The Work and the Glory Vol 9. "all Is Well"
Essay by review • February 21, 2011 • Essay • 366 Words (2 Pages) • 1,270 Views
The Work and the Glory, Vol. 9
This is the last installment of the widely successful series of the fictional Steed family and their lives in early "Mormonism". The series, which ends with Vol 9, "All is Well", is lengthy and owes much of its "non-fictional aspects to the writings and journals of early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The author uses end notes at the chapter end to show which characters were fictional and which were real.
This volume finds the Steed family split up again as the different couples and young families find themselves, do to the authors devices, in different situations of the early expansion of the country and the exodus of the church. One couple is on the Brooklyn, sea going vessel which carried Mormon pioneers around the southern tip of South America to land in San Francisco, California.
Another couple in the Steed family was employed by the ill-fated Donner-Reed party. Gerald Lund, the author, uses this device to tell not only the tragic story of the Donner party, but also he splits the couple up so the wife can leave at Fort Bridger and take up with some other members of the church heading to Santa Fe.
He uses yet another part of the Steed family, mainly the men, in his continuing story. The men of course are enlisted in the Mormon Battalion and the book includes all of their trials and tribulations. There is still two more parts of this family that are separated. One family is in Nauvoo, Illinois and another is with the main body of Saints in Winter Quarters.
In the end the Steed Family finally gathers all members together and they enter the Salt Lake Valley. The stories are told through the eyes of the different members of the family and I am very amazed at how everything in reality finally came together.
I can't remember when a fictional book has affected my testimony as this incredible series. I am so very grateful, as never before, for the sacrifices the early members of the church made to settle this valley and the West.
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