Thankful for five

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Last year I wrote about five books that have shaped my sense of what Mormon literature can be. This year I can share five works that have fine-tuned this sense. It’s been a dandy of year.

(Although my slapdash image-making for this post should impress no one.)

Mormon X: Confessions of a Latter-day Mutant by Ben Christensen

 Ben is an old friend of mine (with the result that I knew how his serial/blog novel before he did). His story was uneven at points, but let’s be careful judging what was, essentially, a rough draft. The most important aspects of Mormon X are that it dealt successfully with What’s Happening Now as what was happening now was happening now, and that it grew in audience as the story unfolded. In other words, Mormon X successfully found an online audience for serial fiction. It didn’t make him rich or anything, but it worked as fiction and it succeeded as serialized fiction. Now that we have proof of concept, I would like to see some more of this, please.

Thanks, Ben!

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We Were Gods by Moriah Jovan

 I had a hard time choosing between this and its sister volume—they both succeed but have different strengths—but although Paso Doble  taught me much, We Were Gods at times seemed to be about my own marriage. Since the reason I wanted to choose these novels is because of how intimate and personal they feel, I choose the one more personal to me, the portrait of a marriage in which his attempts at being unselfish reveal an inner core of selfishness—a weight she has to bear along with all her other weights. Although the details of their marriage ultimately diverged from my own, the moments it felt too true were humbling and led to some self-analysis. Whether I gain much is now up to me. But once again, literature has gone and made the foolhardy attempt of turning me into a better person.

Thanks, Moriah!

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Of Many Hearts and Many Minds: The Mormon Novel and the Post-Utopian Challenge of Assimilation by Scott Hales

Scott’s PhD thesis will, I hope, become a book that everyone can add to their Ikea or iPhone shelves because his thoughtful and deep analysis of the history of what the Mormon novel is and what it has done and can do is enlightening. It was hard to read without comparing his arguments against every Mormon work I love and, indeed, all of my own work. This is a breakthrough the likes of which we’ve not seen since England was trying to break apart Cracroft and Jorgensen.

Thanks, Scott!

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Field Notes on Language and Kinship by Tyler Chadwick

Tyler has a love of language that is more conscious that most language lovers’. He not only knows what he likes but he knows why he likes what he likes and why liking what he likes is a like worth knowing. Plus, this is the first book to which the only reply I could find was to write a collection of poetry. That’s got to go for something, right?

Thanks, Tyler!

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Love Letters of the Angels of Death by Jennifer Quist

This is my favorite book read in 2014. Without serious competition. I loved loved loved Love Letters of the Angels of Death and it breaks my heart to think that most people might remember this book for a stupid review brouhaha. So please remember this: Quist’s novel is virtuous and lovely and praiseworthy and freaking beautiful. And unlike Moriah’s novel that showed me where to improve as a husband, Jennifer’s captures everything I love most about my marriage. (My wife read it, incidentally, and saw that aspect. She also kind of hated the novel except for the final section. Ah, the people we love.) Accept no caveats. Read this one and decide for yourself.

Thanks, Jenny!