Elders by Ryan McIlvain

Elders

by Ryan McIlvain

A glorious debut that T.C. Boyle calls "powerful and deeply moving" that follows two young Mormon missionaries in Brazil and their tense, peculiar friendship.

Elder McLeod—outspoken, surly, and skeptical—is nearing the end of his mission in Brazil. For nearly two years he has spent his days studying the Bible and the Book of Mormon, knocking on doors, and teaching missionary lessons. His new partner is Elder Passos, a devout, ambitious Brazilian leaning hard on the salvation he recently found in the church after his mother’s early death. The two young men are initially suspicious of each other, their work together at first frustrating and fruitless, their burgeoning friendship tenuous. So when a beautiful woman and her husband invite them in and offer them a chance to share their teachings, the Elders’ practice is at once put to good use, testing the mettle of their faith and their patience as partners. Before they can bring the couple to baptism, Elder McLeod and Elder Passos must confront their own long-held beliefs and doubts, and finally face the simmering tensions at the heart of their camaraderie.

Unsparingly honest and beautifully written, Elders is by turns a compelling portrait of a friendship in the balance and a poignant reflection on the binding nature of faith.

Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content

Reviewed by Rowena on

3 of 5 stars

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When I first picked this book up to read for review, I was expecting something completely different from what I actually got with this book. I thought I would be getting a story about two missionaries and their struggles on their mission and while I did get that, the story that I was expecting wasn’t the gritty, honest story that I read.

Growing up in the Mormon Church, I heard it all. I heard the surprise in people’s voices when they found out that I was Mormon because I’m so “normal” and I heard all the questions and teasing about not being able to drink coffee and multiple wives and so on. A huge part of my testimony growing up stemmed from what my parents thought and believed to be true and reading this book brought back a lot of memories of myself when I was going through the whole doubting phase of my life.

Elder McLeod is an American missionary serving in Brazil. He’s very outspoken and brash and kind of reminded me of the guys before they left on their missions. Elder Passos is more reserved, more staunch in his beliefs and these two missionary companions are as different as night and day and their struggles were significantly different but I thought they were both interesting characters.

This story wasn’t an easy story to read, reading it from my own personal experiences with the Mormon Church. There was a lot of honesty in the struggles that both Elders went through and sometimes, a lot of that honesty was hard to read. These two guys weren’t perfect and this book highlights those imperfections. It covered a lot of everyday things that aren’t a big deal to the everyday person but are to members of the Mormon Church who expect more from their members.

Overall, it was a story that was at times compelling but there were many times when it was so easy for me to put the story down for many different reasons. I could only take McLeod and Passos in small doses because while they were interesting, they were also very annoying throughout a lot of the story but in the end, I’m not mad that I read this book. I don’t think it’ll sit well with other Mormon readers but I will say that it was an interesting read.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 October, 2013: Finished reading
  • 21 October, 2013: Reviewed