[I am continuing to republish the Mormon Literature Year In Review columns that I first posted on the AML-list discussion list. Here are my 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 reviews. My 2008 (Part 1a, 1b, 2) 2009 (Part 1, 2), and 2010 (Part 1, 2) reviews appeared at A Motley Vision, and then in the years after that they appeared on this blog.]
Mormon Literature Year(s) in Review, 2006-2007
Since 1999 I have written an annual review of the trends within the world of Mormon prose literature, theater, and film. In 2006 I let the year slip by without getting to the reviews. I will try to make up for that with a review of both 2006 and 2007. I divide my review into two parts: prose literature by Mormon-specific publishers and prose literature for national publishers.
Part 1: Mormon-market Literature, 2006-2007
Literary books published by Mormon publishers, 2000-2007
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
|
Covenant |
15 |
19 |
25 |
33 |
39 |
39 |
25 |
33 |
Deseret Book/ Shadow Mountain |
12 |
9 |
8 6/2 |
13 12/1 |
13 10/3 |
13 10/3 |
10 8/2 |
18 13/5 |
Cedar Fort |
12 |
15 |
19 |
23 |
27 |
25 |
21 |
24 |
Granite |
3 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
14 |
8 |
8 |
6 |
Zarahemla |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
2 |
4 |
Spring Creek |
– |
– |
– |
– |
8 |
6 |
3 |
4 |
Mapletree |
– |
– |
– |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Signature |
1 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Golden Wing |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
1 |
1 |
Parables |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
3 |
0 |
Other |
7 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
17 |
15 |
3 |
1 |
Total |
50 |
52 |
66 |
82 |
122 |
107 |
77 |
94 |
Not surprisingly, the Mormon fiction market has followed the national book market closely. LDS publishers produced cognates to Harry Potter, Left Behind, Tuesdays with Morrie, and The DaVinci Code. Women appear to dominate the buying market, with romances and stories about adult women dominating the best seller lists. Several notable literary novels also appeared in 2006 and 2007. A few came through the established Mormon presses, but a significant number came from two new independent publishing houses which opened for business in 2006.
The event with the greatest potential impact on the Mormon publishing world in the last two years was the acquisition by Church-owned Deseret Book of privately-owned Covenant Communications and its sister company, Seagull Books and Tapes, in December 2006. This came after a dispute over sales practices between the two companies that became public in July 2006. Covenant and Deseret Book were by far the two largest publishers in the industry, and not coincidently Seagull and Deseret Book were the two largest bookstores. This acquisition, paired with its previous acquisitions of Bookcraft and Excel, gives Deseret Book a virtual monopoly in the market. Deseret Book has promised to keep management of Covenant/Seagull separate from its own management structure, and signaled that the acquisition would not result in a contraction of the market. So far they appear to be true to their word. The number of books published by the Covenant has not declined due to the acquisition, nor has the number of Seagull bookstores changed significantly. Still, the domination of the market by a single ownership is cause for great concern.
The rate of literary book publication (novels, short story collections, poetry collections, and memoirs) in the market has gone through considerable change in recent years. In the first half of the decade the number of fiction titles published in the market rose dramatically, from 50 in 2000 to an all-time high of 119 in 2004. The number of new books then stalled, however, dropping slightly to 107 in 2005, and plummeting to 76 in 2006. The market appears to have gathered renewed strength, as there were 94 new fiction titles published in 2007, despite the Deseret/Covenant merger.
Deseret Book published 18 novels in 2007, a huge jump from 10 in 2006. Deseret publishes its fiction under the Deseret Book or Bookcraft imprints for books intended solely for a Mormon audience, and Shadow Mountain for those with some potential for national sales. It has made for itself a reputation as the highest-status publisher in the industry, attracting a majority of the best-selling authors in the market.
Before 2005, the only Shadow Mountain books which had an impact on the national market were those written by previously established national authors such as Orson Scott Card and Anne Perry. This began to change in 2005, with the publication of Obert Skye’s Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, a young adult novel with no LDS content, which was intended to follow in the wake of popularity of the Harry Potter books. This foot in the door was widened in 2006 and 2007 by the success of Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. Paperback rights for both series were picked up by national publishers. The second book in the Fablehaven series reached #8 on the New York Times Children’s Chapter Book bestseller list, a success never before seen by a Mormon publisher. This achievement was followed a few months later by the national success of Jason F. Wright’s sentimental novel The Wednesday Letters, which reached #6 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book remained on the list for the next several weeks.
Jason F. Wright’s The Wednesday Letters is a heart-warming tale of grown children finding letters from their deceased parents. Publisher’s Weekly writes, “It’s a lovely story: heartening, wholesome, humorous, suspenseful and redemptive. It resonates with the true meaning of family and the life-healing power of forgiveness all wrapped up in a satisfying ending.” Not my cup of tea. The Leven Thumps books have received mediocre reviews for relatively clunky writing. Brandon Mull’s fantasy series Fablehaven, on the other hand, has been a favorite in my home. Orson Scott Card appears to have felt the same, as he declared the first volume 2006’s “Best Family Novel”. He wrote, “If you like to read books together as a family, here’s the best choice this year.It’s the story of a brother and sister who discover that their grandparents are guardians of a preserve for mythical creatures, where some pretty terrible things can happen — especially when the kids don’t think they have to obey the rules of this place.” Several reviewers have called Mull’s plot mechanics “overfamiliar”. These same reviewers, however, note that the series is “rousing . . . rich in creatures, magic-working, hard-fought battles, plots within plots and chemistry among its main and supporting casts” (Kirkus). Mull and Shadow Mountain also began a new series in 2007, The Candy Shop War, aimed towards a slightly younger reader. Kirkus Review reports, “Mull trots his twist-laden plot forward to a well set-up climax . . . he dishes up a crowd-pleaser as delicious-if not so weird-as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Some Mormon readers have reported being put off by the sometimes rebellious and/or foolish actions of the young protagonists of Mull’s books.
Other Deseret Book authors whose recent works have received good to excellent reviews include Dean Hughes, Josi Kilpack, Kay Lynn Mangum, and the team of Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke and Carroll H. Morris.
Dean Hughes is the most dependable author in Mormon literature, every year providing at least one excellently crafted tale of Mormons in the 20th century. In 2006 he produced Saboteur: A Novel of Love and War, about an American paratrooper dropped behind enemy lines in World War II. In 2007 he produced Before the Dawn, the story of a hardscrabble middle-aged woman called to lead a Ward Relief Society in a rural Utah town during the Great Depression. Hughes is indefatigable in his efforts to recreate the details and feel of his chosen period, and always provides a smooth, satisfying read.
Josi Kilpack has made a reputation for herself as a skilled “issue” author, crafting tales about contemporary Mormons facing social ills and concerns within their communities, homes, and themselves. 2006’s Unsung Lullaby was a gutsy work exploring infertility, illegitimacy, and challenges faced by those living on Indian reservations. 2007’s Sheep’s Clothing is a more tautly written book about an internet predator gaining influence over a teenage Mormon girl. Jeff Needle writes, “Her style in this book reminded me a lot of the suspense writing of Mary Higgins Clark which really worked well for Kilpack’s story. The book is full of great morals and is educational as well as entertaining.”
Kay Lynn Magnum has become known as a chronicler of the teenage psyche. Her 2006 novel Love Like Lilly and 2007 novel When the Bough Breaks were complex and well developed tales. Jennie Hansen writes of the latter, “Mangum does a commendable job of getting inside her characters’ hearts and minds at a depth few writers manage . . . I enjoyed the book immensely, though I found the sheer volume of poetry and the textbook explanations of various types of poetry overdone. This is one novel I highly recommend for teenagers and their parents.”
Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke and Carroll H. Morris have produced the first two volumes of a trilogy, The Company of Good Women. Deseret News reviewer Dennis Lythgoe wrote, “This is a delightful story of unexpected friendship blossoming for adult women. It’s not the stereotyped LDS novel about resisting temptation. Each woman discovers that, along with the role of husbands and children in their lives, friendship with other women is not only a genuine need but a wonderful surprise. The writing style is witty and lighthearted.” Several readers have commented, however, that they found it difficult to become engaged with the novels.
Covenant published 32 novels in 2007, up from 25 in 2006, consistently the largest number of titles in the industry. There is some concern among authors at Covenant that under the current ownership they will be treated as second-tier authors, with their books always appearing in paperback in their initial run, without the marketing push given to Deseret Book publications. While the marketing implications remain to be seen, in terms of quality Covenant books have improved greatly in recent years. Toni Sorensen Brown and Gale Sears’s novels have been as high literary quality as any recent Mormon fiction. William Boyd Gardner, Jennie Hansen, Annette Lyon, H. B. Moore, Jeff Savage, and Robinson Wells have produced admirable genre novels, and David Farland, Rob Ficiur, K. L. Fogg and Patricia Wiles have produced compelling juvenile novels.
Toni Sorenson Brown’s 2006 novel Redemption Road may have been the most highly praised novel published by Covenant. Jennie Hansen raved about the book, writing, “Lana is an unlikely heroine for an LDS novel. She is twice divorced, hasn’t been inside a church for twenty years, and carries a lot of baggage from a lifetime of rebellion and an abusive marriage. Africa, especially the dirty slums of Nairobi, is not the typical setting for an LDS novel, either. Brown’s style is deceptively simple. Her words are plain and direct, yet something deeper lurks beneath the surface of this seeming innocence — not unlike the crocodiles, lions, and parasites that lurk in the ponds and tall grasses of Kenya, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey.” Redemption Road was the first Covenant novel to win the AML Prize for Novel. The prize citation read, “Lana’s affection for the people she meets, especially the young orphan boy Jomo, entangle her in a world of illness, suffering, indifference, and death–a world that seems designed to make people question the existence of God. Yet it is this world that brings Lana to an understanding of her own relationship with God that, for her, would have been impossible to find anywhere else. Brown tells this story with a straightforward honesty that allows the reader to explore the contradictions that lie in the heart of gospel life–faith versus hopelessness, privilege versus poverty, cruelty versus love.”
Another Covenant author known for her literary chops is Gale Sears, who produced the second and third volumes of a series of novels set in the 1910s, Until the Dawn and Upon The Mountains. Jennie Hansen wrote, “Until the Dawn fits my definition of literary, but at the same time has the strong appeal of a genre novel. . . . Sears treats a number of social issues that were of paramount importance during the early twentieth century. These include women’s rights, education, the plight of minorities, and the impact and divergent opinions concerning American isolationism. She also deals with those issues that affected turn-of-the-century Mormonism as the Church was forced to face: the disruption of families by the Manifesto, the impact of statehood, and the intrusion of the world into their isolated valley sanctuary in the mountains. Characters in this novel are multi-dimensional and are not always likable, but neither are they static. Their growth changes not only the characters, but also the reader’s reaction to them, making some characters more likable and some less. The author does an excellent job of making less likable characters better understood, bringing greater understanding of these people to her other characters and to her readers. Like William Faulkner, she has a knack for portraying minor characters in a way that gives them greater importance and prevents them from becoming stereotypes.”
Genres such as mystery, adventure, and romance have long been staples at Covenant. Recently a collection of Covenant authors have honed their skills so that their books rival those found in the national market. Jeffery Savage’s Dead on Arrival was the second in a non-LDS series built around a female detective, Shandra Covington. Savage has frequently been singled out by his peers as a model of strong mystery writing. Author Julie Coultor Bellon wrote, “He leads his readers carefully down one path, then another, keeping them on the edge of their seats with this fast-paced suspense. I dare any reader to try and put it all together before it’s revealed, it’s that good. The story gave me chills, and at the same time I was so fascinated by the mystery and final reveal that it was almost impossible to put down once I’d started.”
Robison Wells’ novels could be shelved in either the humor or adventure sections of a bookstore. 2006’s The Counterfeit won Wells raves for its strong characters and plot, as well as a sharp sense of humor. William Boyd Gardner received favorable notice for his 2007 international thriller The Operative for both its character development and nail-biting suspense. Traci Hunter Abramson, Kerry Blair, and Betsy Brannon Green have also received strong reviews for their mysteries and adventures.
In historical fiction, H.B. Moore produced a four-volume series, Out of Jerusalem, based on the opening section of the Book of Mormon. She did a fine job of walking the tricky line of faithfulness to the scripture and creative storytelling. Her composition skills increased greatly over the course of the series, so that the fourth volume was one of the most exciting scripture-based novels I have ever read. Annette Lyon, meanwhile, has also gained a following for her mix of adventure and romance in a series of books about pioneer communities in the years soon after the Mormons’ arrival in Utah.
Covenant also published some excellent middle-grade and young adult fiction. The most impressive is Patricia Wiles’ four-part Kevin Kirk Chronicles, a humorous but also emotionally true story of a boy’s conversion, and the experiences and tragedies that accompany him on his way to young adulthood. The first two books of the series were awarded consecutive AML prizes in 2004 and 2005. The final two volumes kept up that level of excellence. Jeff Needle wrote, “There’s lotsto smile about here.But there’s also a lot of sadness in this book. Once again, the authoris not afraid to confront life head-on. . . Tragedy does come, and as it enters Kevin’s life, we see the Lordworking through those tragedies as he works through them to an ultimatetriumph.”
Three Covenant juvenile series reached their second volume in 2007. Jeff Needle has raved about K. L. Fogg’s Serpent Tide, commenting, “This powerhouse of a novel . . . manages to introduce a wide variety of characters, and each is verbally painted to perfection . . . some of the characters are sufficiently nuanced that it isn’t always clear whose side they’re on . . . I’m really tremendously impressed. Fogg is an excellent writer, keeping the reader’s interest from one chapter to the next . . . [she] deserves to be read by LDS teens looking for a fantastic read.” Rob Ficiur’s Time Travelers in Church History series follows modern kids traveling back to Joseph Smith’s time. Needle wrote, “A perfectly marvelous little book for young Latter-day Saints. . . . It’s exciting, entertaining, and above all, filled with the richness of the history of the LDS church. I’m so pleased to recommend it.” Finally veteran author David Farland produced The Wizard of Ooze, the second in his Ravenspell series, about a boy transformed into a mouse. I have not seen any reviews of this second volume, but I assume a fantasy author as accomplished as Farland has produced a quality work.
Cedar Fort is the one remaining independent publisher of significant size in the Mormon fiction market. The number of titles Cedar Fort publishes has remained at a high level, comparable to Covenant and Deseret Book, for the last several years. While they occasionally publish a remarkable work, overall the quality is much thinner than the two larger publishing houses. Two authors that stand out in recent years are Marilyn Brown and Harold K. Moon. Brown’s Serpent in Paradise was a bold psychological crime novel based on Richard Dutcher’s movie Brigham City. A finely crafted novel, perhaps never has an author for the Mormon market dared to write as dark a work as this. Jeff Needle wrote, “At times wrenching, and always captivating, Brown shakes us out of our complacency and challenges us to look more deeply into our own spiritual commitment.” Harold K. Moon produced two remarkable literary works in the last two years, Ghost Coach and Horse Stone House. Of the latter, Richard Cracroft wrote, “In a nicely wrought style, tone, and setting which recall Jane Austin (the book could even be called Prayer and Prejudice) and (a lighter) Thomas Hardy, Harold K. Moon, a masterful storyteller, creates one of the best LDS conversion novels to date.”
Two other recent Cedar Fort novels which have garnered praise are Janet Kay Jensen’s Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys, which portrays a contemporary polygamous community, and Roger Terry’s I Am Not Wolf, a novel of friendship and betrayal, set in Germany.
Spring Creek Books, Granite Publishing, and Mapletree Publishing are smaller publishers which produce only a few Mormon novels a year. Julie Coulter Bellon’s romantic thriller Time Will Tell (Spring Creek) and Jennifer Leigh Youngblood and Sandra Poole’s Stoney Creek, Alabama (Mapletree) were among the recent notable titles from those presses.
The most positive recent news in Mormon literature was the creation in 2006 of a pair of independent publishing houses that promise to deliver high-quality literary fiction to the marketplace. Both publishers were started by authors frustrated with the conservative limitations of the established publishing houses. Chris Bigelow, the former editor of the literary journal Irreantum, says that his Zarahemla Books publishes “provocative, unconventional, yet ultimately faith-affirming stories that yield new insights into Mormon culture and humanity.” Elizabeth Bentley has staked out a similar position for her Parables Publishing. Unfortunately both publishers have found it difficult to get their edgy titles placed in mainstream Mormon bookstores, and have therefore had to rely on internet publicity to sell their books.
Zarahemla has published four novels, a short story collection, and a memoir. The maiden publication was D. Michael Martindale’s novel Brother Brigham, published late in 2006. Its content probably made it the most difficult Mormon novel of recent years for mainstream LDS audiences to accept. Mahorni Stewart said it contained “very mature material, especially for an LDS novel. A good deal of sexual material, a scene of Satan worship, drug use, spiritual possession, polygamy– yeah, it’s not going to be on the top of Deseret Book or Covenant’s acquisition list . . . However, that being said, in the novel there is always a reason for vices to be included– ironically, almost always a moral reason. Evil is never presented as good, and for every wrong decision a character makes there are consequences– severe consequences. In many ways the novel is a morality tale. A warning against sin. Yet don’t expect some syrupy, clichéd piece of propaganda here. It is skillfully written, creating a realistic, complex, difficult world where everything is not as it initially seems. It’s a page-turner, the novel is a real heavy weight. Brother Brigham is a significant, thought provoking, faith affirming, and intelligently written novel.” Reviews of Brother Brigham were generally positive, although several mentioned that the ending was jarring or unsatisfying.
Another novel from Zarahemla was Coke Newell’s On the Road to Heaven, autobiographical fiction about a young hippie who converts to Mormonism, falls in love, and goes on a mission. While that sounds like a conventional plot for a LDS novel, Newell includes a drug experiment which plays a role the conversion, Thoreau ascetics and Ram Dass Daoism, and writes in style which pays homage to Jack Kerouac. Publishers Weekly wrote that Newell “never criticizes his church’s teachings, and some miraculous episodes strain credulity. Still, memoir readers as well as Mormons looking for a somewhat edgy affirmation of their faith will appreciate the lusty, brawling but tenacious missionaries and the tender love story in this sprawling coming-of-age tale.” William Morris wrote, “Newell tells a good tale, but he also furthers Mormon discourse, beautifully illustrating how powerful and fragile this whole idea of finding God is.” On the Road to Heaven was awarded both the AML Best Novel prize and named the inaugural Best Novel by the Whitney Awards, a new academy of Mormon literary figures.
Todd Robert Peterson used Zarahemla to publish a rare item in Mormon literature, a short story collection, entitled Long After Dark. Reviews have been unanimously positive, emphasizing Peterson’s literary skill. Steven Carter wrote, “Petersen’s prose is achingly beautiful. I don’t doubt that he pored over every word. In some places its closer to poetry than prose. If you’re thinking about buying the book for the love of language only, you should do so. You will not be disappointed in the least.” William Morris wrote, “Petersen’s work shows an awareness of American literature of the past several decades. These stories are post-post-modern, post-ironic, post-political, post-911, post-Roth, post-Carver, post-Eggers, post-multicultural, post-realism. They are genuine, non-fussy, cinematic, finely-crafted — lyrical but not precious, tough but not battering, sparse but not abrupt. They do not break amazing ground in form or tone or anything, really. They are eminently readable, and yet they feel very current . . . what I love about these stories is that they don’t challenge the basic tenets of Mormonism and yet they challenge the capacity of individuals who have the Mormon worldview to cope with the messy realities of life as well as the capacity of individual who don’t have the Mormon worldview to understand Mormons and Mormonism.” The Salt Lake Weekly wrote, “(Peterson explores) the contemporary Mormon experience with an openness too few ofhis contemporaries risk. The characters’ woes range from the simple (aman who accidentally sees a friend’s wife naked) to the profound (aconvert dealing with the father who never forgave him for changingreligions), but Petersen examines them all with honest, compassionateand clear-eyed prose, allowing his characters to stumble and doubt asthey attempt to reconcile their failings with their faith.”
Zarahemla also published the memoir Hooligan by Douglas Thayer. Thayer, a professor of English at BYU, was one of the founders of modern Mormon literature, and was its leading light in the 1970s and 1980s. After more than a decade without publishing any major literary works, it is wonderful to see Thayer produce in rapid succession the excellent 2003 novel The Conversion of Jeff Williams (an AML prize winner about a Utah Valley teenager) and this memoir of his own childhood. It is amazing that such an elderly man continues to make his career as finest chronicler of the Mormon childhood and youth in the culture. Thayer’s colleague at BYU, Richard Cracroft, wrote, “Thayer’s delightful memoir about growing up Mormon in the Sixth Ward of Provo, Utah, in the 1930s and ’40s will be, mark my oh-so-sagacious words, an LDS classic.Growing up in pre-industrial, impoverished, pre-Second World War simplicity, with fishing pole in one hand, a .22 in the other, and oodles of unsupervised free time on both hands, young Thayer became akeen-eyed observer of small-town Mormon life. But Hooligan is more than rich nostalgia about a bygone era (although it is that); it provides delicious insight into the mystery of growing up with itsinevitable losses and gains; it is a front seat on the timeless journey of Innocence to Experience.Young Douglas, determined to add a “Perfect Boy” pin to his Eagle Scout badge, runs, again and again, into the ironic brick wall between the wannabe Ideal Boy and the Real Boy. The result is a book fraught with wise, comical, ironical observations about the human condition, a wonderful book which will be treasured only by those who have ever been young (and seeking perfection) and aren’t anymore (asmuch). As I said, it’s an instant classic that you’ll find yourself reading aloud to others of your ilk.” Darlene Young wrote, “The biggest strength of the book is that although all of the reminiscences are firmly grounded in sensory details, I can still pick up the overarching feelings of what it’s like to be a child, new to the world and its philosophies. Thayer accurately and movingly conveys both the joys of childhood (swimming at night with water and moonlight sliding over your skin, sitting by the coal stove in winter) and its perplexities and loneliness. Especially moving to me is the aching of this small boy for a father who would take him hunting. Thayer’s genius is in never saying, ‘I was sad about that,’ but we feel it through his memories of watching the other boys go off with their fathers.”
At Parables Publishing, Arianne Cope’s debut novel The Coming of Elijah opened the publisher’s business with a literary bang. The novel is based on her family’s experience with the Indian Placement Program, and won the 2005 Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel award. The award committee wrote, “The work has real gravity. It is bracingly unsparing in its attention to the sheer awfulness and sense of deep cultural and spiritual betrayal and despair in the life of a Navajo-Anglo working-class family here in happy Utah Valley through the last five decades, dealing with the larger problems that the story of such a family reveals for a church that has aspired to enlighten the lives of people of all ethnicities.” Trevor Holyoak commented, “This book is the most disturbing LDS fiction novel I have ever read. Arianne Cope is like the female version of Orson Scott Card – she presents us with LDS people that actually live the struggles of the real world, rather than the nearly perfect people in a black and white world that we encounter in many LDS novels. This will probably offend some readers, however it makes for a very thought provoking story . . . The book is not kind in its treatment of the Church’s Indian Placement Program. It is also not kind in showing how un-Christ-like members of the Church can be. But the book is not anti-Mormon – it is ultimately faithful to the gospel although it is brutally honest. It shows the struggles and weaknesses that many members have, from immorality to unkindness to questioning their testimony. Richard Dutcher once said, speaking about the LDS film industry, that we needed more movies with people who need Christ. This book is about people who need Christ.”
Elizabeth Bentley, the owner of Parables, published her own novel In A Dry Land. Like The Coming of Elijah, it is an unstinting portrayal of a dysfunctional LDS family, this one torn apart by a severally retarded member of the family. Jennie Hansen wrote, “Readers who enjoy Thomas Hardy’s tragic style won’t want to miss this one. Those who like intense realism, hard choices, and don’t mind a dose of injustice, should give this book a try. The main character is a complicated heroine, whom readers will admire, pity, find annoying, cheer for, and never quite forget.”
Three other well-reviewed literary novels published in 2006-2007 were Chris Bigelow’s Kindred Spirits (Zarahemla), Jessica Draper’s Hunting Gideon (Zarahemla) and Eugene Woodbury’s The Path of Dreams (Parables).
I am aware of two poetry collections put out by Mormon presses in the last two years. Javen Tanner’s Curses for Your Sake was published by the New York City-based Mormon Artists group. Warren Hatch’s debut collection Mapping the Bones of the World was published by Signature Books. Signature put out only one other literary work in 2006-2007, David Kranes’ Making the Bones Dance, a well-reviewed novel, but by a non-Mormon author, and containing no LDS elements. For years Signature has been the primary outlet for quality literary LDS literature. Recently, however, the management has shown little interest in fiction, and they seem to be happy to give way to Zarahemla and Parables in this regard.
2006-2007 Mormon publishers’ best-selling authors (my estimate)
1. Anita Stansfield: 6 romance novels (Dance series and Barrington series) (Covenant)
2. Chris Stewart: 2 last days novels (The Great and Terrible series) (Deseret Book)
3. Rachel Ann Nunes: 4 women’s novels (Deseret Book)
4. Betsy Brannon Green: 4 mystery novels (Covenant)
5. Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke and Carroll H. Morris: 2 women’s novels (Deseret Book)
6. Dean Hughes: 2 novels (Deseret Book)
(I am not including in this list Shadow Mountain works intended for the national market)
Part 2: National-market Literature
2006 and 2007 saw a Mormon author rise to the very top of the best seller lists, a bevy of excellent authors in the young juvenile fantasy and contemporary genres, the emergence of a world-class adult fantasy author, several excellent debut novels, and a final work on Mormonism by of one of the most puzzling literary authors ever to call himself a Latter-day Saint.
Following the founding principle of the Association for Mormon Letters, these reviews look at literature that is written “by, for, and about Mormons”. Therefore I am interested in all literature written by Mormons, whether the works have any Mormon content or not. Writing about the Mormon literature market is relatively easy. I know who the publishers are, and know that virtually everything they publish counts as Mormon Literature. The national market is a bit trickier. I have to go by word of mouth to figure out who the Mormon authors out there are. That also brings up the issue of border definition. Should I listen to rumors saying that so-or-so author is not an active or believing Mormon? Does that matter at all?
My method is to include any author who I can confidently say is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, regardless of information about their activity, and regardless of whether they include Mormon characters or situations in their work. I also have some interest in non-Mormons who are writing about Mormon characters or situations in a serious way. If a writer has publicly announced they have left the Church, but still writes about Mormonism in some way, I include those works in my discussion (like Brian Evenson, discussed below). If an author has publicly left the Church and is not writing about Mormonism, such as Neil LaBute, I will stop considering their work for this essay.
2006 and 2007 saw a continuation of the decade-long trend of skilled Mormon authors making their greatest impacts in the national market writing in the national juvenile (young adult and middle school) genre and the speculative fiction genre. Orson Scott Card and others have held that these genres may appeal to Mormon authors because issues of moral behavior, heroism, and even religion are more appealing their readers than those of other genres.
The Mormon literature story of the decade may be Stephenie Meyer’s ascension as one of the country’s best-selling authors. By mid-2007 the first two volumes of what the New York Times called a “steamy occult romantic thriller” series–Twilight (2005) and New Moon (2006)–had 1.6 million copies in print. Eclipse spent eleven weeks at number 1 on the New York Times Young Adult Chapter Books bestseller list. The first printing alone of her third book, Eclipse (2007), was one million copies, and it entered the New York Times Young Adult list at #1, knocking Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from that position. In juvenile fiction, Meyer’s books have been second only to the Harry Potter series in terms of national popularity. As with Harry Potter, the series’ popularity with adults as well as young people has been central to its financial success. The books have been sold in 28 countries, and a film adaptation of Twilight is scheduled for release in December 2008. This sudden success for the first three novels by a young Arizona housewife, not long out of BYU, has been a marvel to observe. And the fact that this apparently sweet young woman has produced a “steamy occult romantic thriller,” makes it all the more intriguing.
Twilight received numerous literary accolades, named an “ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults,” an Amazon.com “Best Book of the Decade…So Far”, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. It was an engrossing read that drove thousands of readers to miss a night or two of sleep. Critical response to New Moon, the second volume, was just as good, although some began to tire or the melodrama and the passive character of Bella, the heroine. Jana Reiss, a Mormon and an editor at Publisher’s Weekly, wrote on her own blog, “readers who are looking for a stronger, more self-assured and independent Bella are going to be disappointed by this sequel. In fact, in some ways, she’s even more of a mess: she’s on a self-destructive warpath throughout most of New Moon, and her lack of self-respect can be painful to behold. She can’t seem to exist without clinging to some sort of man. It’s very irksome.Having kvetched about that — which is my only substantive criticism of New Moon — let me just say that this sequel hangs together as a novel more cohesively than Meyer’s debut book. I simply love, love, love it when I can watch a writer getting better. Not only is Meyer’s prose improving, but her character development is extending beyond Bella and Edward to include, fascinatingly enough, Jacob . . . And the plot is fast-paced, tightly woven, and often surprising . . . The way she weaves the Romeo and Juliet story through the novel is nothing short of genius.” Reiss continued, “When I read Twilight, I was intrigued by the subtle Mormon themes woven throughout the book, particularly the idea that is so central to the Book of Mormon: that we must overcome the “natural man,” or person, and strive for a selfless spirituality and a life that is lived for others. But New Moon is deeper and more introspective, opening with some provocative thoughts on religion (what is a soul? Do vampires have eternal souls?) and carrying that through with restrained but thoughtful ruminations on the nature of eternity . . . I feel like Meyer is leading us to a greater understanding of the chasm that exists between [the Mormon concepts of immortality and eternal life]. Bella, who takes her human life entirely for granted and can’t wait to shed the “burden” of being human, doesn’t yet understand the precious nature of her humanity and her soul. Edward, who is damnedly immortal and understands the chasm all too well, can’t make her understand what she is so ready to blithely throw away. It will be fascinating to see what happens next.”
Professional reviewers, however, were less positive about Eclipse, the third installment. Jana Reiss wrote, “I was easily able to put the book aside for weeks before I completed it. I also had to will myself to finish, which surprised me greatly.Why the dragging feet? Well, the dragging pace had a lot to do with my lack of enthusiasm. In the earlier books, Meyer created tight plots and demonstrated a natural talent for the ‘slow reveal’– the mystery novelist’s trick of giving the reader just enough information to keep her guessing and turning those pages. Here, however, the pacing is a disaster . . . Ideas and characters dance in and out with no follow-up . . . This book has ‘haste’ written all over it. Not only is the novel too long by at least a hundred pages, it is rife with typos and small errors throughout . . . I’m disappointed, as I had such high hopes for this book. I marked real progress in Meyer’s writing ability between Twilight and NewMoon.Perhaps she is having a delayed version of the all-too-common sophomore slump that many novelists experience — especially very successful ones. I think the real culprit is that this half-baked novel simply didn’t get the loving attention and revisions it richly deserved. Meyer is fantastically busy with promotions, fans, websites, book tours, and of course being a mom. If I [were] to say one thing to her, it would be this: take a break.”
Separate from Reiss’s concern about deteriorating literary quality, there has been considerable buzz by female Mormon bloggers disappointed in the depiction in Eclipse of the heroine’s desire to initiate a sexual relationship with her vampire boyfriend. Perhaps excited by the chance to share with their daughters an infatuation for an engrossing but clean romantic thrill, they are disturbed to find that narrators can be untrustworthy, and vampire relationships can be complicated.
While I enjoyed the two novels by Meyer I have read, I am enchanted by the work of Shannon Hale, another young Mormon author who has found success in the national young adult fantasy market. While Meyer’s novels are contemporary supernatural thrillers, Hale’s young adult books are set in sword-and-sorcery kingdoms. Her first three novels sparkled with imagination and craft, culminating in a Newbery Honor prize for Princess Academy in 2005. In 2006 she published River Secrets, her third novel set in the fantasy kingdom of Bayern. I enjoyed the story, but I thought it lacked the depth of her earlier works. The professional reviewers, however, disagreed with me. The journal Children’s Literature wrote, “Hale has an uncanny knack of grabbing your interest in the Prologue and not letting go until you finish the entire book. The chapter heading spurred me on to finish the book in one day. I could not put it down. This mystery is wonderfully written, boasts excellent character development and vivid descriptions that bring the scenery and characters of this magical land in full view.” A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews wrote, “Hale makes profound statements about war and peace, friends and strangers, men and women and all the different kinds of battle. Her language glimmers like firelight, like sunshine on water as she propels readers along a river of wonderful writing to the tumultuous and heart-tugging climax.”
In Spring 2007 Hale produced her first adult mainstream novel, Austenland, a humorous tale of a women so obsessed by Jane Austen that she spends a vacation in a Austen-themed resort. Hale tuned into some powerful zeitgeist, as 2007 saw the publication of several Austen-themed novels and two Austen-themed movies, one The Jane Austen Book Club, which had a premise similar to Hale’s. Reviews were mixed, with none of superlatives seen in the reviews of her young adult fantasies. Publishers Weekly wrote, “Though the narrative is endlessly charming, [the heroine] is convincing neither as a sarcastic single girl nor as a romantic idealist, and the supporting cast is underdeveloped. Nods to Austen are abundant in contemporary women’s fiction, and an intriguing setup and abundant wit are not enough to make this one stand out.”
Good for Hale for trying something new, but good for us when she got back to her forte. In Fall 2007 she produced Book of a Thousand Days, a young adult fantasy based on an obscure Grimm Brothers tale about a princess in a tower. Hale sets the tale in medieval Mongolia, and makes the imprisoned girl’s maid, Dash, the central character. Publishers Weekly wrote, “The tension between her unstinting loyalty and patience and burgeoning realization of her own strength and feelings for Tegus feels especially authentic. Readers will be riveted as Dash and Saren escape and flee to the Khan’s realm where, through a series of deceptions, contrivances and a riotously triumphant climax, the tale spins out to a thoroughly satisfying ending.” The reviews were universally strong, and the book was one of the School Library Journal Best Books of the Year and nominated for the ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults.
The Canadian author Martine Leavitt has created a string of award winning juvenile novels. In 2006 she produced Keturah and Lord Death, a fantasy about a poor, gifted peasant girl who gets lost in a forest, and meets Lord Death. Like Scheherazade, she beguiles him with a story she leaves unfinished, and receives a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. Booklist gave it a starred review, saying, “The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding–and it is as difficult to turn away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells to the people of her village . . . This novel gets so many things just right. Leavitt brings together a large cast of characters, but she personalizes them and weaves their stories into Keturah’s, making it richer, denser, and more intricate. The plotting moves in and out of the everyday and the supernatural, but it’s so finely tuned that the worlds seem one. Readers will be carried away on the wind of Leavitt’s words, and few will be able to guess how she finally ends her story.” Publisher’s Weekly, in another starred review, commented, “Well-tuned narration, at once plainspoken and lyrical, conjures the sunny, brimming village at fair time, but also the volatility of a vulnerable peasantry and the encroaching forest’s secrets. A fine achievement.” Keturah and Lord Death was a 2006 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature, and a Booklist Editor’s Choice and Top Ten Fantasy for Youth.
Dragon Slippers, the debut novel of Jessica Day George, is a middle-reader fantasy with a cast of quirky characters. A girl befriends a dragon and receives a mysterious pair of slippers that link her to a dangerous political plot. Booklist commented, “The plot elements are sometimes awkwardly stitched together, but the exciting, fairy-tale action and vivid scenes, from glittering dragon cave to posh dress shop, are captivating, and readers will easily connect with brave Creel, who weathers betrayals and learns to value true friends and her own talents.” VOYA noted, “The characters are wonderfully drawn, and Creel is particularly dynamic and strong. While staying solidly within the bounds of a traditional fantasy setting, George creates something new that will undoubtedly delight readers with its unexpected twists and turns, and the satisfying yet mysterious ending will leave readers clamoring for more from this first-time author.”
The Princess and the Hound, Mette Ivie Harrison’s third young adult novel, tells the story of a Prince who can communicate with animals, and uses this skill to understand his wife-to-be. Several reviewers noted that the plot was uneven. For example Booklist said, “The logic of Harrison’s complicated plot isn’t always clear . . . More compelling is George’s poignant emotional growth, as his heart, once set afire, helps him to reconnect with his own true self and to embrace his ascent to the throne. The tale’s perspective from that of a marriageable prince, not the more usual damsel’s view, makes this stand out from other novels set in a folklore-influenced framework.” Orson Scott Card, a mentor of Harrison, gushed about the book, writing, “After thirty years as a writer, critic, reviewer, editor, and writing teacher, I have seen few writers as creative and innovative as Harrison. Instead of fitting her stories into a pre-existing template, she confronts the challenges of the tale she wants to tell and finds ingenious and surprising solutions. The result, though, is nontraditional structure that . . . will displease some readers. That simply can’t be helped . . . The essence of speculative fiction is to give readers experiences they haven’t had a thousand times before. Harrison does this with emotionally effective, intellectually fascinating, and aesthetically pleasing stories. She is already one of the best, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.”
Brandon Mull and Obert Skye produced a number of young adult fantasy novels for Shadow Mountain in 2005-2006, which I discussed in part 1.
BYU professor Michael O. Tunnell wrote Moon Without Magic, a sequel to his well-received middle-grade Aladdin novel Wishing Moon. Kirkus commented, “Once again, Tunnel positively pours on the crises, disasters, quick journeys, showy magic, bandits, exotic locales and clever twists, but rather than recapturing that high-energy Arabian Nights feel, the plot just seems overstuffed and under-steered . . . A disappointing follow-up to a terrific opener, but the premise and characters are still strong enough to carry readers through, and even on to a future episode or two.”
Although Mormon authors of juvenile fiction have focused on fantasy, there have also been a few producing contemporary realistic novels. Two young women who released strongly reviewed debut novels in 2007 are Ann Dee Ellis and Olivia Birdsall. Ellis’ novel, This is What I Did, tells the story of an eighth-grade grade boy suffering from the mental repercussions of witnessing a violent act perpetrated on his best friend. The book has received fantastic reviews across the board. Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, wrote, “Part staccato prose, part transcript, this haunting first novel will grip readers right from the start. Fragmented scenes re-create, with grim authenticity, the almost claustrophobic perspective of the eighth-grade narrator, Logan, as he struggles to come to terms with his role in a despicable crime . . . In relaying the action chiefly through Logan’s terse observations and through script-like reproductions of dialogue, Ellis never veers from Logan’s point of view. In this way, she infuses the narrative with his guilt over what happened, the details of which are revealed only in a climactic finale. At the same time, the narrator’s frustration does not become the audience’s, thanks to Ellis’s skill in dramatizing his vulnerability. Readers will recognize themselves in Logan’s difficulty overcoming his shame, even if the scale of his experiences is larger than their own, and sympathy as well as curiosity about his circumstances will drive them forward.” School Library Journal wrote, “This novel is reminiscent of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time both in its layout and in the emotional flatness of the narrator. Readers are in the protagonist’s head, which, since he has been severely traumatized, is not always a pleasant place to be. But Logan is doing the best he can and is very likable. The odd layout – no chapters, only small sections that cover a thought or a moment in time – is a stylistic touch that could have come across as gimmicky, but instead tells the story in an inventive way. This is an intense, well-told story that will make readers think hard about how they would handle rough situations in their lives. Expect it to generate a lot of questions and discussion.” LDS author Liz Condie wrote, “She didn’t make her main character, Logan, overtly LDS, but there are some nice touches. When Logan auditions for the school play, he sings “Where Can I Turn for Peace?” and wonders if that’s okay, if you can sing about God at school . . . She didn’t de-Mormon her character; nor did his Mormonism usurp the story or distract from it. She was mindful of both her culture (and that of her characters) and of her national audience.”
Olivia Birdsall won the 2005 Delacorte Press Contest for a First Young Novel for her work Notes on a Near-Life Experience, the serio-comic story of a 15-year old girl experiencing her parents’ divorce and otherpressures. VOYA wrote, “Many elements in this work are familiar from other books about family problems, but there is a freshness about the snappy writing style and especially the dialogue that keeps the reader intrigued. Despite the too-quick ending and the incredibly forgiving Haley, Mia’s best friend, Birdsall creates sympathetic characters and skillfully depicts a teen having difficulty facing events that are sad, frightening, and overwhelming.” Publishers Weekly wrote, “Newcomer Birdsall is a smooth writer and punctuates her heroine’s self-absorbed navel-gazing with gimlet-eyed observations and wry humor . . . The heroine’s epiphany–that in order to work through her problems she’s going to have to admit to her patient psychotherapist that she has some–may not be climactic, but there’s succor here for kids in similar straits. Even teens whose parents’ marriage is intact will likely enjoy Mia’s world-weary view.”
Janette Rallison has carved a merry place for herself in the world of humorous teen-age chic-lit. Her 2006 novel It’s a Mall World After All won an AML Honorable Mention for Young Adult Novel. In 2007 she released two novels, How to Take the Ex out of Ex-Boyfriend, and Revenge of The Cheerleaders. I have never seen a negative review of her books, they appear to engender great good will. Spring Creek Books editor Tammy Daybell wrote, “I always enjoy Jeanette’s books that are written for the national teen audience. Her writing reminds me a lot of Meg Cabot, but her books are clean, and I wouldn’t mind giving them to my daughter read them.”
A bridge figure in moving the discussion from juvenile fiction to adult speculative fiction is Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson impressed me in 2005 with his fascinating debut fantasy novel Elantris. In 2006 and 2007 he produced the first two volumes in his Mistborn trilogy, subtitled The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension. Publishers Weekly wrote of the first, “This mystico-metallurgical fantasy combines coming-of-age-in-magic and its well-worn theme of revolt against oppression with copious mutilations, a large-scale cast of thieves, cutthroats, conniving nobles and exotic mutants. The fast-paced action scenes temper [the] interminable ballroom intrigues, while the characters, though not profoundly drawn, have a raw stereotypic appeal.” That novel won an AML Novel Honorable Mention prize. Of the second, Publishers Weekly wrote, “Sanderson’s entertaining second Mistborn novel begins after most fantasy series end, when the team of brave and cunning heroes find that holding on to power is even harder than overthrowing the previous tyrant . . .This entertaining read will especially please those who always wanted to know what happened after the good guys won.”
Sanderson also began a new comic children’s fantasy series, the first titled Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, about a boy who does battle with a cult of evil librarians. VOYA commented, “In this original, hysterical homage to fantasy literature, Sanderson’s first novel for youth recalls the best in Artemis Fowl and A Series of Unfortunate Events. The humor, although broad enough to engage preteens, is also sneakily aimed at adults.” Kirkus Reviews, however, wrote, “The premise is intriguing and Sanderson gets in some good digs at pushers of books about dysfunctional families and dying dogs, but the joke becomes tiresome with repetition. Awkward similes add absurdity but stop the narrative flow. Alcatraz often interrupts his story with comments about reading, sometimes predicting accurately that we won’t believe the events on the page. He doubts that librarians will recommend this book. He may be right.” One last piece of Sanderson news, he was chosen to finish write the final novel of the late Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel of Time fantasy series, a significant honor.
Brian Evenson, a post-modern horror author, is an amazing artist whose art I like to spend as little time immersed in as possible. He was once an instructor at BYU, but the violent nature of his work led to his dismissal from the university, and he has in recent years publicly distanced himself from the Church. Evenson has written several disturbing works featuring Mormon in the past. He claims he intends his 2006 novel The Open Curtain will be his last Mormon-themed novel. His anger at Mormonism is palpable in this novel, which explores an apocalyptic connection between religion and violence. It is the story of a troubled Mormon youth who is pushed over the edge when he learns of a true murder committed by a grandson of Brigham Young. Booklist comments, “The Mormon angle is not what is most interesting about this uncompromising novel; instead, it’s the convincing portrayal of a disturbed young man pushed to the breaking point by social isolation and religious extremism.” The Salt Lake Weekly, not always defender of Mormon culture, noted, “(Evenson) seems to be stuck on anger–which is a long way from understanding. Rants make for interesting literature when the emotion leads to insight, but Evenson . . . never quite reaches that level in The Open Curtain . . . His purpose in this book seems to be to throw the accusation of violence right back at the church as if to ask, “Who are you calling violent?””
In other speculative fiction news, superstar author Orson Scott Card produced Empire, near-future political thriller about a new American civil war between the left and right, The Space Boy, a short novel about a human and an alien boy who become friends, A War of Gifts, an short Ender Christmas novel, and, together with Aaron Johnson, Invasive Procedures, a gene-therapy thriller. David Farland produced the 5th and 6th in his Runelords series (Sons of the Oak and Worldbinder) as well as the second in his Ravensapell series for the Mormon publisher Covenant. Michael Collings published a Stephen King-style horror novel, titled The House Beyond the Hill. Other speculative fiction authors publishing books include Virginia Baker, Steven L. Kent, and Eldon Thompson.
In other national fiction, Richard Paul Evans produced Finding Noel and The Gift. The first is a heartwarming Christmas romance, the second a fantasy about a boy whose magic touch can cure others, but is killing him. Publishers Weekly said of The Gift,
“The tightly honed narrative, brimming with good intention to find courage in shared suffering, brings everyone together.” Several new books by the British author Anne Perry appeared in the bookshelves, including the final two volumes of her World War I series.
[At some point I will republish a review I did of Mormon theater 2005-2007, then I will be done with these reprints.]
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Although much has changed, mostly for the better, 2006 seems now like something of a turning point.