The focus of this book is on the founding of the Mormon religion. Although the first chapter is about the Smith family, the focus is on the spiritual as it relates to the family members. There are two maps showing where most of the action takes place, but several towns important to Smith are not on these maps which was confusing to me. Also the only photo was on the cover. I was looking for more personal, biographical information and this wasn't the place for it. I think that the Prophet was an interesting man, but I didn't understand him at all. Perhaps the title should have merely been "The beginnings of Mormonism" because that was truly what this book was about. ( )

Finally finished this one last night. It was a struggle! I found his style of writing to be very dry and uninteresting. I skipped a lot of parts. I mean, I did not want to read this big long section on the Erie Canal! Who cares?

But I did find a couple of things to think about. One was about how Joseph Smith grew into his calling as prophet. After the First Vision, he didn't automatically know everything. He had to learn things, line upon line, just like the rest of us. Even after he got the golden plates, he had to learn how to translate. It was a reminder to me that I need to be patient in learning and to be more patient with others as they learn and grow in the gospel.

The other valuable thing I took away was how overwhelming the persecution was for the entire Smith family and their friends from the very beginning. I couldn't believe that Joseph Smith Sr. was thrown into jail mostly because of the printing of the Book of Mormon! He was an old man at the time, but that didn't prevent him from being persecuted.

Still, I sure wouldn't read it again and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else. I thought at the end how much better this book would have been if it were written by someone else. I never felt moved by the events described in the book and never felt that the writer was talking about things that were deeply meaningful to himself. Very disappointing. ( )