Praise to the Man
by Larry Barkdull
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Deseret Book (Salt Lake City): 1997. Mass-market paperback: viii, 134 pages. ISBN-10: 1-57345-320-X Suggested retail price: $6.95 (US) Tags: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Joseph Smith; Mormons; Religious Tactical strength: [3/10] |
The back cover of Praise to the Man claims that Barkdull's book tells the "poignant story behind the lyrics." Although it does tell the story behind the popular Latter-day Saint lyrics by William Wines Phelps, this telling falls far short of poignant.
Barkdull's text creates its own biggest distraction. The narrator, Washington Talesford, travels from Missouri to get a deathbed interview with W. W. Phelps in Salt Lake City. Talesford supposedly wrote the text of this book in 1872, telling the story that he could not write for his anti-Mormon newspaper. Now, if you read from the seven-volume History of the Church or from W. W. Phelps's newspaper The Evening and Morning Star, you notice distinct word choice and turns of phrase that date these works as originating in the nineteenth century. Barkdull fails to present any sense that Talesford's narrative originated in the 1870s. For example, Barkdull has W. W. Phelps say, "The Prophet directed Bishop Partridge to guard against freeloaders" (34), but the term freeloader didn't come into use until 1934 [1]. I could have accepted anachronistic words and a modern tone if Barkdull had just told the story instead of posing the text as Talesford's own composition.
The next biggest distraction comes from sloppy editing by Deseret Book. In one place, the text misspells W. W. Phelps's middle name by leaving off the s (vii). On pages 46-49, Barkdull tries to transcribe an uneducated man's dialect. Barkdull uses contractions to show the sounds the man clips from his words, but half the contractions have an opening single quote instead of the correct apostrophe. Also in this section, Barkdull uses three forms for the word to: "to," "ta," and "t'." Perhaps some speakers do use different forms of the same word depending on context, but with all the other poor typesetting, I must suspect a sloppy proofreader.
Even without the contemporary tone and poor editing dragging my attention away from the story line, you don't have much of a chance to really get involved in the plot. Barkdull uses one of the least effective expository methods: talking heads. You get the entire plot of Praise to the Man through Talesford's transcribed notes of various interviews with W. W. Phelphs and others. This exposition provides no real sense of urgency or emotion from the conversations between these characters as they listen and question each other. A more effective method would have started each interview chapter with a short section of present time conversation and then transition into a straight narrative of the past events.
Barkdull also distances us from W. W. Phelps by forcing us to see him through the eyes of a non-Mormon narrator. Talesford has his own problems, and the development and resolution of those problems compete with the reconciliation of W. W. Phelps with Joseph Smith and the Church. A cover blurb promises "a story of uncommon friendship," but instead of receiving the promised story we get Talesford's dull retelling of a dull interview.
Praise to the Man contains the elements of a powerful story, but distractions and poor expository methods kept me so far from feeling anything for the characters that I never had a chance to get emotionally involved. No minor changes could repair the text as it stands. A complete rewrite would seem in order to achive the cover's promised emotional story. Unfortunately, Deseret Book did not insist on such changes, and a rewrite seems unlikely.
[1] Merriam-Webster online collegiate dictionary (www.m-w.com).
