These Latter Days

by Laura Kalpakian

Book by Kalpakian, Laura

Genres: Fiction, Religion

379 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[LadyLouisa Writes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book back in 1993 when I was in Highschool. That was the first time I read about latter day saints and the book of Mormon.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: Laura Kalpakian is my writing teacher. I have been inspired by her as a teacher and feel my writing really has improved since I started working with her.

I enjoyed a few of her contemporary novels, and happily discovered that she’s as good a novelist as she is a teacher. But I haven’t felt qualified to review her books, even though I review everything else, because I’m used to her critiquing my work, not the other way around.

“These Latter Days” is the first of her historical novels I read, and I loved it.

The story explores a patriarchal Mormon community in the late 1800s/early 1900s from the points of view of the women in the Douglass family. Ruth Douglass marries and has six children with a man who turns out to be a delusional zealot. Ruth and the other women in the story are fascinating characters with challenging lives. While not all of her daughters’ lives turn out swell, there is something to admire in each of them. Sadly, her two sons are unable to overcome their genetics and turn out as useless as their father. However, a couple of Ruth’s sons in law are considerate and worthy of the Douglass women, and Ruth herself finds an equal partner in Lucius Tipton, an atheist doctor living in a Mormon town.

I didn’t enjoy reading the parts where Ruth and various of her relations found themselves repressed and unhappy because of their unfortunate choices in marriage. Of course, these scenes serve the novel, because I was eager to see these women break free. Ruth tells her daughter that women have three choices: to be a virgin, a wife or a widow, but Ruth proves that doesn’t have to be the case.

The jacket blurb bills “These Latter Days” as “a complex novel of revelation and rebellion.” It depicts the lives of Latter-day Saints in a realistic and compelling way that I have not seen before in other novels.

I’m excited to read “Caveat” and “American Cookery,” which feature a few of my favorite characters from “These Latter Days.”

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the title sounds Mormon-y, it is, although the characters are highly imperfect. It's really kind of amusing to see them thinking, Well, this is really against the Word of Wisdom, but here goes (Note to my posterity: this is only funny in fiction). Sometimes it was hard to tell if I was reading the characters' misperceptions of church doctrine, or the author's. That Mormons believe we enter heaven two by two, and thus the importance of marriage, came up again and again, but they are all confused about it. Nobody seems to think there is any place in heaven for single folks, and they also are sure that if your spouse messes up and goes to hell, there you go right along with him. By the end of the book, it's pretty clear that Kalpakian has no use for the church or its leaders. But I read on anyway, citing the motto: We Don't Adopt Other People's Grievances; We Only Nurture Our Own. Besides, it was a delicious saga, great to turn another page and learn what happened to all the children when they grew up, who married who, who broke who's heart.

[Maryanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm having a hard time finishing a book lately so may not be fair, but I stopped caring what happened to any of these people early on, but kept on reading until I finally closed the book about three-fourths of the way through. It was not a pretty picture of the misogynistic zealotry of Latter Day Saints in the early 1900's. Bleak. It is a bleak novel. I loved Kalpakian's Educating Waverly.

[Kristi Lamont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a different sort of take on the Mormons of a certain era than that to which I'm normally accustomed! And not exactly your typical love story, either -- but man, what a great one! Felt like somebody had taken family stories and grandma's diary and woven them together into a linear narrative.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you can overlook the mistakes that the author makes in the Mormon culture, the book starts out good. The firt half kept me turning pages. Too bad the same can 19t be said for the second half. It was unorganized, confusing, and dull. I

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book. Really enjoyed it.

[Carol Priest · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half was very good, but the second was all over the place and seemed unnecessary.

[Mary Owais · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.