Customer Reviews

Mission to America: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book bravely (but in a quiet fashion) addresses the Big Themes of this country. It looks at how where we came from (i.e., an idealistic Democratic "Great Experiment" tainted by slavery, Native American genocide & an obsession with materialism and Manifest Destiny land-grabbing) affects where we are today (kind of haplessly seeking some Grand Answer in response to pervasive social/cultural vacuity), leading us to often making some wacky (i.e., bad) moral/social choices. Two isolated insulated social groups confront each other (a fictitious Mormon/Amish-type religious cult vs. the super-rich)with occasionally funny, occasionally sad, & ultimately tragic consequences. Some positively beautiful, acutely observed writing with a quietly powerful ending. Well worth reading!

If you were going to read just ONE of Walter Kirn's books, this would be the one I'd recommend. It is my absolute favorite, as it seems to be written from the heart and clearly shows that Kirn is familiar with both the advantages and disadvantages of religious commitment - including protection from the worst aspects of American materialism to alienation from the larger culture. Using a small religious sect as his focus, Kirn manages to reflect our world in high contrast.
Not only that, but the book is a wild and vibrant ride, as memeber of the Aboriginal Fulfilled Aposles set out to find converts for their group, a group which is in danger of extinction. Along the way, they bump up against wealthy Americans, drug dealers, Wiccans and others....and somehow it all works, making the reader see our culture with new eyes.

Walter Kirn was on National Public Radio yesterday (October 19, 2005), discussing his new novel "Mission to America" with Terry Gross, the legendary host of the long-running interview program "Fresh Air."

Kirn's semi-autobiographical novel, his fourth, centers on the tale of two apostles on a mission to find new converts for their flagging religion, Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles (AFA).

As Kirn revealed during the candid interview, door-to-door missionaries converted his then-troubled-and-isolated family to the Mormon faith when he was twelve. Having, therefore, grown up a Mormon, he originally started writing the story in the context of Mormonism. However, somewhere along the way he tired of Mormonism's idiosyncrasies and invented AFA as a religion he could actually believe in. The Baha'i-like AFA recognizes the divinity of several others along with that of Jesus Christ.

To this day, however, the author remains ambivalent about his theological status as a Mormon. On the one hand he critiques Mormon theology: the human body is at once a glorious gift from God and the greatest source of temptation; believers must get down on their knees to access the sweeping forgiveness that Jesus Christ supposedly already earned with his sacrifice; and the Garden of Eden is apparently located in Missouri! On the other hand, almost inexplicably, Kirn willingly retains his nominal Mormon citizenship. His name is still on the church books, but he no longer attends church and admits to his six-year-old daughter that no one knows what happens after we die.

Kirn has deep insights into the functioning of organized religion. He says that critiques of religion are useful only if they begin by recognizing that religions serve critical human needs, such as that of community. Missionaries, he says, have a keen eye for folks who are too busy picking themselves up off the ground to preserve their faith.

I don't read much fiction. However, Kirn's interview was intriguing enough to convince me to consider reading this manifesto-like work of fiction.

Walter Kirn is a very amusing writer, and this American fable certainly reflects that. You can read the story synopsis from Publisher's Weekly above, so suffice it to say that this book exudes a false nostalgia for a true America that (of course) never existed. Big obvious targets like religion and consumerism are lampooned, but there is also a more subtle wit weaving around the dialogue and even in Mason (the narrator's) voice.

One problem with comic novels is that the joke usually gets tired, or the plot gets so silly, one loses interest. By writing Mission to America in the form of a folktale, Kirn is able to elude this problem to a degree. And by being an extraordinarily witty writer, he may be on the verge of joining others who have transcended the form, like Joseph Heller and Roger Kaputnik.

The shrinking population of the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles (AFA) has led to a crisis--new bloodlines must be introduced into the community if they wish to continue--as it has for more than 147 years.

This isolationist sect has lived, tucked into the hills of rural Montana and led by matriarchs who follow the edicts of their Seeress to maintain a life of modesty and nutritional vigilance. Ennis Lauer, the only wealthy member of the faith, has handpicked a group of young men for an unheard-of mission--seeking out "brides" in mainstream America.

Mission to America tells the story of one of these pairs: Mason LaVerle and Elder Stark, as they leave Bluff, Montana and travel to Colorado, bringing their message of clean living to world-weary Americans.

Walter Kirn's fifth novel focuses on Mason, a naif bewildered by the choices and depravity as they begin their journey. They try Ennis Lauer's sale-closing techniques often used by con men and used car salesmen.

Where Mason is naive and calm, Elder Stark has sharp edges and chaotic energy. Asserting his leadership early on,Stark quickly develops an appetite for reality television and America's junk food. These appetites are what make him the natural choice as Lauer's ambassador in his bid to usurp leadership of the AFA.

When lampooning America's hunger for spiritual gurus, author Kirn is at his best. Using Mason to mirror America's lack of moral compass works to illuminate the fear and dearth of spirituality at the core of most of the selfish choices made each day. In a post 9-11 world, this novel can be an indictment of the spiritual journey many Americans claim to have embarked on, although in reality, they are caught up in the soulless world of reality TV and idle consumerism.

Armchair Interview says: Mission to America leaves the reader questioning the nature of faith, the quest for understanding and wondering how much of Kirn's early childhood experiences with the Mormon church are reflected within the character of Mason.

Kirn has a terrific premise in this book. The first several pages are wonderful. There could be no better time for a book of this sort: using two people from an isolated enclave in Montana who set forth to find converts to their religion. These two people can examine the odd nature of America's materialism, diet, extreme religious views, politics, etc. But, unfortunately, Kirn gets off course and bogs down in a melodrama in an Aspen-like ski resort called Snowshoe Springs. There is something here that Kirn is seemingly trying to say about dying breeds: the AFA religious order in Montana, the Effingham family clan, the buffalos on the Effingham estate. But Kirn's original intention gets off track and thoroughly bogged down in the final two-thirds of the book, the Snowshoe Springs section. The voice of the novel's protaganist, Mason LaVerle, changes dramatically from the beginning of this book to the end, but in a thoroughly unbelievable and unexplainable manner. At the beginning, LaVerle is a naive bumpkin. In the end he's, well, just a bumpkin. His relationships with the book's other characters are merely odd and random. This book could have been so much more, that rare novel that perfectly captures the zeitgeist. Instead, it's forgettable froth. I give it three stars only for its opening chapters.

The Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles, replete with New Age tracts and feminist ideals, is a closed society in danger of extinction without the infusion of new female blood. A matriarchal cult, much like the self-contained Amish culture, the AFA has existed for years without interference from the outside world. Threatened by natural selection, the elders send two representatives from their enclave in Butte, Montana into the world, commonly referred to as Terrestria, charged with sage advice: "If you're going to convert, you might as well choose the wealthy, who have friends."

At the beginning of their trip, the hapless missionaries, Mason LaVerle and Elder Elias Stark, stick to the rules, eating natural food and sleeping in the second-hand Dodge van provided for their journey, but before long they fall victim to temptation, gorging on junk food and watching television for hours on end, psychologically invested in the outcome of game shows and daytime soaps. Spurred on by a distant advisor, Lauer, who may or may not have taken up with Mason's ex-girlfriend, the newly-hatched evangelists paper small towns with their literature, often stopping for conversation with anyone who will give them the time of day. Cultural innocents, their entire lives spent in the clannish environment provided by their religion, Mason and Earl occasionally fall for dubious roadside advice, as when Earl buys crank from a local and the evangelists spend a lazy afternoon with two equally messianic underage Christian young ladies.

The greatest culture clash occurs when Mason and Earl arrive at the tourist-friendly, snow-bunnied slopes of Snowshoe, Colorado. Snowshoe is a haven for the spiritually overindulged, wealthy dilettantes who hand-pick their beliefs from a variety of religions, creating a loose philosophy that requires little of them beyond discussion, a sort of elitist's compendium of moral values unburdened by personal responsibility. The missionaries are introduced to the local social hierarchy by Lara, an Emmy-winning ex-actress they befriend when her suicide attempt by antihistamine fails to produce the desired results. Lara is the key to the upper-class of Snowshoe that Lauer has suggested they cultivate, particularly the filthy rich old Mr. Effingham and his cronies.

While Earl disappears into the bowels of the Effingham estate, there to spread the word, Mason is sidetracked by Betsy, a girl with an infamous past and a love of all things vintage, fascinated by Mason's discount store clothing and easy amiability. Earl and Mason are soon ensconced in a Neverland where communal damnation is an acceptable concept to an overfed, overspun culture, where every physical need is met and what to have for dinner takes on the importance of a summit meeting, "There was no such thing as separation here, not once you'd started listening. Never listen." Absorbed by the excess around them, feted daily with the other guests, Mason and Earl grapple with their individual concerns while AFA is in crisis on the home front: "There is no authority Mason, we're on our own." And not everyone is receptive to the evangelicals, the wealthy man's son, Eff Jr., especially annoyed by these "crude gypsy mystics aiming for a windfall".

This tongue-in-cheek view of the new millennium is as twisted as it is astute, Kirn dissecting the complex heart of religious orientation in America, the west inundated with gurus, the cult of personality and the true believers who refuse to give up on the moral slackers. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

This novel is a bit thin and under-achieving, though it is subversively funny and very observant about some uncomfortable truths in American religion. With a sly and somewhat understated use of humor and offbeat characters that reminds me a bit of Carl Hiaasen, Walter Kirn tells the story of an inbred Mormon-like cult that is on the verge of extinction, and the two hapless missionaries who go forth into the outside world (i.e. the American West) to preach to new recruits and bring them back to the commune as fresh genetic material. The two missionaries, who grew up in their na?ve and isolationist compound, are totally bewildered by what they see out in America, while the potential new recruits who are receptive to their preaching aren't exactly the pick of the litter. Kirn uses these plot devices to explore how an outsider would perceive the weirdness of Middle America, in its unfocused religious fanaticism and worship of power and money. Some of the unfavorable reviews here have criticized Kirn's rather weak character developments and some unrealized potential in the plot, and I can agree with those criticisms. But I find this novel to be a winner because of Kirn's subversive and uncomfortably insightful observations on America's religious and social underbelly. [~doomsdayer520~]

I recently heard Mr. Kirn interviewed about his new book by Terry Gross on the NPR program "Fresh Air." I warmed to the writer immediately and couldn't wait to read his satire on the religious crazies of America. The idea works much better than the execution. The story starts and stops and at times gets bogged down. On the other hand, it does have its funny moments. Mason Plato LaVerle, a member of a strange religious sect with the name of the "Aboriginal "Fulfilled Apostles" located in Bluff, a small town in Montana and his traveling partner Elder Elias Stark set out to go save America, at least some of its citizens in order to bring some new blood into the church group that is facing extinction. These two missionaries sound remarkably like Mormons-- in the "Fresh Air" interview, Mr. Kirn spoke of his conversion as a child to this religion. The narrator's Church founders had called America "Terrestria," refusing "at first to vote in its elections, supply troops for its armies, or recognize its currency," etc., etc. This almost wholly innocent-- the way he is allowed to date within the church is a hoot-- goes out into big, bad decadent "Terrestria." He sees his first "real-life dating" program on television, tastes real pizza, sees his first black person, finds out that women outside Bluff are a lot easier and a lot more fun, and shares his belief that art, "art of any kind, shows that folks are trying." He describes Wyoming as "punishment for having eyes." He gets a job as a mystery shopper at a branch of a large group of stores across America called "Work-Mart" that hires "the feeble and the old to wrangle with thieves over pilfered merchandise." What large retailer could that be based on, I wonder?

One of my favorite passages occurs when the narrator, who is about to have an audience with the dying Seeress, the matriarchal head of the church, has a conversation with one Lauer, the new Executive Divine.

Lauer: "Teamwork. Brotherhood. Cooperation. Those are the keys. . . Consider it, Mason. In Unity, Immensity."

Mason: "You made that one up."

Lauer: "It's all made up." "You'll see that someday. And it will give you strength."

There is more truth here than many people would like to believe. I'm not sure why more of this story doesn't work. Perhaps it is that what is funny for one individual is not to another, thus the difficulty of writing satire. Mr. Kirn's thesis is certainly viable. This country is overrun with "every wind of doctrine," and more new crazy religious sects come up every day like dandelions in the spring.

Well written farce. Kirn truly understands the ridiculousness found in the Rocky Mountain West. Well worth the read.