Books come into our lives in mysterious ways. In mine, sometimes it
feels like I’m a giant electro-magnet and they hurl at me from the
shelves of bookstores, friends, neighbors, garbage piles, small dogs
and cats. When the recent controversial vote for our “monthly” book
reading for the New York’s Women’s Book Club came up, my wife chimed
in with “Oh, we should read that book... ‘The New York Regional Mormon
Singles Halloween Dance’! Yea, I thought, because I’ve always wanted
to read about that. What the hell has happened to Tracie? She must
have eaten something funny last night. Maybe this is one of those
mornings;where she wakes up and tells me all about her crazy dreams in
their Hieronymus Bosch forms. Maybe I slept through the first half of
the dream description and now she’s to the point where she is on about
Mormons.

So, it was not without reservation and to a large extent deeply
skeptical reservation that I succumbed to her advice that we should
read this book. And to some extent, guilt brought me to that decision,
 standing in the middle of Greenlight Bookstore I already had an
armload of books so I figured I should swoop one or two up for her
therby justifying my even setting into a bookstore without first
checking in with her. I could almost hear a stack of books fall to the
floor in our apartment a mile away. We have too many books. At least,
we go through this discussion from time to time. I should go through
them, get rid of some. Most of the time, we just ignore them,
until friends come by where we usually are able to pawn a few off,
exposing space for a few more.

Elna Baker’s book, was a couple of things I rarely find myself drawn
towards, a memoir of someone I’ve never heard of and Mormons. But
Tracie had gone on to remind me that we’d heard a story by her on
‘This American Life’ one day, remember? The baby story...? ...Um, no,
I did not. But I asked the shopkeeper if they had it, ‘cause I hadn’t
found it in the fiction shelves. She said, “...I think it’s in the
humor section...”. Sure enough it was. That is how when I needed a
break from our seriously depressing sociological history as
illuminated by the late Howard Zinn, I cracked the spine and started
to read and laugh over coffee.

It was easy to get into, her humor and humanity permeates every
sentence. And it was while reading this, a few days in, that I heard a
story on the radio. It was some famous critic talking about some
recent ‘memoir’ and they were discussing the recent onslaught of
“insignificant memoirs by the unaccomplished”, and I believe I got so
pissed that I snapped off the radio . The notion that one has to be a
scholar, a president, a famous actor, some measure of popular
‘accomplishment’ to be ‘worthy’ of being published grates on me.  A
box grater that catches on the back of knuckle as my grip slips and
blood oozes on the counter.

So, I dove into reading my memoir of another, so far, short-lived and
‘unaccomplished’ by traditional publishing standards memoirist and I’m
glad I did. Its kind of awesome that we have this freedom, to write
about our diverse experiences, our challenges, the breadth of
religious struggles and battles with faith that go on in our lives.
The fact that it has a place to be shared and discussed and reflected
on, that is why publishers should publish books like these, and why,
when they don’t, we should find other ways to do so.

I think young women all over the world, from all backgrounds, will
read books like these and want to share their stories as well, and I
think this adds to the richness of our cultural diaspora and wouldn’t
have it any other way.  It gives us a sense of calm and ease with one
another, an understanding. If I had to highlight one aspect of that
comes across as  the Elna Baker ideal, without ruining the book for
you, it would be her ‘Yes’ to life. Elna Baker embodies an eagerness
and willingness towards an adventurous and boundlessness in life. I’m
happy she took the time to share her moments in her deep and continual
battle with her belief systems, her conflicts with the paternalistic
boundaries of her religion, and her overcoming these challenges. She
illuminates for those that know not and those that yet need reminded,
we have these privileges to challenge our beliefs and yet can remain
faithful to those beliefs because of what we’ve built as a society.
And she makes us laugh out loud in the process.

Without saying anything about her writing, I hope I’ve convinced you
her story is worth your time. In case you still need a little swaying,
take a moment and listen to this segment from ‘This American Life’ her
story, one chapter from this book, ‘Babies Buying Babies’. Enjoy.

Originally Reviewed at Angrywayne.com