Of the World If Where You're Going Isn't Home Book 2 edition by Max Zimmer Literature Fiction eBooks
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"Of the World" is the second book of the groundbreaking coming-of-age trilogy "If Where You’re Going Isn’t Home," the story of a boy growing up Mormon in America with a dream to play jazz trumpet. It follows "Journey," the first book of the trilogy, and the recipient of a coveted ForeWord Clarion Five Star Review.
At sixteen, licensed to drive, armed with his trumpet and a talented band, Shake Tauffler begins to slip the harness of his home and neighborhood to test himself in the raw world of the streets and nightclubs of Salt Lake and its outlying towns. His threatened parents intensify their attacks on his emerging sexual and moral consciousness. Jazz and its negro heroes still define him, but his church takes off its gloves to teach him that in God’s eyes negroes are anything but heroes. The Huck Finn days of "Journey" are over; this is the rebel Shake, conflicted, torn, haunted by the faceless mystery of never being good enough and a hunger he can’t name, roaming the night alone or with his hoodlum pals, looking for refuge in hot cars, chance girls, violence, the cry of his trumpet, the faces of the American night.
In "Of the World," the Shake we met in "Journey" takes on tougher obstacles, extends his reach, becomes streetwise, and continues to meet the senseless forces of his life openly, with courage, wit, defiance, joy, and wonder. He joins the Army and becomes a tanker. He embraces the freedom from his past, the simplicity and sense of life in the real world, and the chance to define himself from scratch among his fellow soldiers. But his past rears up when he falls in love and has to face the ruthless racial dogma his faith has tried to breed in him. He returns home, a man and a hero, to a family and church who are quick to remind him who and where he is. A mission when he turns nineteen lies just ahead. The road of the life he built is ending. One last defiant self-affirming act takes him across the American desert to close it down his way.
As the promised continuation of the first book, "Of the World" is for readers who enjoy losing themselves in a big American story. It is alive with scenes that weave the lives of his family, his band, his church buddies, and his hoodlum pals into a rich, kaleidoscopic, constantly moving narrative. The reach of its settings takes in Salt Lake and its outskirts towns, the secret holy places of the Mormon Church, the landscapes of Nevada, California, Las Vegas, Kentucky, the Mojave Desert.
Michael Strong, co-founder and COO of Zola Books, says this about the trilogy
“Max Zimmer has written the Great American Mormon Novel. For decades, readers have depended upon a few extraordinary writers to understand fully what it means to be an American – Philip Roth, Julia Alvarez, Ralph Ellison, Erica Jong, John Updike. Zimmer has added a critical new dimension to our shared national understanding of who we are and how we got here in this sweeping narrative. Twelve-year-old Shake Tauffler’s decade-long journey through the Mormon Church and beyond will resonate with all Americans who ponder their soul and place in our changing national portrait.”
Of the World If Where You're Going Isn't Home Book 2 edition by Max Zimmer Literature Fiction eBooks
Max Zimmer has captured my experience (only as a girl) in growing up in the Mormon Church. While at BYU (1960-64) I left the church because I could not reconcile a number of doctrinal positions with my widening experience in the world. Back then I had quite a bit of angst in my departure and animosity as well. However, 50+ years later I see that animosity as necessary to make the cultural and familial break. I have not been "mad" at the Mormon Church for many, many years and tend to view them from an American History/ sociological lens coming out of the evangelical movement in the early 1800's. However, reading this story touched old nerves and old pain. Even though I came from a big Mormon family, and know the tenets well, Max offered me the inside view of how indoctrinated young boys are in the system of bestowing the "priesthood". They are separated from women and told that they are uniquely special and superior. The sexism hit me in the face from a new perspective, insider chauvinism. Women are conditioned in this help maiden role to this day. This view of men and women was typical in the society of the 1800's as was the racism. While the church was pressured to change their doctrines by "revelation" to include black males because of the civil rights movement and the backlash that was happening towards them then, they have not changed their rules to include women as equals. I was struck again how the Mormon Church political involvement in funding prop 8 in California against gay marriage has also had a backlash. As society moves to allow equal rights for gays the church may have to acknowledge that civil marriage is a secular one, and that the separation of church and state should be honored. Needless to say Max Zimmer has captured and articulated the inside culture of this church with amazing truth telling.Product details
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Of the World If Where You're Going Isn't Home Book 2 edition by Max Zimmer Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Max Zimmer's "Of The World", the second book in the "If Where You're Going Isn't Home" trilogy, more than meets expectations. His first book, "Journey - If Where You're Going Isn't Home" is a hard act to follow but Zimmer doesn't disappoint.
Young Mormon, Shake Tauffler, talented jazz trumpet player and eldest son of a seriously dysfunctional family in Bountiful, Utah, takes us along with him on his journey on the road to manhood getting his driver's license and falling in with boys that drive fast cars, cruise for girls and beat up rich kids for kicks. He walks a tightrope at home trying to understand and get-along with his mother and father, trying to be a good big brother to his troubled younger brother Karl and an example to his younger siblings, Roy, Molly and Maggie. After high school he joins the Army, becomes a tanker and befriends a fellow soldier, a black man named Jeff. Jeff invites Shake home to San Jose, CA and Shake falls madly in love with Jeff's sister, Cissy.
Shake's Mormon faith teaches him that blacks come from the seed of Cain and are intrinsically inferior to Mormons; God gave them black skin to mark them and punish them for siding with Lucifer. They can never achieve the heaven that is open only to Mormoms who hold the true faith. Shake's strong feelings for Cissy and her family and his basic goodness make him question the teachings of his religion. He now knows that all of it has to be true or none of it is. You can't take one thing out and believe all the rest of it.
Even though his belief system is shaken to the core, his strong sense of duty to his family wins out. He accepts his mission. He prepares for 2 ½ years in Austria and is initiated as an elder in the Mormon Church. Many secrets of the church are revealed in a chapter which reminded me of my own fraternity initiation that included secret passwords and secret handshakes and oaths to never speak of what happens upon the penalty of death. Is this really what goes on in that Temple in Salt Lake City?
The book ends with Shake boarding the plane for Austria.
Will Shake complete his mission in Austria? Will he retain his faith? Will Cissy be waiting for him when he gets home? Will he have a successful jazz career? I can't wait to read the final book and find out.
Once again, Max Zimmer has hit a home run with the second installment of his trilogy. The book continues to examine the life of a young Mormon, Shake Tauffler. Having endured the pedantic schooling in Mormon tradition and taken part in the many rituals of that church, he is perplexed by many of the inconsistencies between church teachings and the realities of life within his rigid and strikingly dysfunctional family. Through his high school years he has matured and become wonderful musician, a jazz trumpet player. Also, while never owning his own car, he becomes a valued resource to many friends due to his mechanical skills. And it seems that outside the immediate influence of the family and institutional pressure, he is a likeable fellow, truly a "regular guy".
After graduation from high school and during a short stint in the Army reserve, he becomes a master tank driver earning recognition for his outstanding performance. Also, while on leave from his military duties, he meets and subsequently falls in love with an amazing young woman, for him a dream come true; she is not, however, somebody who would be readily acceptable to his parents. The continuing conflict between Shake's sense of duty and his desire to be his own person leaves the reader with a sense of the synthesis that is taking place as he stretches and grows, morphing into the person that he will become.
As the story ends, Shake prepares to leave for his mission. The end of this volume leaves the reader wondering, "What will happen next"? Stay tuned. I certainly am anxiously awaiting Book three.
Max Zimmer has captured my experience (only as a girl) in growing up in the Mormon Church. While at BYU (1960-64) I left the church because I could not reconcile a number of doctrinal positions with my widening experience in the world. Back then I had quite a bit of angst in my departure and animosity as well. However, 50+ years later I see that animosity as necessary to make the cultural and familial break. I have not been "mad" at the Mormon Church for many, many years and tend to view them from an American History/ sociological lens coming out of the evangelical movement in the early 1800's. However, reading this story touched old nerves and old pain. Even though I came from a big Mormon family, and know the tenets well, Max offered me the inside view of how indoctrinated young boys are in the system of bestowing the "priesthood". They are separated from women and told that they are uniquely special and superior. The sexism hit me in the face from a new perspective, insider chauvinism. Women are conditioned in this help maiden role to this day. This view of men and women was typical in the society of the 1800's as was the racism. While the church was pressured to change their doctrines by "revelation" to include black males because of the civil rights movement and the backlash that was happening towards them then, they have not changed their rules to include women as equals. I was struck again how the Mormon Church political involvement in funding prop 8 in California against gay marriage has also had a backlash. As society moves to allow equal rights for gays the church may have to acknowledge that civil marriage is a secular one, and that the separation of church and state should be honored. Needless to say Max Zimmer has captured and articulated the inside culture of this church with amazing truth telling.
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