September Dawn

Carole Whang Schutter (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2007) PB 254pp.

Reviewed by Kurt Van Gorden

This book, as stated on its cover, is “based upon the film, September Dawn,” which places it in a different category for reviewing, since I have already seen the film. The upshot of this was that the book was faster reading, but not any less pleasant. I often found myself recalling vivid movie settings, scenes, dialog, and events as I read through this fast-paced book. That, by itself, made it an added pleasure, since the actors and their voices replaced creating my own imaginative characters. I liked it.

Writing a historical novel is difficult and tricky, since, on one hand, the author has a commitment to a certain level of genuine history, while, on the other hand, the author needs the liberty to create a novel that captures the imagination. Here, Schutter succeeds quite well by translating us into the gun-toting, polygamist-married, Mormon setting of the Utah Territory under the iron-fisted rule of Brigham Young in the 1850s. Beneficial, too, is how Schutter rounded the edges on the history of this event by adding new items not found in the film, like what happened to the orphan victims of the massacre.

I read Mormon history regularly, since it is prerequisite to being the director of the Utah Gospel Mission. As such, I do not have to know every nuance of Mormon history hidden in obscure diaries, but I possess enough to discuss it with Mormon historians without falter. The Mountain Meadows Massacre is one of my favorite areas of study, so I looked forward to Schutter’s work. The pioneering book on modern research into the subject was The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks (Stanford University Press, 1950). I own a very rare first edition of this book that was signed by Juanita Brooks. My wife and I also had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Brooks in 1988, when she was 90 years old, at a nursing home in St. George, Utah. She died the following year.

Since her time, others have set forth solid histories of the massacre (Will Bagley, Sally Denton) and of great importance are the earliest books (John D. Lee, J. H. Carleton, Josiah Gibbs). These belong strictly to the historical bookshelf and provide a secure basis for historical fiction, such as what Schutter has written. The only other historical fiction on the massacre that I am aware of is Gerald Grimmett’s The Ferry Woman: A Novel of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (Limberlost Press, 2004). Unlike Grimmett, who was praised for his insightfulness in viewing the massacre from the viewpoint of one of John D. Lee’s wives (Lee was the only person tried and convicted in this crime), Schutter, in contrast, has endured an unrelenting and overly harsh criticism of her work in the film script, which will certainly affect readership of her book. The book needs to stand independently on its own merits.

The film, September Dawn, directed by Christopher Cain, was criticized unlike anything I remember in recent years. It was very strangely labeled “anti-Mormon,” right out of the chute by non-Mormon reviewers, which term is usually reserved for the Mormon press when it finds anything other than complimentary of its faith, but here we find non-Mormons slinging the term as if it was everyday verbiage. I worked in Utah for thirty years and lived there for a number of years. Rarely did I see that term used outside of the context of the Mormon press.

Then there were fictional reviews, as I call them, that were geared to steer people away from seeing the film by stating that it contained things that it did not contain! It makes me wonder if those reviewers were just liars or did they see the wrong film? That leads to another anomaly—the repetitious clichés used by several reviewers that questions whether they saw the film or only saw someone else’s review. Finding few other substantive problems, they reduced their review to lashing out at actor John Voigh’s beard (which shows how little they know of historical Mormonism, since I can show a number of Mormon leaders from that era with the same kind of beard).

The most unprofessional, in my opinion, was Roger Ebert, who went on a twenty-line tirade about religions, Nazis, war, and Muslims, all of which had nothing to do with the movie and provided an unconnected soapbox for his politics. When he finally got around to the film’s content, his comments were so larded with Mormon back scratching (rah, rah, for Romney), that it baffles the mind. With this in the film’s backdrop, then I truly do not expect raving reviews for the book. It will be hard to find a book reviewer not tainted by the unfair film reviews.

On the historical side, Schutter lays a good roadmap of the 1850s Utah Territory and its Mormon residents, right down to several correct names that are not overshadowed by her fictional characters. Shcutter makes plain in her book that she is an evangelical Christian. She demonstrates a loving hope of genuine salvation for her readers, whether LDS or not. This part was my only question, not that I fault her in any way, since as a Christian I also believe that what we put our hands to must glorify our Lord. But my question is whether her book will succeed in the non-Christian secular market or will it be resigned to a Christian audience and book market? Time will only tell, but for now, it can be ordered from your favorite Internet booksellers or from your favorite book retailer. Recommended reading.