I recently (finally!) finished reading Richard Bushman's new biography of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling. It was not quite the book I expected, but in the end, I think it was more satisfying than the book I expected would have been. Let me tell you why.

As a sixth-generation Mormon, I know quite a bit about LDS Church history. I've read plenty about it (though not as much as some people I know). Not only am I familiar with the background of Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Brigham Young, I'm also familiar with other less well-known but similarly important figures such as John C. Bennett, Thomas Sharp, and Alexander Doniphan. But never before had I read a book exclusively about Joseph Smith. The stories I know are certainly entertwined with him, but I was hoping for more detail and more facts from Joseph's experience to augment my knowledge.

In that I was disappointed. As I reached familiar points in the narrative, I found myself recalling details from my memory that weren't included in the book. Various times I thought Bushman rather glossed over some important stories that I know are better documented than what he presented. To cite just a couple of examples, I know a lot more detail than what he told about Joseph's childhood leg operation, Haun's Mill, the storm at Fishing River, and even Joseph's death. Although I admit that if you were to include all the available details about every story in Joseph Smith's life you'd end up with a book far longer than anyone would dare read, I still felt a little gypped from time to time, because I felt that Bushman--a person far more familiar with the facts than I am--would be able to impart to me more facts that I hadn't heard before. Instead, he gave me fewer.

Instead of facts, though, he gave me understanding. This book was presented as more of a "cultural biography" than a complete factual biography. What I found that meant was that Bushman tended to focus on Joseph's own perceptions of what was going on around him, and his motivations for doing what he did. Rather than try to prove or disprove some of Joseph's fantastic claims, he looked instead at what Joseph believed and how that made him act. The result is that although I already knew about Joseph, I came to know him a little better through this book.

For example, I knew all about how Zion was supposed to be founded in Independence, Missouri. But Bushman stressed Joseph's feelings about that commandment, and in particular the angst and secondary plans that came about when the Saints were expelled from Jackson County. I knew also, that Joseph had mounted a campaign for President of the United States in 1844, just before he was killed. Now I have a better idea of why he made that decision, and what it really meant to him.

Rather than presenting a series of facts, Bushman does a great job at actually presenting a person. The emphasis isn't so much on what happened to him; it's on how he felt about what happened to him. That, of course, is the best way to connect with a person.

When I got to the very end of Joseph's life, I was once again surprised at the lack of detail in the factual narrative. In just a few short paragraphs, Bushman whisks through Joseph's last night in jail, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," the assembling of the mob, and the fatal attack. I already knew much more about the martyrdom than Bushman told me. But as I was reading, Shelly and Ellie were playing on the floor nearby, and Shelly suddenly turned to me with a look of concern, because she could tell something was wrong.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The Prophet just died," I responded, my eyes wet and my heart heavy.

Of course I knew he was going to die, and I knew how and when and where. But over the course of these pages, Joseph became real to me--to the point that I mourned his death anew.