The Lost Book of Mormon: A Journey Through the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri

by Avi Steinberg

Is the Book of Mormon the Great American Novel? Decades before Melville and Twain composed their great works, a farmhand and child seer named Joseph Smith unearthed a long-buried book from a haunted hill in western New York State that told of an epic history of ancient America, a story about a family that fled biblical Jerusalem and took a boat to the New World. Using his prophetic gift, Joseph translated the mysterious book into English and published it under the title The Book of Mormon. The book caused an immediate sensation, sparking anger and violence, boycotts and jealousy, curiosity and wonder, and launched Joseph on a wild, decades-long adventure across the American West. Today The Book of Mormon, one of the most widely circulating works of American literature, continues to cause controversy—which is why most of us know very little about the story it tells. Avi Steinberg wants to change that. A fascinated nonbeliever, Steinberg spent a year and a half on a personal quest, traveling the path laid out by Joseph’s epic. Starting in Jerusalem, where The Book of Mormon opens with a bloody murder, Steinberg continued to the ruined Maya cities of Central America—the setting for most of the The Book of Mormon’s ancient story—where he gallivanted with a boisterous bus tour of believers exploring Maya archaeological sites for evidence. From there the journey took him to upstate New York, where he participated in the true Book of Mormon musical, the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant. And finally Steinberg arrived at the center of the American continent, Jackson County, Missouri, the spot Smith identified as none other than the site of the Garden of Eden.Threaded through this quirky travelogue is an argument for taking The Book of Mormon seriously as a work of American imagination. Literate and funny, personal and provocative, the genre-bending The Lost Book of Mormon boldly explores our deeply human impulse to write bibles and discovers the abiding power of story.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Humor, Memoir, Mormonism, Audiobook, Travel

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2014

About the author

Avi Steinberg's first book, Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker’s Culture Desk blog. His essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Salon, The Paris Review Daily and n+1.

Reviews

[Avi Steinberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING book! Best book I've written since the last book I wrote.

[Rod Horncastle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun crazy journey - But i'm still sticking this book in my Religious-Crap-Section. Sorry Avi.

What a great idea for a book:
Retrace the accounts written about in the Book Of Mormon. From Jerusalem in 580 B.C.? To Meso-America "Gautamala"?? Then way up to Rochester New York??? Then wait a few thousands years... For Joseph Smith to dig up some FOOLS gold in the 1820's. Then wander with the Mormon's towards Salt Lake City. Not exactly a noble quest - more of a fools errand, and that's where Avi Steinberg comes in. (I was hoping he would vacation in the Salt Lake Temple: but no invitations were given by the current prophet.)

Although millions have done this journey for the Bible already - Their stories needed Avi's humor and fellow journeyers. I was just listening today to a ministry that promises a joyous romp through Jerusalem and Rome to follow in the steps of the New Testament. I hate walking and travelling - so that's a big NO for now.

The best thing in this whole book is the Mormon Map in the front: Naked mermaids, A penguin standing on the Hill Cumorah (in Meso-America), A much needed labelling stating "Here Be Dragons", and Darth Vader's Tie Fighter Chasing Luke Skywalker's X-Wing. That is really the heart of this book - and why I enjoyed it. (anybody seriously know how to spell TIE FIGHTER properly? Is that correct? Is it bad that I care?)

Avi manages to get every necessary jab at the ludicrousy of Mormonism. From endless polygamy to war horses and con artists. I was worried maybe he would befriend a Mormon or 2,000 and twist the truth to make them look like??? Ummmh... people who get their religion from heavy gold tablets with very poorly abused Egyptian hieroglyphics that rot in long lost hills for centuries and cause people to wear magic underwear and get their religion translated from a Magicians Hat. I couldn't make up a better story if I tried. And that is really the brilliance of Avi's book: That Joseph Smith wrote a very imaginative heroic American literary Harry Potter like tale (but then he swore it was fully endorsed by the Jesus of the Bible - that bit is just blasphemous.) Reminds me of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, A novel that later got promoted as truth - every NON-scholar for a generation gobbled it up as divine. Apparently they've all moved on to Fifty Shades of Mommy Porn - so Christianity is once again safe. Relatively speaking of course.

A wise "funny" old saying: Questionably wise anyway.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

To get all the serious theological issues out of the way: Is the Book of Mormon a con-job by J. Smith? Or a Demon inspired blasphemous distraction of truth? (That gets my Vegas bet.)
Or just a poorly written American Tale, like an early steam punk hack at the Bible? (Avi might have $2 on this one.)
Personally, I've read the Bible many times (love it, talking donkeys and floating Zoo's), and i've attempted to finish trudging through the sewer of literature that is the Book of Mormon...no, IT HASN'T COME TO PASS YET! Apparently the Mormons have been desperately attempting to turn the B.o.M. into a motion picture success - It worked for Harry Potter and a bunch of Vampire/Werewolf love triangles. I would be much obliged if somebody could sum up the B.o.M. in a feisty 3 hour movie. (maybe for those endless credits at the end they could just post ALL of the "And it came to pass" moments, for the dedicated few to sit through.)

I loved Avi's very dynamic descriptions of the Mormons he came across in his journey's, especially his mates in the Mormon production in New York... Greg who may have been the Greatest King Noah in the history of Mormon Theater. And Uncle Hugh in Meso-America - who may have taken up eternal residence in the original Hill Cumorah.

I must say:
This is the best way to truly learn about any religion. A belief system with no comedy is bound to end up more Nazi than Nazareth. If God can't laugh once and awhile - He would be a very depressing deity who I wouldn't want to spend an eternity with.
Thankfully this book has not caused Avi or I to become Mormons. I still appreciate the Bible more than ever. And I recommend Avi now do an Islamic Journey about the mythical/historical bits of the Quran and Muhammad - but it's a known fact: Muslims don't appreciate humor around their religion, and you would be put to death for that map bit in the front of your book.

Thankfully us Fundamental Bible loving Christians generally have a great sense of humor. (we have flaming flying chariots but no naked mermaids that we know of???)

[Biblio Files (takingadayoff) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure what just happened here. I read this book, The Lost Book of Mormon, because I read Avi Steinberg's previous book, Running the Books, and liked it. That was about Steinberg's experiences as a prison librarian, a job he fell into after college. The Lost Book of Mormon, is not a book I would otherwise have considered reading, as I'm not really interested in the subject, which is The Book of Mormon.

Steinberg, who spent part of his youth in an Orthodox Jewish seminary, does not appear to be considering converting to Mormonism. He is just fascinated by the storytelling of the book written by Joseph Smith in the mid 19th century. Smith, as Steinberg tells it, was quite the con man and hustler, trying a variety of money-making schemes throughout his life. And he was a heck of a yarn spinner as well, spending years writing the Book of Mormon and traveling to Jerusalem, Guatemala, and Missouri on the way.

Steinberg travels in Smith's footsteps in order to...I don't know. It's entertaining, hearing about the Australian and American extended families he accompanies on a bus tour of the Mayan towns that Smith tells of in his book. There are amusing episodes in Jerusalem and in Missouri as Steinberg participates in historic re-enactments. But the whole thing is heavy with Steinberg's underlying gloom. He mentions in passing that his new marriage seems doomed. Is this whole escapade a midlife crisis?

Even if it is, you could still enjoy the story for its entertainment and informational value, but every so often it takes a weird turn that left me uneasy. The final example of that weirdness is when Steinberg meets a teenage aspiring writer at a book signing of Steinberg's previous book. Steinberg befriends the young man and they hang out together for a few days, smoking dope, going to a rave, getting naked. It has nothing to do with Steinberg's The Book of Mormon quest, and seems an odd way to end the book. Really odd.

Steinberg has a way with words and can tell a good story but I can't imagine who I would recommend this book to.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oddball of a book--not so much about the Book of Mormon as about the imaginative faculties required to create the Book of Mormon, in whatever sense you want to understand the verb "create." Plus a lot of exploration of just how strange the book's story is--I had somehow missed the part before this where the good guys flee Jerusalem and end up in Guatemala, allegedly right around the time all these Mesoamerican tribes we study are getting their civilizations started. Steinberg is unabashedly self-indulgent here as a writer (there's way more about him, his failed romantic life, his ex-Orthodox life, his impressions of others on the Mormon-memorial trail), but he's also wonderfully funny and turns quite a bit more than a few good sentences. And the section where he masquerades as someone else during the recreation pageant, though it seems a little worked-up so it can be in the book, is hilarious and yet poignant.

[Ms. Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads First Reads in exchange for a honest review. An VERY honest review this book shall get!

I'm not Mormon, but I'm Christian and do believe in God. When I first read this book, I was slightly curious to see what it was all about. My first impression upon receiving it in the mail, I thought it was ABOUT and SUPPORTING the Mormon culture. Whether that was the author's intention or not, I felt like all the author did was mock, make fun of, and insult Mormons and even subtly(???) hinted the same behavior towards Christianity.

The book was wrong. Very wrong. Historically and factually speaking, making it irritating and annoying to read since the author was writing way off the radar. A lot of it felt like an endless, pointless rant of boredom and stupidity. I don't even know how I managed to get through reading it all, but I at least wanted to finish it so that I could honestly give it "one star". Needless the say, this book failed to impress miserably. The only "happy" part that came from this book was the relief to finally throw it away when I was done.

I don't recommend reading it!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the FRESHEST book on the magical, mystical, mysterious origin and publication of The Book of Mormon since Fawn Brodie's 1945 psycho-biography, "No Man Knows My History: A Life of Joseph Smith." Just as Brodie focused attention not on the content of the book--but on its historical era and on the personality of its author--Steinberg recognizes Joseph Smith as a fellow aspiring author with a boundless imagination.

Born in Jerusalem and raised in Cleveland, Steinberg says The Book of Mormon should be respected as part of the American Canon of Great Books.
Supposedly "discovered" by Joseph Smith and engraved on golden plates, Steinberg says The Book of Mormon can be read as a story of American assimilation: "It sounded like the backstory to every Jewish American novel of the twentieth century."

Whether you're a Believer, a Backslider, or Couldn't Care Less, this book succeeds in showing what it's really like to live among Mormons. As a fellow aspiring Author and resident--for 30 freaking Years!--of the State of Deseret/aka Utah, I salute Steinberg's accomplishment. Without resorting to caricature, he has created an instant classic of Mormonism in practice.

For more info, here's a link to my work-in-progress, "Sidetracked: My 30-Year Ordeal Behind the Zion Curtain:
https://bobsaw.wordpress.com/2014/11/...

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

First - this book is barely classifiable. It is a travelogue, exploration of the BOM as a sequel, a memoir, a psychological exploration of writing in general, a religious book, an outline of the BOM, and anthropological study. So... if any of that appeals to you, read the book. If not, put it down.

Avi Steinberg is not a Mormon, as such you may expect him to make fun of Mormons and generally discredit the whole shebang. Which he does ..NOT! I felt that he genuinely suspended his disbelief and approached the subject as an author and as a missionary - albeit with a very different idea of a mission than a Mormon. His portraits of the Mormon's he encounters paint them as generous, understanding and generally likable. This has been my general experience with people of the Mormon faith as well. However, if you are a devout believer this, or any other book that is not produced from the position of a believer, will probably leave you cold. So - leave it then. Personally, I liked it.

The book for me was enjoyable, but I like all of the categories listed above. The memior category is a bit difficult for me as at times most memoriests, Avi included, sometimes get a bit off the track and into their thier own psyches.

I enjoyed the parts of the book that dealt with the actual content of the BOM and Avi's retracing of the "historical" (fictional?) places and anthropology behind the BOM. I have never read the BOM, however, after this book I have a fairly good sense of the story, characters and the locations. I've picked up the BOM a few times, only to put it down as a poorly written version of the Bible (Hebrew and New Testaments both). So - thanks to Avi I feel like I finally know what is in the darn thing.

[Tammy]

I thought this book would be a great way to understand WHY Mormons believe what they do, because I'm genuinely curious, though I don't believe myself at all. There is some factual stuff in here, though I truly don't know how accurate it is. It's pretty much just making fun of Mormons, though(AND Christians). It makes me uncomfortable to read about someone making a joke out of my Savior, Jesus. It's a great deal of the author rambling about various things connected to The Book of Mormon(sometimes VERY mildly connected!)

I tried to keep an open mind. I really did. I'm setting this one aside, though.

Content: I stopped about a third of the way through. There were 2 F-bombs used within quotes. (I won't be reading anything by James Frey, by the way!) There was more mild profanity, too.

[John Haynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent book - educational and funny. The author has a good sense of humor. But he needed an editor with a heavier hand. This book could have lost 100 pages easily.

[Kim Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to dislike this book, but the story ended up being simply too much fun.

The book was more thoughtful than the cover art had led me to believe (though it certainly contained ample humor, usually achieved through its caricatures of the many oddball Mormons whom Steinberg encounters). Steinberg’s Jewish upbringing makes him a perfect guide to the Book of Mormon. He is able to litter his book with references to the anxieties of biblical authors that in so many ways parallel the anxieties of their Book of Mormon counterparts.

In many ways, Steinberg channels Fawn Brodie's approach to the Book of Mormon, viewing it as an elaborate allegorical clue to Joseph Smith's psyche. It was in these sections (particularly in the last chapter) that most of my frustrations arose. But it also seems to me that Steinberg gets something unquestionably *right* about the Book of Mormon--he recognizes its own obsession with writing and how that creative task exposes authorial anxieties. The first half of his novel reflects his own journey as a writer, mapping his personal creative life onto the Book of Mormon's story arc, and in so doing makes a kind of *typological* move. Although done in an unquestionably secular way, Steinberg thus picks up on one of the most vital aspects of the Book of Mormon--it wants to be read typologically.

All told, I found the first half of the book to be much stronger than its second half, and although I have quibbles with certain elements of Steinberg's approach, I can't fault him for them--he is, after all, an outsider. That said, in some ways he manages to read the Book of Mormon exactly as it ought to be read. This book is a great look at how we might approach the Book of Mormon as literature in the age of a very particular sort of journalistic novel. Interesting and fun.

[Ira · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lost Book of Mormon was an intensely thoughtful, introspective, well written travelogue/meditation on Joseph Smith's book as one or all of: the sequel to the Bible, the Great American Novel (TM), an American gothic, and/or the most audacious first novel written by an American author.

I am not a Mormon and only have limited information on the real Book and the history of Joseph Smith, but I was fascinated by the premise of Smith as first time author and the (self-deprecating) comparisons between Steinberg and his subject. Like The Book of Mormon (or Kevin Smith's Dogma for the Catholic crowd), Steinberg's book is witty, humorous and irreverent, but I felt that his book was a deeper literary analysis of and even more respectful of the religion itself than the foregoing media representatives.

While the history, the religious comparisons and he literary criticism was interesting, what ultimately kept me riveted was both how deeply heartfelt and personal Steinberg made this book as well as his incredibly entertaining phrasing, perspective and overall voice.

This is not normally a genre that I read, but when I read something this thought provoking and well written, I will read anything. However, I recognize that the genre or the subject matter may not make this book for everyone.

If you are looking for a comparison, I think the musical is an inapt one. Rather, I'd compare this book and Steinberg himself to Chuck Klosterman, if Klosterman was previously ultra religious, was now secular and chose to write about modern religion and literature.

[Elif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who is using my name to give one-star ratings to books I love: you are breaking the law, as well as acting completely against the spirit of Goodreads. You should be ashamed of yourself. I have notified Goodreads as well as an old college friend who happens to be a particularly aggressive criminal prosecutor. Good luck.

This book is hilarious and moving. In my opinion, it will be beloved by anyone who is a Melville fan or cares about the Great American Novel. I am a professional writer.

[Becky Roper · Rating 2 out of 5]

An entertaining but self indulgent somewhat arrogant writer looks at the Book of Mormon as American literature and travels the route taken in the actual text and in Joseph Smith's life. He spends about half the book in Jerusalem, possible because he is himself a Jew, and gives very short attention to much of the American cities involved. I mostly felt disrespected as a Mormon and Christian. The "comic book" style of the cover should have been a warning.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This definitely deserves a longer review later - I found the story interesting and very respectful from a non-Mormon; but the author's intense self-conscious writery-ness was off-putting.

[Yeshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

An irreverent travelogue, searching for the lands of the "book of Mormon.

One Mans' seach for the "Book of Mormon" as "American Literature", ends up being, a humorous look@ the "Book of Mormon" pageant (and unfortunately) the arguments of Mormon detractors.

[Nathaniel Kidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the summer of 2015, and it was probably my favorite book of the season. Notwithstanding a few critiques I have of the style and shape of the book, I can hardly recommend it highly enough.

I am grateful to Avi Steinberg for having written a book about Mormonism that -- for accomplishing what a book I would have written about Mormonism would have aimed to do -- frees me from any sense of having to write such a book. Of course, he says it all out of his own voice and his own experience -- which is obviously different than my own, and significantly more sarcastic -- but content-wise, a very helpful contribution, by my evaluation.

Steinberg approaches the Book of Mormon as a cross between a sequel to the Bible -- in the vein of all the delightful extrabiblical literature (fanfiction) that has been produced over the centuries -- and the Great American Novel. Accordingly, as his memoirs recount an imaginative romp through the lands of the Book of Mormon, he explores the nature of fiction, faith, religion, and the spirit of America along the way. His tone may not appeal to all, but struck me as an attractive balance of delight in the text and textuality, and satirical incredulity. Such features not only make Steinberg's book worthy of consideration: they help clarify why and how the Book of Mormon is worthy of consideration as a cultural phenomenon and artifact in the complex, religiously plural milieu of American life.

[dianne b. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had great hope for this book. The premise is brilliant - a look, using bits of real archeologica, at the Book of Mormon as a, or maybe the, great american novel. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its concept. The writing seemed much like those journals we all kept in high school. When we were pretty sure that our thoughts were brilliant, chock-full of insights new to the universe - only to find that we were just passing through the Tanner Stages of philosophy. Literary puberty.

Avi spends too much time in Jerusalem - something not done in the BoM. There are pages (and pages) leading up to his point that Jerusalem is unique in being a city that lives on its literary history. How is that unique? Would we travel to Athens without Greek myth? To Esfahan sans its architecture? Florence without its art? Los Angeles its film noir? Sorry, Jerusalem is just a city.

There were some fun turns of phrase like “dressed in assassin casual…” or "maximum security retirement village". But then ..there were others:
“He was as warlike as a ...thoughtful muffin.” Somehow i think if Avi saw that in another book it might lower the star value. Just saying.

[Catherine Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what to make of this book before I started reading it. Basically, the author decided to read through the book of Mormon while also traveling the route that the story takes. While doing so, he meets interesting people while also learning about Mormonism. I learned a lot about The Book of Mormon but I also enjoyed the author's writing and his stories about what happened on his journey. Interesting book.

[Erika B. (SOS BOOKS) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nice guy. Historically way wrong. I guess it's best to just give it a star and move on. That'll have to do! :D

*given by Netgalley for honest review

[Akin]

Haaretz Books

Is the 'Book of Mormon' the Great American novel? A lapsed Orthodox Jew tries to find out
Onetime yeshiva bocher Avi Steinberg spent a year tracing the epic text that is a holy writ for millions and a mystery to millions more.
By Akin Ajayi | Dec. 31, 2014 | 7:30 PM | 1

The Lost Book of Mormon: A Journey Though the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri, by Avi Steinberg.

Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 288 pages, $26.95.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – LDS for short, or the Mormon Church to you and me – has long suffered from a bad rep. Not that it made things easy for itself for a long while. There’s the whole polygamy thing. The unreconstructed approach to race relations, embraced by the faith for many years. The unfortunate penchant for baptizing people into Mormonism after their deaths. (Anne Frank, if we were to accept the deed of a particularly overzealous missionary-by-proxy, would now be a member of a completely different tribe.)

True, these eccentricities have all long since been left behind, consigned to the annals of dodgy religious dogma. Even so, Mormons often find themselves obliged to explain – defend, even – a central tenet of their faith, one that, fairly or not, remains just as perplexing to the uninformed: “The Book of Mormon.”

For the uninitiated, a précis of the “Book” and the story of its discovery: Written in a hitherto (and subsequently) unknown tongue, the Book recounts the history of a group of Hebrews whom God had led from Jerusalem to North America about 600 years before the birth of Jesus. “The Book,” which is accepted as holy writ by Mormons alongside the Bible, was engraved on a set of golden plates and – after a sojourn in Guatemala – buried around 421 C.E. in a hill in upstate New York, Hill Cumorah, by a prophet called Moroni.

Many years later – in 1823, to be precise – Moroni, “barefoot and luminous,” appeared in a dream to a young man called Joseph Smith, and revealed to him the presence of the plates just around the corner from the Smith family farm. Smith – according to the revelation, to which Smith was the sole witness – was tasked with rescuing the tablets, translating them into the vernacular and disseminating their message to the world. So far, so … religious.

One must be fair. The factual substance of the world’s major and minor religions is hardly fair game for the determined skeptic. (I write as a semi-detached Catholic. Explaining the theological concept of transubstantiation is even harder than pronouncing it, believe me.) But for even the mildly questioning non-believer, Mormonism suffers from an additional credibility deficit: its lack of antiquity.

After slaving over the translation for some years (although it has been suggested that he just made it up), Smith published “The Book” in 1830, which makes the LDS an absolute stripling when set alongside the sturdy oaks of the other principal organized faiths. Let’s be frank: It is a bit difficult to accept at face value this particular creation myth when it was only a century or so ago that the last of its prophets was walking among us. A bit difficult unless one is, say, an enterprising non-fiction writer with an imaginative bent, in which case the Mormon creation story might represent catnip more than credibility deficit.

Avi Steinberg, the enterprising author of “The Lost Book of Mormon,” has an interesting back story of his own: one-time yeshiva bocher, Harvard graduate, freelance obituary writer, “accidental” librarian in a Boston prison. At the same time that he was living in Jerusalem and struggling to finish a manuscript documenting his experiences concerning the last – which was published in 2011 as the entertaining “Running the Books” – Steinberg found himself drawn to “The Book of Mormon,” much like a moth to a flame.

“The Lost Book of Mormon” reveals enough about Steinberg for us to understand that at the time, he was somewhat lost himself. He had relationship difficulties, occasionally alluded to but never fully elucidated; there was the existential angst inevitable when one surrenders one’s faith, but then chooses to live among its most vehement adherents. (Steinberg spent part of his childhood in an Orthodox Jerusalem home; sometime after his family relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, he contrived to lose his faith.) But the main source of his anxiety was the becalmed manuscript, accompanied by the uncertainty that can afflict the people bold enough and presumptuous enough to believe that they have in them a book worth setting free into the world.

Given the circumstances, it isn’t too difficult to appreciate the sense of kinship – some might call it an obsession – that Steinberg developed with Joseph Smith, and which he documents in his book. Both were first-time authors (assuming that we ascribe authorship of “The Book of Mormon” to Smith, rather than divine providence); both found themselves beset by the difficulty of having something important to say to a possibly indifferent audience.

“As a young, struggling writer, I was enthralled by Joseph’s stories, and particularly by his impressive run as an underdog, an underground American writer – a cult writer, you might say.”

From this sprung a project, as much a journey of self-discovery as it was an act of procrastination, anchored by the question: Given the place of Mormonism in the public imagination, why do we, non-subscribers to the faith, know so little about “The Book of Mormon”?

It’s worth pointing out – and I don’t mean this unkindly – that “The Lost Book of Mormon” is much more about Avi Steinberg than it is about Mormons. True, Steinberg does retrace the journey of Mormonism, as documented by Smith, from the Middle East to Middle America. In Jerusalem, he hunts, unsuccessfully, for a copy of “The Book of Mormon.” (His failure was, like so many other things in the city, thanks to an uneasy religious-political compromise; the LDS had promised to refrain from proselytization in Jerusalem, in return receiving permission to build an educational center there.)

He crisscrosses Guatemala in the company of a rowdy, rollicking band of Mormon brethren, visiting the first home of the faith there; he inveigles himself, under a false name (a long story, which even Steinberg seems at a bit of a loss to explain) into the annual Mormon pageant – known to the faithful, simply, as Pageant – in New York State; then finally, he finds himself bonding with an aspiring young writer – quite possibly while under the influence of hallucinogenic substances – in Kansas City, Missouri, AKA The Mormon Garden of Eden.

To see the thing itself

Steinberg tries to frame “The Lost Book of Mormon” as an exploration of Mormonism’s place within American society, led by the journey undertaken by its scriptures. “I wanted to see the thing itself,” Steinberg writes, “to experience the overwhelming idea of it, the kind that compels a person to drop everything, cross continents and oceans, and become something new.”

Within “The Book of Mormon,” Steinberg seems to suggest, lies the very essence of the American sense of independence, self-sufficiency, liberty. “As far as I was concerned, American literature got serious at Hill Cumorah,” he writes: But why don’t other Americans recognize this too?

Try as it does, though, “The Lost Book of Mormon” doesn’t manage to answer this question.

Steinberg follows the Mormon journey from Jerusalem and across the Americas, but what results is less contextual travelogue than a consideration of Steinberg’s responses to these places, to “The Book of Mormon” and to Joseph Smith himself. Even as he gently prods at the basis for the LDS, Steinberg evinces a sneaky admiration for Smith’s obduracy, his earnestness, his certainty of purpose – important qualities, one imagines, if one undertakes to start a new religion from scratch. Or to nurse a book from conception to publication.

It took Joseph Smith four attempts, over as many years – if we are to accept Smith’s self-made mythology at face value – to retrieve the gold tablets; he then devoted significant time, energy, financial resources and powers of persuasion to the task of translating them. (Aside from the testimony of a select group of early acolytes known as the Witnesses, there is no third-party evidence of the existence of the original gold tablets. Once he had finished transcribing them, Smith claimed, Moroni took them back.)

But above and beyond that, there is the experience, the necessity of writing, which Steinberg responds to so strongly. “Happy people don’t write books, just as happy people don’t see angels,” Steinberg observes. “The kind of person who writes a book is the kind of person who feels that something really important is missing or lost or not right with the world, that some story needs to be told, to be preserved.”

He never explicitly underlines the point, but Steinberg seems to be trying to say that he is an unhappy young man; writing, paradoxically, might both make him happy and confirm him in his misery. And history seems to suggest that one could say the same about Smith.

“The Lost Book of Mormon,” one feels, was conceived as an intelligent and original disquisition on Mormonism, anchored by Steinberg’s twin obsessions of writing and proselytization. Unfortunately, it never quite works.

Part of the problem lies with Steinberg’s tone. As he meanders through a strange and at times surreal landscape, he primes the reader for the sly aside and goofy apologetics. But this book is more serious than that, and Steinberg too good a writer to rely solely on these authorial conceits. So when moments of levity occur – and they do, from time to time – they are accompanied by Steinberg’s earnestness, and at times by his sadness.

That the narrative doesn’t work isn’t down to his shortcomings as an author – he is a very good writer – but rather how he chooses to tell the story. Betwixt the story of “The Book of Mormon,” Steinberg’s response to “The Book,” Steinberg’s meditation on what the book meant to him as a budding writer and what he thinks the book should mean to the rest of America, there is at least one narrative thread too many. That he never seems entirely certain whether he is playing for laughs or not muddles matters even more.

All that said, Steinberg makes a strong pitch for elevating “The Book of Mormon” to its rightful place in America’s literary and social imagination. But ultimately, “The Lost Book of Mormon” doesn’t do full justice to this claim.

Akin Ajayi is a freelance writer and editor based in Tel Aviv.

[drowningmermaid · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seems to be struggling a bit to find its audience, and I get that.

Is it a Mormon faith-promoting book about a Jew converting to Mormonism? No. Steinberg understands the BoM as fiction, Joseph Smith's visions and life story as fiction, and the LDS church as, essentially, James Frey fans. Also, converts don't speculate about whether the sacred text is, in fact, an "If I Did It" style confessional piece.

Is it geared for the Bible belt crowd who want to be told how wrong Mormonism is and how right they are? (There is a whole subgenre of that kind of book.) No. Steinberg understands Mormonism's truth claims to be objectively bunk, Christianity's truth claims to be objectively bunk, and his own home turf, Judaism, to also be occasionally horrifying bunk.

Is it aimed for people-- religious and otherwise-- looking to have a bit of fun at the Mormons'expense? No. Despite the cover, which seems to suggest this, it's the most weirdly celebratory book about made-up Mormon history I've ever encountered. Steinberg loves the BoM, searches for it in weird places, is willing to travel and explore and even, in a way, believe. As only a non-religious Jew can.

Indeed, it's probably only going to make sense if you're a non-religious Jew who appreciates religious fanfics and the creative act of writing. And who loves Joseph Smith the way "Greatest Showman" loves P.T. Barnum. As a fraud, a humbug, but-- seen from the vantage point of profound irreligiousity-- a harmless humbug out to promote good feelings, even at the cost of his own life.

So the kind of bunk that has moved mountains, formed and preserved national identities even in the face of horrendous loss, and formed and shaped most of the world's personalities and dreams.

It really seems to lack a theme or message. The Book of Mormon has been profoundly influential in Steinberg's life, and he explains why-- it's American-ness, the way its characters mirror his own life, the fact that he loves sequels and tawdry knockoffs and celebrates them-- but I don't think reasons like this will resonate with too many other people.

I kind of love his exposition of the Spalding theory (the theory that Joseph Smith ripped off a manuscript, rather than composed his own book) and how he points out that both this theory and the LDS church's doctrine hinge on a book that no one has seen.

But it seems somewhat unfocused. It covers an interview with James Frey (a modern day incarnation of Joseph Smith, it would seem), a trip through Jerusalem with as many snarky things to say about the city as Laurence of Arabia and Mark Twain had, complete with the assertion that Jesus Christ suffered from Jerusalem Syndrome, any number of reasons not to believe in Mormonism while claiming to, somehow, believe. If there's a unifying theme it's that writing is hard and unappreciated.

[Jeff Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost Book of Mormon wasn't at all what I was expecting. While it did deliver some interesting perspectives on the beliefs and practices of the religion, the book was more about the travels of the author, both a physical journey and a spiritual one. This journey mirrors the points the author is trying to make about the faith. And while it wasn't scathing or aggressive in its points for or against the faith, it was rather humorous in its approach. I devoured the book in only a few sittings, which is rare for nonfiction as I often grow tired of the point halfway through. Because life is rarely as well plotted as a novel they can often be a dredge to get through. But I thoroughly enjoyed the literary insights of this author who didn't go in looking to make a critical review of the religion but rather embrace it's eccentricities, documenting and exploring the tradition as one would a historical literary work. Taking a literary viewpoint on religious study is an intriguing one as you can remain objective while diving deep into the impact and influences of the faith. If you have a passing knowledge of Mormonism and want a unique perspective on the faith that doesn't come from the inside nor goes out of its way to attack it, this is a must read. While I am still looking for that one book that really explores and outlines the beliefs of these individuals, this is one of the better nonfiction books I have read on a particular faith.

[Lynnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a letdown. I am interested in knowing the story of the Book of Mormon, but not so interested that I want to actually read the whole thing. So I was hoping the author was going to rehash the major plot points in this book. Sometimes he did, but it felt like there was a ton missing. Maybe you’d like this book better than me if you have actual solid knowledge of the Book of Mormon. Also, he gets real philosophical and dreamy toward the end which is weird and hard to follow.

Quotes:

- In the end they staked their entire identity on their stories - instead of architecture, a kingdom of words.

- Sometimes it’s hard to tell a prophetic performance from a ventriloquist act. Prophecy, like ventriloquism, is only convincing if the performance convinces. Or, as they say, seeing is believing.

- Happy people don’t write books, just as happy people don’t see angels. The kind of person who writes a book is the kind of person who feels that something really important is missing or lost or not right with the world, that some story needs to be told, to be preserved.

- When I looked around, I saw characters from other stories too. That’s the difference between books and life. In Gogol stories the characters are Gogol characters, and in the Bible they’re biblical, but in life it’s always an odd mix of characters from many stories.

[Emily Wegener · Rating 5 out of 5]

YMMV, but I laughed so hard at parts of this book that I had tears running down my face. The author, who has never been Mormon and doesn’t seem to have a connection to Mormonism beyond intellectual curiousity, goes on one of those Book of Mormon tours of Central America, and he writes about it with affection and without condescension and still manages to be funny. He also writes about looking for the Book of Mormon in Jerusalem, landing a part in the Hill Cumorah pageant, and searching for Adam-on-Diamon (garden of Eden in Jackson County, Missouri). As a BYU-educated English major, I might just be this book’s very niche target market. I didn’t have to look up any of the characters from the Book of Mormon, and I learned a whole lot for instance about Herman Melville’s ties to Mormonism. (Was the “Call me Ishmael” opener in Moby Dick an allusion to Ishmael of the Book of Mormon? Steinberg makes it seem possible.) I don’t think I would recommend this to someone who is unfamiliar with the Book of Mormon or who has a very literal belief in the Book of Mormon or who is not interested in writing and literature on a meta level. But to me this book was delightful.

[Joseph Cloward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I accidentally read this book. I pulled it off the shelf with zero context (and thankfully the standard academic library cover instead of the campy cover it apparently should have had) and read the first page. That first page still didn't help me know what the book was about exactly, but I loved it and wanted to read the rest.

After reading it, it's still a difficult book to categorize. It's perhaps best described as a travel memoir of a writer and fan of the Book of Mormon, trying to understand what it is to write a sacred text. As a practicing (but often skeptical) Latter-day Saint/Mormon, it was fascinating to see the Book of Mormon from an outside perspective. So rarely does anyone outside the faith tradition take the book seriously that it's easy to think the only ways to engage the book are as orthodox believer or incredulous critic. Steinberg is neither.

Often laugh-out-loud funny, especially in the first chapters, I enjoyed myself all the way through, even if the concluding chapters had less insight than the first half. All in all worth reading for any fans of the Book of Mormon.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to this one as an audiobook.

Loved the content and writing style. Contrary to what other reviewers have said about the tone of the book, I found Steinberg's approach to the religion as an outsider and not a simmering pre-convert refreshing. After consuming years-worth of atheist and deconstruction YouTube, I expected this book to monetize the oft-justified rancor of the deconverted and general nonreligious for cheap laughs and easy points. While Steinberg tends to write his characters in a dry, wry way, it's with the same overall sadness that characterizes the self-deprecating depression he deals with throughout his quest. If self-deprecation isn't your thing, then that's that. If readers feel as though his main goal is clowning on religious people, they are missing out on Steinberg's fresh insights on storycraft. If anything, he half-legitimizes Joseph Smith's desires to create something that outlasts him.

[rinikatherini · Rating 5 out of 5]

So well written! Laugh-out-loud funny, entertaining in a variety of ways, blending together fascinating facts and stories, while remaining surprisingly respectful to both the Book of Mormon and the members of the Church. I think this book would be enjoyable for anyone, regardless of an interest in religion or the LDS Church. This was a random choice for me, but it was so good that I will now seek out more from this author. Sometimes things are just good, regardless of genre. This guy is clearly a great writer. (When I see reviews like this, I usually assume a family member of the writer wrote it, but that is not the case here! I merely inhaled this book in one sitting and wanted to rave a bit.)

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to the audio book and it was just okay for me. At times the book is funny and made me laugh hysterically and sometimes I just chuckled.

Avi tries too much humor at times and just lost me at what he was trying to make me or the reader laugh about or at.

An interesting book because I live in Utah, home of the Mormons, and I'm not one and while the book does detail the absurdness of the founding of this religion and the plausibility of it all in the end Avi realizes that Mormons are people of incredible faith that is hard to challenge.

I do recommend this book even though I gave it only 2 stars.

[Amaryah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because this is just the quirky kind of niche book that I really enjoy once in a while. I think non-member perspectives of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, or other LDS culture and history is really interesting. I love to read about others’ experiences with those things and how it appears to them or makes them feel. As an author himself, Steinberg saw the author in Joseph, and the realness that a story can have in an author’s life, at times becoming an obsession. This made me see Joseph in a different light too.
Wouldn’t necessarily recommend to just anyone, but not a bad read.

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious. Highly recommend it. It is a great external look at the book of mormon, church members and their oddities, Joseph smith and lds culture, as seen through the curious eyes of a Jerusalem Jewish Writer. It feels both heretical and inspiringly insightful at the same time. Plot: he follows the book of mormon to jerusalem, Guatemala, the hill cumorah pageant (as a cast member) and independence missouri. If you've ever been on a church history tour or been in pageant, it's hilarious.