Papa Married a Mormon
by John D. Fitzgerald
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Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ): 1955. Hardcover: 298 pages. ISBN-10: 0-9147402-1-0 Tags: Catholic church; frontier; gambling; Mainstream; mining towns; Mormons; newspapers; Pennsylvania; religion; Utah Tactical strength: [7/10] |
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In Papa Married a Mormon, John D. Fitzgerald relates a touching story about how his father and mother met, married, and started a family in a frontier town of rural Utah. Fitzgerald tells his stories in a episodic manner each chapter representing a short story that focuses on a pivotal event in the development of the characters and their fictional town of Adenville, Utah. While Fitzgerald tells a story of endearing characters, he really has painted a picture of life in a frontier Utah town. He describes the tensions between the Mormons and non-Mormons, and you get a pretty good picture -- although probably somewhat idealized -- of the transition of a town from rule by six-gun to rule of law.
About halfway through the book, the story telling makes a somewhat abrupt change from biography to memoir. In the first half, Fitzgerald tells the story from his parents' perspective. At one point, the mining town of Silverlode shuts down as the mines fail, and the Fitzgeralds move to the Mormon town of Adenville. The narrative skips about five to seven years and simultaneously switches to John's perspective. The transition to memoir takes place without any explanation, and even makes assumptions about the family that the reader could not know. For example, Fitzgerald starts referring to his brother Tom's "great t brain" without any explanation. You eventually get the idea that Tom has very high intelligence, but you have to remember that Fitzgerald wouldn't publish any of his Great Brain books for another twelve years, so he should have provided an explanation about Tom's great brain.
After reading most of John D. Fitzgerald's works, I have a great appreciation for his story telling capabilities, but I also have numerous questions about the "truth." The jacket blurb for Papa Married a Mormon states, "This is a true story of the old Utah frontier." But Fitzgerald seems to take a large amount of literary license with the truth. First, the entire story takes place in the fictitious town of Adenville, Utah. Next, the details about the Fitzgerald family and the events vary from story to story. For example, in Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse, Uncle Will marries his long-time mistress Queenie after nearly losing her in a landslide caused by the construction of the railroad. In Papa Married a Mormon, Uncle will still marries Queenie, but not because of a landslide. Instead, Queenie nearly died with some sort of long-term illness, and when she recovers, Will proposes. Fitzgerald also mentions that Uncle Will came to his house almost every Sunday for dinner, but in the Great Brain series, he never mentions Uncle Will at all. And most telling of all, genealogical records show Fitzgerald born in 1906, yet the stories would have him born about 15 years earlier around 1890.
In spite of the awkward transition, Papa Married a Mormon has a touching ending that pays homage to Fitzgerald's parents. You get the feeling that Fitzgerald has placed his parents on a very high pedestal, but nevertheless, you shed a tear as the novel winds down.
