Review
Original Review Date: 8/4/1995
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Title: Turning Hearts: Short Stories on Family Life
Edited by: Orson Scott Card and David C. Dollahite
Publisher: Bookcraft
Genre: Short story collection
Year Published: 1994
Number of Pages: 307
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 13: 978-0884949480
ISBN: 10: 0884949486
Status: Out of Print
Reviewed by Gregory Woodhouse for the Association for Mormon Letters
Review date: 8/4/1995
Turning Hearts edited by Orson Scott Card and and David Dollahite is an anthology of short stories by LDS authors that focus on family relationships within an LDS context. I found this book very compelling. In fact my delay in’ writing about this book is hardly due to my not having read it — I could hardly put the book down!
“Family Relationships” is a very broad subject area to be sure so it may be difficult to know what to expect from a volume such as this. And in fact the stories included range widely in theme and approach. Perhaps it would be easiest to list a few of the stories I enjoyed most:
“Possum Funeral” by David Dollahite — This story recounts the struggles of a father trying to come to terms with the death of his own father shortly before his eight birthday and baptism. As the story opens his own son is about to turn eight.
“Mallwalker” by Jerry M. Young — This story portrays a developing romance between two senior citizens who at first met only incidentally during their morning walk at the mall.
“Worthy to Be One of Us” by Orson Scott Card — In many ways one of the most complex stories in this volume this story explores intergenerational conflict feelings of inadequacy but most significantly how our past experiences affect our relationship with and understanding of other family members.
“That My Soul Might See” by Richard H. Cracroft — Essentially this is a theodicy with an intergenerational twist. It also gives us much to consider about the nature and purpose of the mission experience.
“Tim” by Kristen D. Randle” — An account of a family’s experience taking in a boy who has grown up in a dysfunctional home.
In reading through these stories I had ample occasion to consider what it was that I found so compelling in them. The simplest answer I have is that they generally represent what I call “interior” fiction. That is the focus is very directly on the thoughts and feelings of the characters involved rather than on external plot. That may not be stated very well. I think of internal dialogue exploration of language culture conflict tension between the individual and community and so on.