Honorable Release by David Gagon (review)

Reviews 163 temps,”based on the interesting premise of an old black man who constructs a life around objects he has gleaned from a roadside, is muddled and unconvinc­ ing in voice and execution. “Backyards”begins as an interesting look at a mild, inhibited man’sattraction to a group offeral children, but falls apart mid-wayin a contrived assault by their vagrant father. “Gypsy Moth,” told from the view­ point of a serial killer, presents an internal morality that fails to be consistent or convincing, while “Rising Water, Wind-Driven Rain”fails mostly because it has the ambition of a novel stuffed into too small a frame. The final story, “Sign Language,” stands out as a solid tale of a man left alone by his family for a weekend. He struggles to break free of his ill-fitting persona, and through accident seeks shelter for the night with an old couple, providing them all with a moment of grace. The author comes across as a man who wants to believe in compassion and love, but lacks the conviction to say so. Although several stories are promising, on the whole this collection reads too often like well-crafted reportage of various details, sordid to ordinary, and thus fails to rise above mere technical ability. DAVID MARSHALL Pullman, Washington HonorableRelease. By David Gagon. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992. 249 pages, $14.95.) This novel, set mostly in Brazil, is the story of two Mormon missionaries, friends from the same neighborhood, who both become ex-patriots because one baptizes and makes love to ayoung woman and the other can’t reconcile his friend’s actions. The author manages to include many formula elements of Mormon fiction such as Blood Atonement, polygamy, miraculous healings, religious retribution, excommunication, and the conflict between the young Mormon male and the old established church. All this is done in a setting of intrigue full of Brazilian terrorists set on destroying any and all Americans, especially Mormon missionaries. Many Mormon taboos are also explored, such as premarital sex and interracial sex, and there is a fair amount of dehumaniz­ ing violence in the forms of rape and cold-blooded murder to create tension within the story. Though action packed, Honorable Release strains the reader’s sense of real­ ity, and like many of its predecessors, it stumbles on what has become an established formula for Mormon fiction. MIKEL VAUSE WeberState University ...