A DAUGHTER OF ZION

Ms. Hunter wrote a fictional version of a Mormon childhood in A House of Many Rooms (1965) and this is a memoir of her life and work in a Utah community of Latter Day Saints as a young housewife and Church worker. And how Sister Hunter worked -- teaching, organizing youth activities, attending endless meetings, and there is even one horrendous session supervising a group Of the faithful in food canning. Through all of Sister Hunter's wildly energetic days and her loving recollections -- of grandfather who spent his last years in her home and good friends and neighbors -- the outsider can catch a fair glimpse of the essentially closed Mormon society: ""There are circles within circles in Zion, and no gentile can belong."" The author gives an account of the Stake and Ward theocratic organization, the tithing and assessment systems, and some revelations about Church ritual and theology. She is openly critical of the ""believe and obey"" syndrome and the Church's discriminatory practices against women. But the criticism is gently respectful. Although Sister Hunter's labors in the vineyards produce a sympathetic fatigue, this unusual if casual view of the Mormon way casts a little light unto the gentiles.