yetilibrary's review against another edition
2.0
Imagine you're in a bar with a friend who's obsessed with the Harry Potter books. After a couple of beers, getting a buzz, this friend really unleashes all his theories about Harry Potter, about the four houses of Hogwarts, about everything JK Rowling ever mentioned. You are not that interested but your friend--buzzed-up and a superfan himself--doesn't notice. He gets increasingly animated, gesticulates wildly, and makes lengthy, weird digressions that seem unnecessary to you but are clearly vital to him. And while he's doing all this, he keeps saying how ridiculous the whole Harry Potter series is, and how it's ridiculous any of us read it, and how JK Rowling is like Jesus?
Change Harry Potter to The Book of Mormon and this is what reading this book is like.
Change Harry Potter to The Book of Mormon and this is what reading this book is like.
karenchase's review against another edition
3.0
I wasn't sure what was going on with this book. Is it a memoir? An expose? A commentary? I also had trouble discerning the author's motivations. He was on a quest to discover ... something ... about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Along the way he does manage to teach the reader something about the culture of Mormons, or Saints, or whatever the proper term of reference might be. Most of the time he calls them "readers of the Book of Mormon," without specifying whether they are devotees/adherents or curious laypeople, which it seems he is. But even that isn't quite clear, as he gets drawn into his quest. Anyway, I'm a sucker for a spiritual journey and certainly for a religious history, especially when it's a history of something like Mormonism, which I still consider to be, rightly or wrongly, kind of fringe. I think part of the point of this book is to ask, if not to answer, how a religion becomes "legitimate." Is it time? After all, Christianity, Judaism and Islam have many centuries' head start on the Mormons. Or is it simply being in possession of some mysterious and prophetic texts, which some number of people consider to be sacred? These questions are all presented in this book, and even though it's not realistic to expect an answer from such a slim volume, I found myself feeling a little disappointed in the end.
courtney_mcallister's review against another edition
4.0
Steinberg's narrative is a bit scattered at times, but his ideas appeal to me in a visceral way. Framing The Book of Mormon and its discovery myth as the quintessential piece of American lit is brilliant and compelling. I also really enjoyed how Steinberg related Smith's supposed discovery and translation of the plates to the arduous nature of the writing process itself. There were times when Steinberg introduced an idea or concept that I wanted to see explored more thoroughly, but I think perhaps his publisher/editor didn't want the book to stray into academic territory. The cartoonish cover image makes it pretty obvious that The Lost Book of Mormon was marketed as a quirky work of general non-fiction, not a dry, academic tome.
middlekmissie's review against another edition
3.0
It's engaging and a pretty fun journey, but I feel like it's not the book I was promised. I thought it would be more about how the Book of Mormon was written & evolved, but instead it was the author's personal reflections on the nature of writing. A lot of times, he assumed that the reader knew the events discussed in the Book, and I did not, so that was irritating.
robk's review against another edition
5.0
One man's quest to understand the Book of Mormon, those that believe it to be scripture, and the books translator, Joseph Smith. I was quite taken with this book from the beginning. Steinberg attempts to position the Book of Mormon as the original American literature; after all, if the book is true, then it is a record of America's first inhabitants, and if the book is fiction, then Joseph Smith seems to have answered Emerson's call for "the hour when that supreme Beauty, which ravished the souls of those eastern men, and chiefly of those Hebrews, and through their lips spoke oracles to all time, shall speak in the West also."
No matter how you look at it, the BOM deserves a place on the shelf of American Lit, at least that's Steinberg's position.
This was a fun romp through several ideas I have never come across before. Definitely one of the most interesting and unique books I have read about the BOM.
No matter how you look at it, the BOM deserves a place on the shelf of American Lit, at least that's Steinberg's position.
This was a fun romp through several ideas I have never come across before. Definitely one of the most interesting and unique books I have read about the BOM.
apattonbooks's review against another edition
2.0
This is quite the strange book, it starts as a literary criticism then morphs into a travelogue and wraps up as a memoir of sorts. It didn't tell me much that I didn't no but was interesting enough to finish as a quick read.
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