The New York Regional Mormon Single Halloween Dance by Elna Baker | Book Review

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker
Genres: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Religion
Original Publication Date: 2010
Source: I purchased this book
Goodreads
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon

It’s lonely being a Mormon in New York City. Every year, Elna Baker attends the New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance. This year, her Queen Bee costume (which involves a funnel stinger stuck to her butt) isn’t attracting the attention she’d anticipated. So once again, Elna finds herself alone, standing at the punch bowl, stocking up on Oreos, a virgin in a room full of thirty-year-old virgins doing the Funky Chicken. But loneliness is nothing compared to what Elna feels when she loses eighty pounds, and finds herself suddenly beautiful… and in love with an atheist.

The New York Regional Mormon Single Halloween Dance: A Memoir

Elna Baker’s book is a refreshing look at a Mormon girl’s experiences in New York.

Baker decides to attend New York University to study acting and become an actress.

How can a virgin survive in the big bad city?

Baker is continually caught between her faith in her Mormon religion and her natural physical desires.

When Elna first arrives in New York she is a Mormon and a virgin. She is also quite overweight.

Elna loses eighty pounds and enjoys the sudden attention she gets from men.

She becomes rather successful at standup comedy:

Analysis

She enjoys kissing but because of her religious beliefs cannot go further. It especially causes problems when she falls in love with non-Mormons.

What’s interesting about the book is that Elsa has a great sense of humor and she’s not afraid of sex, actually, her sense of humor is surprisingly raunchy at times!

She’s not judgmental of others at all which helps a great deal with living in New York.

The only problems with the book? Elna certainly seems to have no money problems (her father apparently was an executive at Boeing and the family lived all over the world), and sometimes, just like any twenty-something, she is quite self-absorbed.

Here is an interesting view of the book by another member of the LDS:

Elna Baker’s The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance and the LDS Publishing Dilemma

Please read my review of the gripping memoir The Orchard by Theresa Weir.

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