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The tension between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gay community has escalated in the past year. Although all sides have experienced stress and heartbreak in the conflict, the people who have been most severely affected are those who attempt to identify with both groups. In Jonathan Langford’s new novel, No Going Back, the reader follows a young boy trying to come to terms with his newly discovered homosexual attraction while retaining his LDS faith.
Langford, an active member of the LDS Church and recipient of two English degrees, wrote the novel after noticing the lack of books in which the protagonist deals with this issue.
“So far as I know, there still aren’t any novels out there written for the Mormon young adult market where a teenager—Mormon or not—has a friend who turns out to be gay, which is just unrealistic, given the world we live in,” Langford said.
The book begins with Paul Ficklin, the teenage protagonist, telling Chad Mortensen, his best friend and the son of the local Mormon bishop, about his attraction toward other men. The rest of the story follows the reactions of characters as they discover this fact—intentionally or not—and face the same perceived conflict between how they should feel toward gay people and the reality of the situation.
No Going Back is a coming-of-age story, but it manages to not fall into the formulaic pitfalls of that genre. Langford handles the characters with an authenticity that might baffle those who have already made firm assumptions about either of the groups. Although there are many characters who retain a strict us-versus-them attitude, they mainly serve as acknowledgement of the closedmindedness of some people. In one such example, a close loved one disowns Paul and prohibits any interaction with his kids because of the “risks” involved.
Although the story is well-written, it is unlikely that it will hold much interest with people who are not involved in either side of the subjective conflict. People who do hold opinions one way or the other, however, will find allies in the book and might be surprised when ideological opponents defy their generalized and expected behaviors.
Regarding the effects he desires for the book to have on readers, Langford said he hopes No Going Back “might help (Mormons) to see same-sex attraction not as something utterly alien, but rather as simply a challenge some people struggle with.”
He said that he hopes non-LDS people will gain understanding of how someone could make the decision not to act on orientations because of religious beliefs.
The novel is being published through Zarahemla Books, which specializes in literature with Latter-day Saint themes that is too unconventional to be marketed by retailers such as Deseret Book and Seagull Book. It is also a finalist in the General Fiction category of this year’s Whitney awards, which specialize in acknowledging literary achievements by LDS authors.
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