I wasn’t sure if I was going to read this—not that I wasn’t interested, but so many books, so little time, etc. However, a friend introduced me to NetGalley, where she was reading it prior to publication, and that pushed me into following her example.

I did wait until the end of my time limit with the book to really make progress, and between that rush and my familiarity with Smith’s life, I still wasn’t sure how much I’d get out of it. In the end, though, it was a fascinating read. Like his take on Brigham Young, Turner is unsparing in his description but without being unsympathetic.

I especially appreciated his frank assessment of the gold plates story and the details he offered about Joseph Smith’s final years. These both are things I was less likely to hear from the more sympathetic histories I grew up with, and it turned out that I still had a lot to learn about Smith’s life.

As a final note, it was interesting (and sometimes odd) to read this so closely after finishing Turner’s The Mormon Jesus. I had a sense of déjà vu at times—I’m not suggesting that Turner recycled material, but one can see how that book laid the foundation for some of the themes in this one.

A good read!

• Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet
• John Turner
• Joseph Smith Jr.
• Mormonism