Author: Steven L. Peck
Title: Tales from Pleasant Grove
Publisher: Self
Year: 2018
Genre: Short stories
Reviewed by Rachel Helps
I thoroughly enjoyed these magical tales of Pleasant Grove, a real Utah town turned into the location of modern folktales. William Morris may call it folk realism but these stories went beyond the bounds of normal realism and into the realm of weird suburban/western fantasy. The style reminded me of Magic for Beginners, but slightly less disturbing. I found myself retelling my friends these Pleasant Grove stories, because they were so bizarre and funny and I wanted to share them.
My favorite was the story where the refugee healed the rift between warring essential oil companies in her Relief Society. I laughed out loud at the story about the near-future Utah park director. I didn’t love the Life of Pi one about striblings, but it still had a really interesting premise. And I still think about the story about the river dragon and the story about creepy crows. Steven Peck captures some true things about Utah and Mormon culture when describing survival of the fittest as “Darwin’s Tithe” or describing the (fictional) violent terrorist organization known as the “RSTL (Relief Society Temperance League)”. And the pinewood derby story at the end is just pure fun: “…if you got desperate, you could always find pinewood derby designs among the ads found in the “Pleasant Grove Soldier of Fortune Monthly” or “The Feel’n Groovy Beat” and other rags of ill repute.”