The Book of Laman

Nephi is the classic unreliable narrator in the Book of Mormon. He tells his story as an old man, making himself the hero (as we all do in our own stories), trying to rationalize the messed up stuff he did, coming off as very self righteous. Telling the narrative from the perspective of his brother, Laman, is wonderfully done by Mette. We see greater depth in the characters than the caricatures told by Nephi, and a greater appreciation for their stories.

I really enjoyed this book! It is neither exciting nor does it open new ground spiritually but it shows us people doing things for real reasons. It shows people making decisions because of their thoughts for good or ill. Bad judgment mixed with good throughout. And that includes in the behavior of Laman and Nephi.Through it all however the lesson is that God loves us despite our follies even when they ascend to sinning. And we also see that even those great saints struggle with some weakness. "Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past" might be one way to say it but this even suggests that every sinner has some good and every saint has some sin now.Reading her afterward helped me see the authors own way of learning the lessons in the book. Very good read, and well done with several characters in the plot. It made me want to check out some of her others books.

The idea of writing the Book of Mormon story from Laman's perspective is a familiar concept. Mette's book is so much more than this conceit. She gets at the heart of family dynamics in the midst of religious belief. Laman becomes a developed, real person with complexity and depth, without demonizing those with prophetic leadership. The book made me think about my own place in God's plan. What if I'm not good enough? What if I don't deserve love in my life? Mette uses Laman to show the unstoppable, pervasive power of God's love. A remarkable book.

The central character, Laman, is the son of Lehi. Lehi is described as homeless, a wine-bibber who babbles in the streets of Jerusalem. Lehi had a home with possessions and wealth (1 Nephi 1:7). While the story is provocative it is so fictionalized as to not even provoke thoughts by comparison to the actual Book of Mormon.

This book provides a plausible backstory for why Laman and Lemuel are so cranky in the Book of Mormon. If you're familiar with the Book of Mormon it should be pretty accessible and probably surprising. It paints a much more nuanced portrait of that prophets than what you get from a simplistic reading of the scripture. After you read this book you'll have a hard time sitting through a Sunday-school discussion where people trivialize the contributions from these two early bad guys from the Book of Mormon. It humanizes them and by making them more relatable makes it much easier to learn from their (mostly bad) examples. I haven't quite finished this book yet, about half-way through, but I've really enjoyed it so far.Some very orthodox mormons may take issue with the portrayal of prophets Lehi and Nephi as having flaws, both in character and personality.

Although there were problems with consistency and more typos than you usually find in a published novel, I felt the author had very interesting and indeed important things to say about faith. I will be recommending it to my friends and family.

This is a fun read and easy to get through. Harrison tees up interesting questions about modern religious observance while placing it in a Book of Mormon context. She creates an interesting backstory for Laman, Lehi, et al, that addresses questions of how one's life experiences impact faith, how family relationships can alter a person's ability to trust other people and God, and how the divine still works on a person who is full of doubts. Well done! Plus, anyone who has actually read the Book of Mormon has to agree that Laman is much more interesting than Nephi. It's about time we turned this story on its head.

I read a bunch of really positive reviews for this book when it was first published, and it’s been on my list for a long time. Unfortunately it was pretty disappointing. The characters don’t make a ton of sense; they’re not consistent, their arguments and conversations are often silly, and they just don’t feel like real people. The vast majority of the book is just Laman narrating everything, including statements that fall flat rather than meaningful descriptions in his own voice. The idea is great, and there are moments when I think I can see what Harrison had in mind. And there are some satisfying resolutions to character and plot issues. Overall, though, it feels like a rush job.