'Bound on Earth' shows triumph of familial commitment

Angela Hallstrom

"Bound on Earth"

Life has been tough for several members of the Palmer family — vocational disability, mental illness, wayward child, broken marriage, runaway child, almost-broken marriage, to name some of the challenges.

Angela Hallstrom in her novel "Bound on Earth" tells of three generations' struggles to overcome trials that frequently strain, and at times break, familial bonds.

Hallstrom is a superb writer and does an excellent job weaving the story lines of different time periods. And if the reader ever does get lost — as I did a couple of times after I'd had to put the book down for a while — among the generations, there is a short genealogy guide at the front of the book, and the chapter table of contents has a chronology.

With so many struggles going on in one extended family, the path of least resistance for this story line would have made it read like a soap opera. But the author gives believable personalities to the characters, and I never found myself tiring of their lives as they were lived on the book's pages.

And a little nugget for anyone who has lived in the west-side Salt Lake suburbs: You'll recognize a few of the locations.

Hallstrom lives in South Jordan, with her husband and four children. She has won awards from Irreantum magazine, Dialogue, Utah Arts Council and the Salt Flats Annual Emerging Writer Fiction Contest.

There are a couple of mild sexual references in "Bound on Earth" — certainly nothing more than you'd hear on typical network prime-time television. Some readers will say, "That's reality." Others would say, "They're gratuitous; the story could have been told just fine without them."

I would have not given those incidents a second thought if this were a typical mass-market book, but if a reader is expecting a "typical LDS-market novel," these would be jarring.

If you're looking for uplifting, you will find that also. The bonds of familial commitment — both by blood and by marriage — can be strong enough to withstand what life throws at us.

E-mail: daves@desnews.com