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Review of Long After Dark by Todd Robert

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Review of Long After Dark by Todd Robert 68_r_Petersen_long after dark.qxp 6/18/2007 4:18 PM Page 68 SUNSTONE BOOK REVIEW class members instead of within the lesson manuals. Members of this class feel each others’ pain but do not overtly acknowledge it because, “Church is not a place for burdens “REAL” STORIES like these.” My favorite story is “Parables from the New World.” When he stops by to check the lock on the back door, a small-town sheriff LONG AFTER DARK accidentally sees his deputy’s naked wife get- ting into the hot tub in her backyard. By Todd Robert Petersen Praying doesn’t help the sheriff overcome his Zarahemla Books, 2007 lustful thoughts. Later that night, he en- counters a Native-American Latter-day Saint 165 pages, $14.95 (possibly one of the three Nephites) who tells him a story about an adulterous wager made between a badger and a coyote. The Reviewed by Ann M. Johnson Indian thinks it’s funny that the Book of Mormon doesn’t have stories like that. “Scripture can get you feeling like nobody’s ever too horny for their own good,” he tells the sheriff. Petersen’s characters struggle with sin and Petersen’s stories deal with real situations don’t always when. His short story without being overly dark. His darkest story, “Saved,” involves two car thieves, one a less- characters remind me of people I’ve seen active Mormon who pays the ultimate price in Church—and have often ignored. because his partner believes the childhood religion will ultimately pull him back. In “Now and at the Hour of Our Death,” an Argentine bishop shoots and kills an intruder in his home, then longs for the penance and ODD ROBERT PETERSEN’S Long David’s parents struggle with the family forgiveness a confession to a priest in his After Dark, a collection of short sto- histories they have written. Too much hon- former religion would give him. “We have no T ries and his novella, “Family esty may ruin their reputations. Worse still, priests to absolve us. We do not gain our re- History,” is an intriguing read. His charac- the histories will not be uplifting. David’s pentance so quickly,” his stake president ters struggle with real problems that evade mother asks that he not destroy the original counsels him the stock answers offered in church. David, stories. She knows that real stories, those the character in the last segment of the about “opposition in all things,” will help ETERSEN is a convert to the Church novella, discusses the problems of the 2020s people survive difficult times. She laments as are many of the characters in his when he comes of age. The world economy that Mormons “want stories of success P stories. Lifelong Church members can has collapsed, World War III is impending, without having to hear about the struggles of benefit from learning vicariously about the LDS members are leaving the Church be- sin.” painful backgrounds and situations which cause they can’t afford the financial burdens impact converts long after their baptisms. In of all the temple building, and the prophet’s ETERSEN’S characters struggle with “When the Brightness Seems Most Distant,” a main advice is for the Saints to write their sin and don’t always win. His short couple struggles with the news that the wife’s family histories before the Second Coming. P story characters remind me of people previous husband is HIV positive. In The situation is just enough exaggerated I’ve seen in Church—and have often ig- “Redeeming the Dead,” a convert has to deal from today’s current climate to be hu- nored. Active member parents struggle with with the death of his father who never for- morous. David’s dying father wants to know the embarrassment of an unwed, pregnant gave him for leaving his Catholic faith. what will happen to him after death. He daughter. Chad, a drug-using, pony-tailed “Quietly” is set in Rwanda where John, an laments that the Church doesn’t provide any guy, shows up at Church on Sunday during a African priesthood holder, has been sent by information about what is now the most life crisis and is ignored until he steals a pic- his white American branch president to ded- pressing matter of his life. “They just tell us ture of Jesus from the wall. Carol, a recently icate the grave of a member killed in a violent to make sure we’ve got our food storage and released stake Relief Society president, needs attack. John recognizes that it is safer for an to give away the Book of Mormon. I want to to feel useful again. The collage of characters African to make the journey to the remote know what’s going to happen. I don’t want and their heart-rending problems in village than for the white American but re- to be so goddamn afraid of what’s next,” he Petersen’s story, “Sunday School,” remind me flects that twenty years ago, the American rages. that the real lessons of life reside within the would have had to go himself. Petersen’s stories offer a compelling argu- ment that joining the Church and having a ANN M. JOHNSON lives in scenic Cedar City, Utah, where she teaches composition classes at testimony does not necessarily make life Southern Utah University and practices yoga and meditation. easier for us. PAGE 68 JUNE 2007 69-71_c_carter_departed_v.2.qxp 6/18/2007 4:19 PM Page 69 SUNSTONE COMMENTARY mountainside. And every time fresh actors tread the path of the story, the groove runs deeper. […] A million unknowing actors have HE EPARTED moved, unknowing, through the T D pathways of story. By Stephen Carter Stories don’t care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story re- peats. Or, if you prefer to think of it like this: stories are a parasitical life HE SUMMER OF 2000 I was out Richard’s work that made it so much more form, warping lives in the service chasing some stories for the Orem powerful than anything I had seen before in only of the story itself.1 T Daily Journal when my editor called. Mormon art? As a Utah County-raised I was an unknowing actor, moving, un- “There’s this play or something pre- Mormon boy, I had seen pretty much every- knowing, through the Mormon story. A story miering this afternoon at the Scera Theater, thing the Church had to offer filmwise. Mr. influenced by thousands of general confer- would you go cover it?” he asked. Krueger’s Christmas bored me; Legacy was big; ence speeches and Church magazine articles, A play premiering at the Scera at 2 o’clock On The Way Home was definitely entertaining and millions of subsidiary sacrament meeting in the afternoon? Weird. and had that guy from CHiPS in it. But none talks and Sunday School lessons. In other When I got there I wasn’t impressed. I of them gave me the vision God’s Army had. words, a very deeply carved story. Practically saw three other people milling around the A few months after God’s Army had come a canyon. lobby looking kind of lost. Two of them were into theaters, I attended some speeches So, when I tried to write, the boundaries reporters, who are often lost anyway. That’s Richard and his wife Gwen gave at Utah Valley of the Mormon story made themselves felt why they’re always asking questions. State College. One person asked Richard if it mightily, like walls of stone. It seemed that Someone opened the doors and ushered had been difficult to get the approval of there were only two things to be done: follow us into the theater. When the projector turned Church authorities to make God’s Army. that same path, making it a little deeper, or on, I realized I wasn’t here to see a play. But I “What kind of approval did I need?” climb the wall. But as we all know, climbing was in no way prepared for what I did see. Richard asked. “That was my story. You don’t the wall means getting out of the story. But Now, God’s Army was Richard Dutcher’s need Church approval to tell your own story.” where does that lead? According to the second film, so he was still learning plenty Suddenly it clicked. That was what made Mormon story, it means falling into the anti- about his craft at the time. But none of that Richard’s work so different from every other Mormon story. Deep into its suffocating wa- mattered to me as I watched this amazing story I had seen come out of the Mormon ters and violent currents. It was either one or look into a missionary’s life. The only thing community. It was his own. the other. that mattered was that, for the first time in my life, I saw the potential of Mormon sto- HE VERY DEFINITE POSSIBILITY THAT RICHARD ries. I saw it was possible to create a morally T will never make another Mormon-themed film complex world using the Mormon world- breaks my heart, as does the idea that Mormonism view as a foundation, to make fascinating can’t serve as a community to the person who characters that didn’t convert at the drop of a testimony. I saw that faithful Mormon char- helped me learn to tell my own story. acters could actually propel a story, some- thing I had never supposed.
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