A review by liralen
Confessions of a Latter-day Virgin: A Memoir by Nicole Hardy

4.0

Men, in particular, are often faulted for their singlehood. Our leaders will stand at the pulpit and say, “If you are a young man of appropriate age and are not married, don’t waste your time in idle pursuits. Get on with life and focus on getting married…make your highest priority finding a worthy, eternal companion.” The implication is always the same: life is married life, when you’re LDS.

Single women, rather than being chastised, are reassured that since we’re not at fault for not having been chosen, we’ll be rewarded after death with marriage and children. Every time someone offers up this platitude, I bristle. I wonder if it helps anyone—the earnest assurance that everything will be better, once we’re dead. (112)

I read roughly the first two thirds of this some time ago, then concluded (not for the first time) that I absolutely loathe reading on my phone, and gave up. By the time I found myself a hard copy, I'd forgotten enough to start at the beginning again, and I'm glad I did: this made me giggle out loud in a month when I've needed that; better, it made my mother laugh out loud and ask to read the book before I returned it to the library.

The Mormon part of Hardy's experience is one that I truly don't understand, but she has quite a lot of perspective on it—to say nothing of quite a lot of humour. Quite pleased with this one (and not only because it made my mum laugh).