Utah Jazz, a Novel

Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 6-2000 Utah Jazz, A Novel Dairen DeFrain Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Fiction Commons Recommended Citation DeFrain, Dairen, "Utah Jazz, A Novel" (2000). Dissertations. 1445. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1445 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UTAH JAZZ, A NOVEL by Dairen DeFrain A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan June 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UTAH JAZZ, A NOVEL Darren DeFrain, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2000 This novel concerns a young Mormon who has fallen away from his religion and his family and juxtaposes his struggles with his faith, belief and heritage with those of a drifter deliberately distancing himself from a much darker past The novel is also acutely interested in place and landscape as powerful originations of any contemporary sense of paradise and perdition we may hang onto. The episodic setting of the novel, in conjunction with the narrator’s story, concurrently traces the National Basketball Association’s Utah Jazz’s 1996 play-off appearance. The novel uses this setting to examine the ways in which the basketball team’s search for an identity is in some ways reflective of the both the narrator’s and the state of Utah’s searches for their respective identities. It further examines how faith and belief, in both the profane and the sacred, are often tenuously linked with institutional and personal identity. To accomplish this the novel employs footnotes, pertaining to the histories of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the state of Utah, and the Utah Jazz team, to better illuminate the cultural and religious struggles of the first person narrator. The footnotes ultimately help generate a dialogue between the free indirect speech of the fact-spouting footnotes, and the direct address of the narrator. And they often point to the on-going dialogue between The Book o f Mormon and The New Testament. But most significantly, it is through this dialogue that the novel is able to conserve the confessional tone of the narrator and yet still bridge that to the mystical ability of third Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. person to comment on the protagonist’s past, and maintain access to facts either inappropriate for the narrator’s voice and/or character. The novel, in large part due to its use of traditional footnotes to reveal the often insular world of Utah history, ultimately embodies elements of the picaresque, epistolary, historical, and regional novel all at once. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 9973048 Copyright 2000 by DeFrain, Darren Craig All rights reserved. ___ ® UMI UMI Microform 9973048 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Darren DeFrain 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to begin by acknowledging my gratitude and indebtedness to my mentors and teachers at Western Michigan University and Southwest Texas State University. Their enthusiasm for my work, even in its rawest, most elemental forms, gave me the courage to continue. Secondly, I am especially indebted here to the fine work of Mr. Richard N. Ostling, Michael C. Lewis for their works on the Mormon church and the Utah Jazz respectively. I highly encourage anyone interested in either of these subjects to seek out their work. Thirdly, I wish to thank Mr. Dan Nailen, Salt Lake’s Culture Vulture, for his great assistance in this project, Mr. Michael “Meek” Marchetti for his appreciation, and Mr. Peter Walpole for grammar lessons. I would like to thank my parents for their continued support (both financial and emotional). I am forever in their debt for helping me follow my dreams. Lastly, I would like to thank my beautiful wife, Melinda, for having the patience to let me sneak off and sequester myself in front of a computer or a Jazz game. This is for you. Darren DeFrain Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................. ii CHAPTER I. FIRST OF AMERICA....................................................................... 1 II. GENTILE WOMEN.......................................................................... 18 m . THE FAMILY HOME....................................................................... 30 IV. A DISTANT FAMILY .................................................................... 41 V. THE COMPANION.......................................................................... 46 VI. THE CALLING ............................................................................... 57 VII. THE INTRODUCTIONS .............................................................. 61 VH. THE RENUNCIATION............................................................. 67 IX. THE COMMITMENT....................................................................... 71 X. THE LIGHT ..................................................................................... 76 XI. THE DARK ..................................................................................... 84 XII. AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY.................................................... 91 XIII. A PECULIAR PEOPLE.................................................................... 98 XIV. RANDY’S MISSION ...................................................................... 106 XV. LIKE MASONS ............................................................................... 113 XVI. IN THE BEGINNING .................................................................... 120 X V n. LAND OF MY FATHERS .............................................................. 127 XVm. STOPPING FOR THE NIGHT ..................................................... 137 XIX. THE FIRST NIGHT TOGETHER ............................................... 143 XX. A NEW TRUTH ............................................................................... 155 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents — continued CHAPTER XXI. THE LONG, CLEAR ROAD AHEAD .......................................... 166 XXII. WINTER QUARTERS .................................................................... 173 XXIII. UNCHAINED AGAIN.................................................................... 180 XXIV. ONE LAST NIGHT TOGETHER................................................... 186 XXV. MOVED BY THE SPIRIT .............................................................. 196 XXVI. THE NIGHT VISITOR.................................................................... 202 XXVII. A LONG, HARD SLEEP................................................................. 208 XXVIII. SEVERAL DIFFERENT KINDS OF COMAS ............................ 212 XXIX. RECOVERY AND

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