The Street-Legal Version of Mormon's Book

by Michael Hicks

Not a "simplified" version of the Book of Mormon, but a completely rewritten paraphrase, with a contemporary voice hovering somewhere in the realm of J. D. Salinger, Hunter Thompson, and some generic humanist academic/poet, i.e., me. An affectionate, meditational dramatization and commentary. From the "Why 'street-legal'? That’s a term we use for souped-up cars—streamlined and powerfully efficient but also decorative, with decals, pinstriping, and tricked-out doodads—that still can be ridden in normal lanes of traffic. They’re not cars meant for everyday errands, to be sure. Offroad is their normal habitat. But the only thing they usually lack to be 'normal' is a better muffler. This paraphrase of the Book of Mormon is like that. I’ve streamlined a lot of passages, put them in terse, up-to-date vernacular, thinking that’s what one would have done if one were scratching the book out on metal plates. I’ve tried to muscle up the prose. But I’ve also added lots of linguistic digressions, snippets of commentary, queries, and even humor, which the original editor, Mormon, apparently cut."

Genres: Religion

504 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2012

About the author

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Reviews

[Carla "Kar" Schmidt Holloway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Obnoxious.

[Matt]

A fun (and slightly irreverent) look at the Book of Mormon. I will stick with the official text, but this is fun.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premise of this book - the Book of Mormon written in modern language. It's kind of like "modern" Shakespeare movies or such. I really liked it, but after a while I got kind of bored. Having read the "normal" Book of Mormon a number of times, the novelty wore off. But really cool premise.