. But overall, I really enjoyed this story and I thought it was a pretty well-balanced and interesting perspective on Mormonism that I bet non-Mormons would enjoy as well, for the chance to peek in on Utah from an insider view.