Review
Original Review Date: 7/18/1995
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Title: Bright Angels & Familiars: Contemporary Mormon Stories
Editor: Eugene England
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Short Story Anthologies
Year Published: 1992
Number of Pages: 368
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 13: 978-1560850267
ISBN: 10: 1560850264
Status: Available online
Reviewed by John Espley for the Association for Mormon Letters
Review date: 7/18/1995
Table of Contents
Introduction: The new Mormon fiction / Eugene England
1. Where nothing is long ago / Virginia Sorenson
2. They did go forth / Maurine Whipple
3. Opening day / Douglas Thayer
4. The week-end / Donald R. Marshall
5. The people who were not there / Lewis Horne
6. Sayso or sense / Eileen Gibbons Kump
7. Hit the frolicking rippling brooks / Karen Rosenbaum
8. Born of the water / Wayne Jorgensen
9. The christianizing of Coburn Heights / Levi S. Peterson
10. I am Buzz Gaulter left-hander / Darrell Spencer
11. Windows on the sea / Linda Sillitoe
12. Woman talking to a cow / Pauline Mortensen
13. Benediction / Neal Chandler
14. Lost and found / Michael Fillerup
15. Family attractions / Judith Freeman
16. At the talent show / Phyllis Barber
17. The fringe / Orson Scott Card
18. Dry Niger / M. Shayne Bell
19. Dust / John Bennion
20. Outsiders / Margaret Blair Young
21. Iris Holmes / Sibyl Johnston
22. Whole other bodies / Walter Kirn
Other notable Mormon stories and collections
Notes on the authors and acknowledgments
As with most short story collections this one is a mixed bag. Some of the stories I found enjoyable and interesting; others I found boring; and some were just incomprehensible to me. Other people would probably have the opposite reaction. I read a lot fiction because I like “stories”. I like my fiction to have a plot to it. If the story does not tell a “story” (there is a conflict something happens to somebody whatever) I do not like it. All of the stories in this collection are literate in the sense of being well written but not all are to my taste.
England’s introduction is very interesting. He gives a brief history of Mormon fiction writing and provides insightful comments on the authors of the stories in this collection. He contrasts these stories with “home literature” which is still being produced today. “Home literature” is “didactic and sentimental stories published in official church publications or by official or semi-official presses.” [p. xii] In contrast these stories that England chose “occasionally describe in precise and relevant language troubled thoughts and human frailties….” (xix)
There are some very good stories in here. Notably Virginia Sorenson’s about a man who killed another man over water rights (a uniquely Western if not Mormon story) and Neal Chandler’s “Benediction” about a Gospel Doctrine class that any former Sunday School teacher can relate to. Other enjoyable ones include: “They did go forth The Christianizing of Coburn Heights” “At the talent show” and “The fringe.” The stories that were the most enjoyable were the ones that are easily identifiable as “Mormon”. They dealt with unique Mormon themes of priesthood organization three Nephites missionary work etc.