Customer Reviews

Gentile Girl: Living with the Latter-day Saints

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I myself am a Christian living among a vast majority of Mormons. I was very interested in purchasing Carol's book when it was first mentioned to me by a friend. I truly enjoyed reading it because it so closely related to my own experiences in Utah.

I suggest to anyone who is interested in a little knowledge of the Mormon faith and life amongst Mormons, to purchase this book. Carol does a wonderful job of describing the typical experiences of non-mormons. I myself have learned a lot about Mormons while living in Provo. I have grown more spiritually while living in Utah. I personally have had a positive experience overall, but still choose not to follow the Mormon faith. I attend the Baptist church in Provo and enjoy being a minority for a first. I am very strong in my faith and in knowing the "truth" of Jesus Christ.

This is a must read for all who want to know more on life in Utah, living amongst Mormons. Carol gives a brief understanding of the Mormon faith without being degrading.

In this first-hand account of an outsider's life among Mormons, Carol Forseth has provided a non-technical, yet accurate view of Mormon belief. Because of it's biographical nature, the book does not attempt to explain all Mormon doctrine. While she does not agree with much of Mormonism, without being acerbic or derisive the author very sensitively explains those Mormon beliefs to which she was exposed during her two years at BYU. She also writes warmly about the relationships that were developed with her fellow Mormon students, and it is obvious that she respects and loves Mormons as individual persons. At the end of the book are a number of helpful suggestions about relating to Mormons and to their missionaries ("elders") who show up on our doorsteps. For anyone curious about Mormonism, this is a very readable and interesting book. For those interested in ministering among Mormons, this book is a very helpful addition to other, more technical books about Mormonism. Carol Forseth has given us a view of the Mormon people that is compassionate and human. Gentile Girl provides very helpful insight for those of us who view Mormons with jaundiced eyes, especially those who have never had contact with a Mormon. It is a book that can be heartily recommended for all Christians to read.

I was born a fourth-generation Mormon, but I have since left and found the Jesus of the Bible. Although I strongly oppose Mormon doctrine, I love the Mormon people. All too often, books that expose Mormonism tend to be brutal, and often they are flat out wrong. This book is neither. It is written in a very gentle yet accurate manner, and it clearly shows the goodness in the Mormon people, while at the same time explaining how their doctrine does not match the Gospel as taught by Jesus Christ. The book is mostly about the two years that the author spent at BYU. During those years, she had the opportunity to observe first hand what living the Mormon life is all about, and this book will help anyone to better understand their Mormon co-workers, neighbors, or friends. Oh... and the title has nothing to do with being Jewish. Mormons refer to non-Mormons as "gentiles".

*Gentile Girl* is a fascinating and unusual entry into the genre of evangelical writings on Mormonism, covering a side of BYU's history that is not often talked about. Forseth chronicles the two years she spent at BYU in which she helped found the school's first ever Baptist Student Union (later becoming its president), organized on-campus seminars and television interviews about her beliefs, regularly dialogued with and repelled the conversion efforts of her LDS roommates, and nearly fell in love with a fellow LDS student. Her goal in writing is to both share her experience and provide a beginner's introduction to LDS culture and doctrine, and on the first point the book can be recommended.

On her efforts to explain the LDS religion, the book is mediocre. Forseth attempts this feat mostly through campy dramatized re-enacted dialogues in which her LDS friends are portrayed as perfectly reciting points of LDS doctrine along with the Bible verses Mormons often use to support said doctrines, and subsequently her assessments of Mormon doctrine lack diversity and are occasionally misleading. Don't expect Forseth to offer any kind of interaction with the textual and historical arguments LDS apologists currently use to bolster LDS doctrine; this is yet another book by an evangelical which loses that battle without knowing it.

I myself attended BYU as an evangelical Christian from 2001-2005, earning my BA there, so I've had experience in this department as well. *Gentile Girl* is a nice effort, but it could have been so much better than what it is, and when you consider that this is the second time Forseth has published the story, there's really little excuse for that.

As one who start to read books, but never really finish them, I found "Gentile Girl" written by Carol Forseth intriguing, also made you want to read further to understand why would a young woman take on such a task of learning in a educational system that went against her new found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She made you see people of different beliefs mingling, living and learning together, that you sometimes would forget there was a battle going on just because of the way she presented her story. You felt the fear, loneliness, uncertainty, pain, love, boldness as well as the love in a teenager who wanted so much to be a part, but at the same time knew she had to make a stand for her faith. If you can read this book in the eyes of a teenager who dared to write from her heart the encounters of a Baptist girl going where most of us would not dare to go and being required to meet certain rules and regulations of the Mormon church and still speak her mind with respect and love. Thanks Carol for helping us to see and learn the challenge of going to BYU. Thanks BYU for not turning the Gentile away when she applied.

I want to thank Carol for her insightful book on her own personal experience at BYU. It was incredible to realize the many decisions she had to make regarding her own faith as she faced her own need for meaningful relationships, while at the same time sorting out what she personally believed to be the truth. Even though I have read other sources about the Mormon faith, due to the technical nature of their numerous tenets of their faith, it has been quite disheartening in my own study. However, Gentile Girl plainly puts some of the major tenets of the Mormon faith up against good scholarship, which the Book of Mormon sadly lacks, giving way to hold that much more firmly to what the Bible teaches. While not a complete study of Mormonism, it is ample for most of us who may have Mormon friends. The indexed differences between Mormonism and Christianity were very helpful. I have been strengthened in my own faith as I read the book, and encourage other Christians to pick it up. It is a must read--and one you'll recommend to others!!

I've not lived in Mormon communities but in communities with Mormons so when I had a chance to read A GENTILE GIRL I did.
Quickly I was absorbed into it and read it with increasing understanding. I liked the tone and style very much. Lots of things I'd heard hinted at were explained without rancor. It is an example of disagreeing without being disagreeable.

Ms. Forseth writes with a kind voice laced with some paranoia. There are passages of melodrama, but overall it was fine. I do think this book suffers from the time that lapsed between the author's experiences and her documentation of it. What gets lost is the details that help bring to life the relationships being described. It appears that Ms. Forseth, paranoia notwithstanding, ends up connecting with, and liking, many of her LDS college peers at BYU. I think this could have been expounded on more and would have contributed greatly to the story. I can't help but think her experience is a great example of what happens when someone attaches `strings' to their relationships. In other words, I will be your friend AND I have a hidden agenda to `convert' you too. In this case I think the strings were going in both directions.

There are many other better books that describe LDS faith and doctrine. This book is more of a snapshot of one non-LDS girl in the 1960s attending BYU.

If you have extra reading time you are trying to fill, then read it. If you don't, then I would recommend other books such as Suddenly Strangers, Sojourner in the Promised Land, or Mormon America.

Carol Forseth easily draws readers of all persuasions into her story with a disarming narrative. Her experiences as one of the few unswayed Christian ("Gentile") students at BYU are enlightening to those who have not lived among Mormans. She goes behind the scenes and opens our eyes to the beliefs of the Latter Day Saints, allowing us to make our own judgments in most cases.

"Gentile Girl" hints at why some have left the LDS church, but also reveals how layers of indoctrination give LDS missionaries and elders their focus. Forseth is fair in her characterization when all is said and done. A good read.

When I first heard about the book, I was intrigued. (I am also a Christian who attended BYU). As I read through it, I came to realize that the person who wrote the book was not as "unbiased" as she was trying to let on.

If you want to get a feel for what I am talking about, and form a parital opinion of the book - check out the website for the book at "www.gentilegirl.com" and read the excerpt online.

It is more like the story of Harry Potter going to a Provo version of Hogwarts than anything resembling the truth. She starts her story setting up some melodrama of her leaving home (oh please) and then talks about how the Baptist church was "bigger in pheonix" (Oh, those darned mormons, making the Baptist church small... How opressed she must feel.) You'll be sure to appreciate her helplesness laced with anti-mormon acid as she describes how she was one day asked to "lead music" but they were only singing "Mormon Hymns" - (which is strange because in my experience most of their hymns are the same as most of my Christian songs - like "How Great Thou Art")

In later chapters the mindless drivel is even more charged with emotion and even more drained of truth. The dialogs between her and her friends are obviously ficticious. She went to BYU more than thirty years ago - yet she remembers in vivid details very pointed discussions with her friends - where they clearly spell out Mormon doctrines in a novel-type setting. Not to mention the fact that based on my studies - most of her things were off based and flat out wrong.

If you want to get really distorted views on the church, look up in her index a comparison of Mormon doctrine and Bible. She is very far off based. The Mormon church has an official website that tells their official doctrine, and it's a lot different from what this crackpot melodrama author wrote.

Overall, the book is not worth buying.