I wasn't sure what was going on with this book. Is it a memoir? An expose? A commentary? I also had trouble discerning the author's motivations. He was on a quest to discover ... something ... about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Along the way he does manage to teach the reader something about the culture of Mormons, or Saints, or whatever the proper term of reference might be. Most of the time he calls them "readers of the Book of Mormon," without specifying whether they are devotees/adherents or curious laypeople, which it seems he is. But even that isn't quite clear, as he gets drawn into his quest. Anyway, I'm a sucker for a spiritual journey and certainly for a religious history, especially when it's a history of something like Mormonism, which I still consider to be, rightly or wrongly, kind of fringe. I think part of the point of this book is to ask, if not to answer, how a religion becomes "legitimate." Is it time? After all, Christianity, Judaism and Islam have many centuries' head start on the Mormons. Or is it simply being in possession of some mysterious and prophetic texts, which some number of people consider to be sacred? These questions are all presented in this book, and even though it's not realistic to expect an answer from such a slim volume, I found myself feeling a little disappointed in the end. ( )

I, like many reviewers on Goodreads, did not like this book. The title is misleading and I didn't really find the autobiographical part about Avi Steinberg interesting enough to make me want to get involved in this book. In all fairness, I tend not to like books where the author is the main character unless it is someone I am really interested in. I have not read any of Mr. Steinberg's other works, so I don't have anything to compare this book to.

I am sure that many people would find Mr. Steinberg interesting and like his snarkiness, but I do not fall into that camp.

Despite how I felt about this book, I would like to read some of Mr. Steinberg's other works. He can obviously write and I would like to see if his other works would interest me more.

***I received this book through Goodreads Member Giveaway. This did not affect my opinion.*** ( )