Earlier today, a positive review of No Going Back was posted at A Motley Vision: Mormon Arts and Culture blog. That’s one of the blogs where I hang out, so the positive response is particularly gratifying.
Katherine wrote in part: “One of the things that always concerned me when reading [gay Mormon] narratives was the lack of any kind of well-balanced position from a faithful Latter-day Saint perspective… Most things written on this subject tend to say one of two things: (a) ‘Keeping your covenants isn’t possible, so give up now’ or (b) ‘You have to keep your covenants, but we can’t really tell you how to do that in practical terms.’ That’s what’s so remarkable to me about No Going Back… [W]hat impressed me even more about the story was the charity and compassion with which Langford portrays his protagonist and his other characters… Jonathan doesn’t gloss over the difficult, emotionally dissonant position Paul is in. He doesn’t pretend like it’s a struggle that has easy answers… But Jonathan also respects Paul by not pretending that his struggle can’t on some level be resolved in a way that brings internal peace. He presents Paul with the option of finding joy in keeping his covenants with God.”
She concludes: “I know that it’s kind of cliché to use the term ‘brave’ when describing a work, but in the case of No Going Back, the word applies in a very literal way. It’s not easy to write about something so controversial in an honest way… Thanks for taking that risk, Jonathan, and giving Mormonism something that will help a lot of people who are struggling.”
To see the whole review, click here. To read The Writing Rookie, a series of essays I posted at A Motley Vision about my writing process on this novel, click here.
Tags: A Motley Vision, gay, homosexuality, Jonathan Langford, Katherine Morris, literature, Mormon, No Going Back, Reviews of No Going Back