Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide
Starred Review. Too often, the Book of Mormon has been dismissed out of hand by scholars who think it a fraud (without having read it) or the faithful who accept it as gospel truth (without having read it carefully). In this long-overdue corrective, historian Hardy takes the Book of Mormon seriously as a complex, multivocal document by analyzing the contributions and perspectives of the three men who purport to be its primary narrators: Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. Hardy teases out the unique voice of each narrator, showing particular nuance as a student of character. He has great skill in reading between the lines—in the Book of Mormon, what is implied is often more intriguing than what is made explicit, and the editorial omissions of a redactor like Mormon can be revealing gaps. In Hardy's hands, the Book of Mormon begins to come alive as a kind of Shakespearean tragedy as Hardy nimbly employs various tools of literary criticism. It is past time for a study like this, which eschews tiresome debates about the Book of Mormon's historical authenticity in favor of a careful, lucid exploration of the book's construction, themes, and characters. Hardy's writing is clear, sometimes even piercing. This will be a classic work in the field of Mormon studies for decades to come.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.