I can't think of a better way to tell the story of this family than the way Angela chose to do it...through vignettes, varying points of view and tenses, mixing and matching to come up with a crazy quilt of people, problems, and (yay!) no real solutions. Also, it made me cry.This is more than a collection of vignettes on three generations of a Mormon family. It's a poignant, melancholy look at simply being a frail human being navigating the delicate balance of living with other frail human beings.Excellent, excellent book.ETA: This is a book clearly written by a short-story writer and assembled so as to make it a novel, but the vignette nature of it could bother some readers who want an "actual" novel. I'm curious to see if the author can write a full-length novel without relying on short-story writing techniques. This is the rare book about a Mormon family that isn't so sweet it gives me cavities. It is about real people who happen to be LDS, who struggle with real issues, as we all do. I appreciated its honesty and the way the religion of the characters was just part of who they were, not the whole point. Writers in other religions have been successfully using that worldview as their backdrop for years. I've been wondering for a long time when we would get a good Mormon writer like this--someone (please!) between the spectrum of Jack Weyland to Joanna Brooks! I think Hallstrom just may fit the bill.Hallstrom's writing is engaging and refreshing. I think the jacket review by Levi Peterson (a favorite college professor) sums up many of my feelings. The chapters are individual stories told by different characters, which can work great, but in this instance just left me wanting a little more cohesiveness for a plot. Otherwise a great book.
What do You think about Bound On Earth (2008)?
I like how the characters feel like real people with real struggles, strengths, and faults.
—cutiepie
Everything good that anyone has said about this book is true. Buy it! Read it!
—drfortini
Barbara Sweat's daughter wrote this book, Sarah Gwilliam recommends as well
—hum
