I won’t bury the lede: I liked this book until I didn’t.
First, a brief synopsis of the story: Former Hollywood stuntman turned Mormon convert Bronson Powers is living on his land in the Joshua Tree desert of California with his two wives and six kids. At the same time, a young real estate executive, Maya Abasessa is looking for her first big deal—what her boss calls a “unicorn,” that once in a lifetime deal that makes millions for all involved.
After finding out about the Powers homestead, May and the family make a wager: three of the kids will go to public school, the other three will continue to be home schooled. At the end of one school year, all the kids will take a standardized test. If the home schooled students do better, Maya will walk away and help keep the authorities off their back; if the public school students score higher, the Powers sell a part of their land, and still get help with the authorities. Due to ensuing events, the deal is never concluded because of a firefight with park rangers resulting in the shooting death of Bronson and the destruction of all the buildings in the homestead.
Duchovny’s writing makes it clear he did his research on the history of the Mormon religion, particularly Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. The version of Mormonism that the Powers practice is steeped in the way the founder’s preferred. Maya’s character is one of a millennial businesswoman who wants to make a name for herself with all the resulting benefits. But in the end she gives it all up to find her own happiness. These character studies are an interesting read, and there is something to take from it.
The writing overall is very detailed—from the description of the desert landscape to the inner workings of San Bernardino County, where the kids go to public school—-and takes you into these places and everything in-between. This is what a novel is supposed to do.
Having said that, I am now a the point I don’t like. I don’t want to write a political blog, but I can’t fully review this novel with out mentioning that former president Trump and his policies feature heavily in the back half of this book. Like all of us, Duchovny has the right to his opinion (and it is blatantly obvious what his opinion is), but I read a novel for entertainment, not to be preached at. In my opinion, what Duchovny did is lazy writing and the easy way out. I would have more respect here if he made up a president—at least there would be some sort of creativity in that.
However, that’s not what he did, so the best I letter grade I can give “Truly Like Lightning” is a C-.
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