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At the Journey’s End
by Annette Lyon
Reviewed by Jennie Hansen
Rarely does a book get it all together
as At the Journey’s End by Annette Lyon has done.
The cover is beautiful, one of the best I’ve seen on LDS fiction.
It is well-edited, the copy is clean and smooth, the research is
remarkably well done, the characters are real and vital, the plot
is compelling and fast-paced, and perhaps most importantly, it is
superbly written.
Click to Buy
 Many
readers who enjoyed House on the Hill came to care
about Abe Franklin and wanted the story to continue. Lyon acceded
to this demand and At the Journey’s End is the result.
As much as I enjoyed the first book, I found this second volume
superior to the first. From the stories surrounding the St. George
temple to the journey undertaken by two hurt people seeking a meaningful
future, this book is a carefully crafted and polished addition to
any reader’s “keeper” shelf.
Abe is Indian, sold by his mother to
a Mormon man as an indentured servant. That man in turn, sells
the eight-year-old boy to another couple, the Franklins. Abe comes
to love his adoptive mother who is kind and loving to him, but he
hates her cruel and abusive husband. He grows to hate the Church,
too, because his stepfather professes to be a devout member and
because of the many incidents of racial prejudice he suffers at
the hands of people who attend Church and claim to be good Mormons.
Following the death of the stepfather
and the pain of losing a woman he loves and wished to marry, Abe
returns to his adopted mother and they grow closer, though Abe doesn’t
feel that he fits into the Mormon community. The lynching of a
black man leads him to feel he isn’t safe. He leaves, not knowing
his mother is ill. His journeying eventually takes him to Snowflake,
Arizona, where he buys a home and makes plans for his mother to
join him. She is thrilled and excited to join him and to meet in
St. George where she can finally go to a temple to receive her temple
blessing.
In Snowflake, Abe’s path crosses that
of Maddie. Two-and-a-half years earlier, Maddie’s fiancé had been
murdered by an Indian while the young couple followed the Arizona
honeymoon trail on their way to St. George to marry in the temple.
Now she is traveling that route again with her pregnant sister,
her sister’s husband, their two young children, an elderly woman,
and Abe.
Though the book is technically an historical
romance, any non-romance fan who sets the book aside will miss a
really good historical adventure. The romance is kept low key and
is not of the mushy variety. Fans of real love stories will be
impressed with the depth and quality of the relationship between
these two characters, one a committed, obedient Mormon woman whose
faith has been tested and a man who has been subjected to some of
the worst degradation and pain that can be inflicted on a young
man.
Though it is not a romance in the modern
sense, At the Journey’s End is not the usual conversion
story either. It is a rich, powerful story about people and places
far from the more familiar Church stories of that time period.
Lyon handles touchy subjects such as
bigotry, abuse, and polygamy in a straightforward manner without
excuses. She’s bluntly realistic without being offensive. She
paints a believable picture of the sun-scorched, dangerous trail
the Arizona Saints had to follow to maintain contact with the Church
in Salt Lake and to participate in temple ordinances, and she does
it smoothly without intruding the background beyond the story.
I found her understanding of the workings of the human hearts behind
the story one of the most powerful elements of the story.
At the Journey’s End
receives my highest recommendation.
Published by Covenant Communications,
340 pages, $15.95
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