Jon krakauer nationality

Interview

Jon Krakauer replies to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' official response to his latest book 'Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith.

At the end of June 2003, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints issued an official "response" to my new book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Disseminated nationwide more than two weeks before my book was scheduled to appear on bookstore shelves, this preemptive attack was authored by Richard E. Turley, Jr., a high-ranking church official who serves as managing director of the LDS Family and Church History Department. In his lengthy, carefully worded screed, Elder Turley characterized Under the Banner of Heaven as "a decidedly one-sided and negative view of Mormon history." According to his assessment, my book was written as "a condemnation of religion generally," and the Mormon faith in particular.

It saddens me that Elder Turley, speaking for the LDS leadership (and by extension for the church as a whole), elected to regard my book in such a reductionist light. Other reviewers have assessed Under the Banner of Heaven quite differently. As critic Edward Morris wrote in the July issue of Bookpage, "Raised among Mormons he greatly admired, Krakauer treats their religion--in all its theological shades--quite seriously. There's never a snide remark or sarcastic aside. But the ...