Stewart, “A New Age of Miracles : A Mormon History Novel” (Reviewed by Dennis Clark)

Review

Title: A New Age of Miracles : A Mormon History Novel
Author: Mahonri Stewart
Publisher: Prospero Arts & Media
Genre: Historical Fiction
Year Published: 2020
Number of pages: 202
Binding: Paperback
ISBN10:
ISBN13: 979-8-6357-6376-4
Price: $12.00

Reviewed by Dennis Clark for the Association for Mormon Letters

The temptation one faces in writing historical fiction is twofold: to stick too closely to the history, or to move too far into the realm of fiction.  I have wrestled with the former in writing a long narrative poem on the life of Joseph Smith, rough stone, rolling water.  I am currently wrestling with the latter in writing a long narrative poem on the “hidden years” of the life of Jesus, tentatively titled Cross Training.  Mahonri Stewart, in A new age of miracles, straddles the two, one foot in each realm, as it were.  This is the proper posture, but one hard to maintain.

That Stewart does maintain such a posture makes his novel well worth reading.  Stewart has clearly done his research.  He prefaces each chapter with quotations from various sources relevant to the chapter’s theme, often a quotation from a Christian theologian followed by one from the Book of Mormon, with each one dated. This helps set the context for each chapter, especially in the light of the ferment brewing in the burned-over district at the time this novel is set. Juxtaposed with these quotations is a chapter of the fiction, often following the events familiar to readers of Mormon history, but just as often elaborating obscure events in that history with a dramatist’s ear for dialogue.  In fact, much of the novel is presented in dialogue, reflecting Stewart’s experience as a dramatist.  Occasionally the identity of the speaker is lost in the dialogue, most often in the invented scenes — but usually the dialogue is easy to follow.  In this regard, Prospero Arts & Media could use a good editor, but the story is nonetheless compelling.

One example of the elaboration of the fiction is the introduction of Sally Chase, who teaches young Joseph to see into her green seer stone — by setting it in an upside-down hat and sticking his face into the hat to block out the light.  When Joseph, using her seer-stone, finds his own, Sally comes to regret teaching him, because Joseph becomes the chosen peeper for the local treasure-diggers, who include his father. This is an honor Sally coveted.  Since neither Alvin nor Hyrum want to continue the digging, young Joseph joins his father in the night-time digs, and leads Sally’s brother Willard to chip a piece of a stone off a stone box that sinks out-of-reach, and in another night-time dig find his own seer-stone.  Most of these details are elaborated from mere mentions in the historical sources, but they serve to explain why Willard and Sally will later attempt to steal the plates of the Book of Mormon — in the next volume, not yet published, in this series.

And this is a series, book one in A society of prophets — a promising title.  This novel draws to a close with the introduction of two prayers in chapter nine, “Petitions.” In one Stewart introduces nine-year-old Emma Hale, in Harmony, Pennsylvania.  Her petition, a prayer in a grove that her father overhears, leads to a stronger bond with her father.  The other petition is Joseph’s.  His petition, preceded by a fictive examination of the tools of his trade as a treasure seeker, leads to the night-time visits from Moroni.  That part of the chapter maintains strict adherence to the narrative in the Pearl of Great Price, but includes elements of careful elaboration in the description of the way the light operates, and what Moroni says.

In the next chapter, ten, entitled “Gold,” Stewart moves furthest from the historical record accepted by most Latter-day Saints in recounting Joseph’s visit to the buried plates on what we now call the Hill Cumorah.  He enlists dubious toads and salamanders haunting the stone box; they function as familiars of a being described thus:

“The pale, but powerful spirit, this dark lord of hosts, then gave one last look of contempt at Joseph, and, with a motion, the shadowed hosts parted for him, like a bleak Moses walking into a Black Sea.  He walked into the darkness, his followers closing the gap behind him, enveloping their chosen king, and trailed him into the night” (192).

In the next and final chapter, Joseph starts telling his family about his visions, for the first time elaborating what has happened to him.  The chapter is called “Trust,” and it strikes me that any storyteller needs his readers to trust him — especially when he is elaborating on a story for an audience so familiar with his sources.

Trust Stewart, and give this novel a try.