Bills, Greg. Consider This Home. Simon & Schuster. Mar. 1994. c.320p. ISBN
0-671-79873-1. $21.00
[FICTION]
Set in modern-day Utah and Nevada, this novel tells the story of one woman's trials
and tribulations among her Mormon contemporaries. Kath and her son, Daron, conceived by a
homosexual man, suffer in an overly orthodox, stifling Mormon household after she returns
home to help her father deal with her mother's desertion. Tom, Daron's father, and his
lover, Artie, provide some needed stability for Daron during this trying time. Bill's
novel is ambitious, but though parts of it are well-written and developed, ultimately it
is disjointed and bloated. The plot is overwritten and melodramatic, and the reader will
spend much time trying to figure out transitions in time, place, and voice. Bill's
attempts at whitebead humor, using names like JuLee, Covis and PearLeen for Kath's
relatives, is overdone. Librarians looking for fictional accounts about Mormons and
Mormonism may want this book for public library collections. Everyone else can skip.
[Literary Guild Selection.]
Kevin M. Roddy, University of Hawai'i at Hilo