Description
This is a memoir, written as an out-of-order play.
I have begun with the final act, because it is the act that can be written by giving the least offense. That is saying a lot because it very near broke my father's heart.
Why?
Because it's the memoir of leaving the Mormon church, of willfully giving up the ticket to heaven I'd been written by the luck of birth, of being born into the heart of Mormonism, into the descendants of the community of saints formed around Joseph Smith who, after his martyrdom had migrated West to the Promised Land.
I had turned my back on my chosenness before the events described in this act, but here I describe making it official.
I make many excurses and digressions to explain Mormonism to the puzzled outsider.
I am always generous, although occasionally sarcastic (or am I occasionally generous but always sarcastic?)
Be assured, good reader, that the tale that unfolds will be worth your dollar!
Which is why I ask that you also pray for my soul.
Reviewers have described this memoir variously as: "Rivetting," "Fascinating," "Pure Drivel," "Apostasy," "Blasphemy," "The Ravings of a Lunatic Mind,"
"Ideas Man is already going to hell so he may as well go to hell for such shameless schilling of his own product."
and then there's this:
"Ideas Man as a damnable fool. He thinks he's being clever, but there's little to nothing clever about him. He grew up believing he was chosen. He came from the choicest of chosen people. He grew up in a family that had claim to notoriety but chose to dissemble it and act as though he believed he were normal. It's a damned lie, and he's revealing it to be the lie it is."
This review was written by a fictional character, though I'm not sure which. It may have been written by the fictional descendant of Joseph Smith, whose novelized life I've written about elsewhere. It may have been written by the fictional version of me, whose life split from mine when his mother (but not mine) died and who will show up in a later Volume (and earlier Act) of this Memoir. It remains to be seen.
Here's another review:
"Ideas Man stole the idea of writing his own reviews from his uncle. His uncle was excommunicated soon thereafter. Ideas Man left of his own volition. This memoir will tell you why. But don't take my word for it!" --- Lavar Burton
or:
"Ideas Man may have stolen the idea of writing his own reviews from his uncle, but his uncle stole it from a self-published hack who could barely write in the English language. By the way, Ideas Man is a self-published hack who can barely write in the English language." --- Om Raja
or:
"Look, they all stole the idea from Laurence Stern. Ideas Man may wish he were the author of Tristram Shandy, but I plagiarized that book to great effect centuries ago." --- Denis Diderot.
Will you please give a dollar to what the author truly believes to be the first post-modern Kindle-only product description?
Buy this book!
But don't take my word for it.
