A review of the edgy LDS-themed novel, ‘Rift.’

(Originally published at StandardBlogs in 2009)

"You’re a salvation army of one,” a young woman tells elderly Jens Thorsen in Southern Utah University professor Todd Robert Petersen’s new novel “Rift,” published by Provo’s Zarahemla Press.

That’s a pretty apt description of Thorsen, a retired man who goes around Sanpete, Utah, with his keen, experienced eye, spotting trouble and then trying in his understated manner to help. Jens, who looks like 10,000 other Utah elderly men used to a life around a farm, picks his charity cases with an eye toward what might annoy Bishop Darrell Bunker, with whom he is enjoying, with malicious humor on Jens’ part, a longstanding feud.

Jens also exasperates his longtime wife, Lily, but there’s a still-simmering passion behind their bickering and her occasional temper tantrums at his critiques of LDS customs and impatience with his younger priesthood leader. The fact that Jens and Lily have hung together 50 or so years is enough evidence there’s love buried deep in that relationship.

Watching out for others is one way Jens handles the assumed idleness of retirement. Among those he helps is a young man in prison most of the town would prefer to forget, a dying apostate with a bitter wife who hates Mormons, a barber losing a slow battle with Parkinson’s disease and a Jewish doctor with a land problem that requires heavy machinery owned by Bishop Bunker. Naturally, the bishop did not allow the use of his equipment. Naturally, Jens borrows it and then rubs his truculent behavior in Bishop Bunker’s nose.

Petersen is a very talented LDS-themed writer — that’s why he’s writing for Zarahemla and not the Deseret Book monopoly, which wouldn’t publish fiction that involves considerate, thoughtful, non-condescending responses to harsh critiques of a dominant religion’s culture.

What I like mostly about “Rift” is Petersen allows the reader to get inside the mind of the old man we see at the barber shop, or at the store, or sitting at Sizzler, or in a church pew. Jens is an old man physically, but his mind is as alert and rascally as it was 50 years years ago. Petersen’s scenes of old men sitting in a barber shop, watching TV, gossiping and sneaking glances at a young women are a pleasure to read.

The mostly harmless feud between Jens and his bishop becomes more serious after Angie Bunker, the bishop’s rebellious daughter, returns home to her family planning to have a baby. After she stops coming to church, Angie is tossed from her house and Jens — soon after a life-changing experience of his own — makes decisions that puts him in direct conflict not only with his bishop, but much of Sanpete.

Death, both current and past, and our reactions to it, underscore much of “Rift.” As the novel progresses, and Jens finds himself with more time on his hands than he anticipated, events drive him to recall a very painful event 50 years or so in his past. Author Petersen reminds the readers that while unpleasant memories can sleep a long time, they still exist and shape our actions and decisions.

“Rift” is a compelling read. Petersen, who has a reputation as a short story writer, crafts excellent, stories-within-a-larger-story chapters. The dialogue of his characters are insightful and at times witty.

I have two quibbles with the novel. I would have liked to have seen at least one character as fully developed as Jens. Bishop Bunker, for example, almost seems shadowy for lack of insight into his character. Even Lily, Jens wife, suffers for lack of character development.

Second, although Petersen’s writing is still superb through the climax and resolution, he chooses to avoid the expected path — a final battle royale involving Angie’s welfare between Jens and Bishop Bunker — and instead shifts a surprise detour on the reader. Without giving away too much, I’ll just say I didn’t find it realistic. I just can’t see that kind of sex-on-sex anger bubbling to the surface so publicly within a Relief Society.

Nevertheless, I hope “Rift” finds a lot of readers. It’s an under-your-skin read that provides insights that impact us longer than the dust on a book long tucked away in a bookcase.

-- Doug Gibson