I was reading a post over at the AML blog by Annette Lyon, an author of six LDS novels, when I started to get nervous. She was talking about the importance of not writing didactically, where the message drives the story. I was wondering what she would think of my novel, when I encountered the following:
“As a Whitney Awards judge this year, I’ve come across two excellent examples on each side of this fence. The first was didactic in the extreme…
“The other was a potential didactic landmine, but the topic was handled skillfully. The characters were real. They were put into heartbreakingly difficult situations. And in the end, they stayed faithful to the gospel even though they had no clear-cut, easy answers.
“It was downright refreshing. Kudos to that second book: Jonathan Langford’s No Going Back. From what I’ve read, Langford didn’t set out to teach or preach. He set out to explore the ‘what if’ of being a faithful LDS teen who happens to be gay. What would that be like? And you can tell that’s the angle he took, because there’s no preaching–but there is loyalty to the Church.”
So there you have it. Great stuff to read — especially when you’re the author in question!
Tags: Annette Lyon, Association for Mormon Letters, blogging, Jonathan Langford, Mormon, No Going Back, preachiness, reader comments, realism, Reviews of No Going Back, writing process
Yes! A well-crafted book by Jonathon Langford, exploring a subject that could very well have been a landmine. But that he managed to create believable characters in a difficult context attests to his ability as a writer and his ability to see clearly the issues from a Gospel perspective–and not be afraid to write from that perspective. Like Jonathan, I would hope that the novel would reach those people who work with young men and women struggling with same-sex attraction.
However, in the end, as a reader (and a writer) I like novels that manage to be just that–stories about people and not didactic treatises. I can get my preaching from the pulpit. I applaud Jonathan for writing just that, a powerful novel that speaks to the struggles that all of us face in this life. Maybe we don’t have this particular struggle–same-sex attraction–but we all struggle in some way. How important I think it is that we reach out in empathy to all of our brothers and sisters, no matter what their struggle is or how uncomfortable that struggle might be for some of us to accept.
Jonathan has reached out and written a powerful novel that I hope will gain the wide, and wise, audience it deserves.
The Whitney finalists will be announced next week–I’ll be crossing fingers for you!
Annette,
Thanks for your kind wishes!