196 DIALOGUE : A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT deed, an interesting story of the faith of findings. The discoveries of the Dame and several men who saw themselves, at the Bean parties were never publicized until prophet's request, building the kingdom by this present publication. Stott writes very seeking a new resting place. well; his lengthy narrative is readable and Search for Sanctuary is a history of a extremely well documented. It follows backwater, an eddy in the larger flow of closely the canons of historical form. But surrounding events. The course of the the meaning of the events as he describes Utah War was unaffected by the outcome them in Search for Sanctuary makes his of the White Mountain Expedition; later study as historical writing an examination the miners and ranchers who settled the of fascinating potentials which unfortu- area remembered only rumors of the earlier nately never materialized.

Faithful Fiction

Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon affirmative to be faithful, though almost all Short Stories, edited by Levi S. Peterson of our popular home literature, from Orson (Midvale, Utah: Orion Books, 1983); F. Whitney and Nephi Anderson in the Summer Fire, by Douglas H. Thayer (Mid- nineteenth century to Shirley Sealey and vale, Utah: Orion Books, 1983); and Jack Weyland in the twentieth, has been Zinnie Stokes, Zinnie Stokes, by Donald R. essentially devoid of genuine conflict. Marshall (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, The best Mormon fiction will avoid 1984). neither conflicts nor affirmation; it will be Reviewed by , pro- neither self-consciously critical nor merely didactic. It will be "faithful" in the sense fessor of English at Uni- Richard Bushman used the term in his versity. He teaches and Winter 1969 DIALOGUE essay, "Faithful writes criticism, poetry, and personal essays. History." He clarified the dangers both of GOOD FICTION STRIKES ME with that same the defensive mode of "official" Mormon mysterious combination of exhilaration and history and of the uncritical secular as- grief that comes from new knowledge, from sumptions underlying the graduate training new visions that replace the dear old ones. of recent Mormon historians. After sug- Because they are good fiction, I recommend gesting some characteristically if not that you make any sacrifice necessary to uniquely Mormon approaches to the his- get all three of these books and read them tory of the world and the Church that soon. They are quite different from each could be particularly illuminating for all other, but they are all evidence that serious humankind, he ended with a brisk chal- (as opposed to popular) Mormon fiction lenge capped with a brilliant inversion of a is maturing, reaching a level of both excel- classical Mormon adage: "The enlargement lence and faithfulness that it has never en- of moral insight, spiritual commitment, and joyed before but that has been both ra- critical intelligence are all bound together. tionally and prophetically expected. A man gains knowledge no faster than he is saved" (p. 25). Mormon fiction does not need to be rebellious to be excellent, though most of President Spencer W. Kimball gave a our best fiction in the past, especially that similarly refreshing challenge in his July of the regionalists of the thirties and forties 1977 Ensign essay, "The Gospel Vision of like Vardis Fisher, , and the Arts": , was self-consciously ex- For years I have been waiting for some- patriate. Nor does it need to be blindly one to do justice in recording . . . the REVIEWS 197

story of the Restoration, . . . the strug- problem, the pain of sin, and the greatest gles and frustrations; the apostasies and human joy, the hope of redemption. The inner revolutions and counter-revolutions main flaw is that this first novel by a bril- of those first decades; of the exodus; of the counter-reactions; of the transi- liant short fictionist is still a bit too much tions; of the persecution days; of the like a short story. It is certainly long (240 miracle man, Joseph Smith, of whom we pages) and substantial enough but lacks sing "Oh, what rapture filled his bosom, somewhat the rich diversity of characteriza- For he saw the living God" (pp. 2-5). tion and plot development of traditional This is surely a call for "faithful fic- novels. It seems at times a little too well- tion" as well as faithful history — for ex- crafted by the five years and multiple re- amination of Mormon experience without visions Thayer has given it; it lacks some of avoiding either its human frustrations or its the rough, risktaking passion and experi- godly raptures. Thayer and Marshall, in mentation with form (think of Melville's their novels, as well as most of the best Moby Dick or even "Billy Budd") char- Mormon short story writers collected in acteristic of great long fiction. But Thayer's Greening Wheat, give us precisely that. work does have the virtues of meticulous And most of these Mormon writers, espe- revision; Mormon critic Bruce Jorgensen cially Thayer and Marshall, fulfill Bush- calls him, quite accurately, a "draft-horse." man's uniquely defining characteristic for Jorgensen, who seems addicted to ... faithfulness: They are basically good hu- well, punishing Thayer, has a name for man beings who are struggling—-vulnerably Thayer's remarkably similar heroes: "Pro- and seriously (though often through hu- votagonists." And we have one in Summer mor) — with their own moral insights and Fire, a righteous and self-righteous sixteen- spiritual commitments as well as those of year-old Mormon who leaves his protective their characters. mother and grandmother and antiseptic The best and most important of these Provo home to work for the summer on a works is Summer Fire, which is not only Nevada ranch. There the ranch foreman, Thayer's first novel but the first "real" Staver (one of Thayer's most unusual and Mormon novel in nearly thirty years, that powerful fictional creations), rubs Owen's is, the first to deal seriously with Mormon face in dirt, manure, and disgrace. More characters and ideas and to use them to subtly, he attempts to initiate him (as he create versions of the central human con- does with all summer hands) into error and flicts that energize good fiction. Don Mar- sin. shall's first novel, though less substantial But Owen is no Billy Budd, fixed for- and powerful than Thayer's, is very good; ever in beautiful innocence; he begins, and it is important in a different way. It granted, as an offensive prig, but he is also is the first "real" novel to be published by touchingly reflective and determined as a the official Mormon press and seems to be moral being — much as I suspect Thayer selling well enough that Deseret and Book- himself and most Mormon young people craft may finally be persuaded (if not by are or want to be. He learns not only to be the prophets then perhaps by the profits) less naive and more tolerant but, more im- to publish more of such faithful fiction. portantly, he discovers that he is capable Greening Wheat is the first anthology of of terrible sin — he comes to the point of Mormon short fiction ever; and it provides, very nearly killing Staver —• and must be despite the unfortunate omission of Thayer, able to accept Christ's atonement and for- Herbert Harker, Helen Walker Jones, and give himself as well as others. Dian Saderup, a nearly complete sampling By the same token, Staver is no Clag- of our best contemporary writers of fiction. gart, fixed forever in a mysterious, yearning Thayer's novel, like all good and faith- love/hate for goodness and a compulsion ful writing, is about the greatest human to destroy it. Thayer skillfully evokes the 198 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT

"mystery of iniquity" in Staver, using the demptive love, is an important innovation fine symbol of his being wounded in the in Mormon fiction. It allows Thayer to heart in Korea and evoking his Claggart- place his own moral and spiritual authority like despair in violent midnight rides he firmly within the story without intruding takes on a half-wild stallion. A friend had on Owen's first-person naivete, thus giving joined the army to be with him in Korea us a fine balance of sympathy and judg- and was killed there trying to save others ment; and it allows Thayer's deeply Mor- the day before Staver himself was wounded mon convictions to be voiced and acted in what seems to have been some desperate, upon in language that is Christian and even suicidal, action. Staver would not scripturally grounded but still unusual accept that sacrifice; but through Owen's enough to avoid sentimental cliche, to be only partly comprehending vision, we see both arresting and clear. And Mrs. Cum- Staver teaching Owen crucial things about mings becomes Thayer's direct agent for work and caring, even about giving, and literally saving as well as teaching Owen. see that his flaw is a complex one. There is Finally pushed too far by Staver's success hope, which even Owen can finally feel be- in corrupting his cousin Randy (the other cause of his own self-discovery as well as summer hand), Owen becomes enraged from the example of others, that Staver too enough to try fighting Staver and then, might be healed. after a humiliating defeat, to aim a gun at The main source of that hope, and for him from outside the bunkhouse. But Owen me the most interesting secondary figure, is is stopped by a providential appearance: Mrs. Cummings, cook and housekeeper for the ranch, who, besides striving to heal "Son, son." I turned. Mrs. Cummings stood Staver, becomes, in effect, Owen's pastor. under the trees in her long, white night- Raised a Mormon in Manti but married gown, her white hair down over her outside the Church, Mrs. Cummings is now shoulders (p. 247). a devoted but pragmatic evangelical Chris- This redemptive figure has done much tian, faithfully enduring despite serious ill- more than prevent Owen from committing ness, a son (Dale) in jail, and the continu- a terrible sin; she has helped him toward ing prospect of Staver's evil: the essential understanding of himself and We all need the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ that now begins to dawn. On his son. . . . We need to let him love us and way home to Utah, he looks at a section wash us clean with his blood; we all of famous war photographs in Life. In- need that. It takes a lot of suffering sometimes before most people are will- cluded is one of a young German soldier ing to let the Lord teach them anything, holding a rifle and looking down from and some never are. . . . Dale, he needs a guard tower at the people in a con- the Lord. So do all those other poor centration camp. [Thayer has prepared men [in prison], hundreds of them. They for this scene through a powerful sup- got to accept love, the Lord's and every- portive theme of Owen's preoccupa- body else's, or they're just going to get tion — induced partly by a creative and mean and stay mean. . . . Staver had passionate seminary teacher — with irra- that terrible wound in his heart. . . . tional evil, focused in the Holocaust.] I tell that boy he's got to let the Lord I looked at him. ... I looked at my teach him and love him, but he won't hands, and then I looked at Randy and listen. . . . Helping everybody and hav- the other people in the bus whose faces ing party friends ain't enough. A man's I could see. I knew that I wasn't any got to have the love of a wife and chil- different from them, and I knew that dren to make any sense. Staver's got a was part of what I'd learned. But there lot of good in him (pp. 28, 68-69). was something else, something even more important, that I didn't have a Mrs. Cummings's simple but unsenti- word for yet. But I would. It was a mental goodness, together with her steady, word like prayer or faith or love. (p. Christian (but non-Mormon) voice for re- 256). REVIEWS 199

The word, probably, is grace. Snows, Christmas Winds," which was made Grace is what Donald Marshall's novel into a prize-winning PBS drama still shown is about as well, though at first it seems each Christmas. On the evidence of Zinnie more about atonement as paying for sin Stokes, we can trust that Marshall, like rather than as a healing through grace. Gavin, has realized that slates cannot be Gavin Terry, whose dying wife had asked wiped clean by human payment but can him to return a borrowed and damaged only be brought out for further and better book (something she had neglected to do writing by the power of grace. We can also out of embarrassment), finds that to "clear be grateful that Marshall's faithful con- the slate" (p. 6), as she had called it, is so science continues to energize his talent. satisfying that he later returns to Cedar Levi Peterson hopes that Greening City, Utah, to wipe clean his teenage Wheat will appeal to gentile as well as mistakes. Mormon readers, claiming in his introduc- So far we have the makings of what tion that the stories are all skillful exercises has been the usual Deseret Book (or Book- in "the conventions of modern fiction." I craft ) fictional fare — happy people with agree. Though they all partake somewhat happy problems. But what lifts Zinnie of the paradox inherent in what I am call- Stokes into the realm of good and faithful ing faithful fiction, Peterson is right that fiction is Marshall's skill, integrity, and they thus belong to "a large and venerable honest vulnerability. His protagonist, clearly literature featuring the conflict between a version of himself, experiences the minor orthodoxy and the world at large" (p. vii). discomfort and immense satisfaction of He recognizes that most of the stories in- minor league slate-clearing: returning some clude unusual, if not unique, Mormon kept change, admitting plagiarism to his aspects and ideas: missionaries, sacrament former English teacher, compensating for a meetings, the obsession with sin, the an- job paid for but never completed — all in guish over failed blessings and promises, the presence of his young son, who is sur- the responsibility of new creatures in Christ prised ("How come you did so many bad to create a new civilization, the struggle things when you were little?") but satis- to comprehend evil in a universe ruled by factorily forgiving ("You're a good dad," a good and omnipotent God. But accord- p. 80). Slowly, though, Gavin begins to ing to Peterson, the stories thus provide learn that clearing slates is not simple, first mainly "a new sweep over the old battle- by finding that people and circumstances ground in the human mind between faith change, making real compensation impos- and doubt, myth and science, revelation sible, then by struggling with his fear of and reason," and they can claim to be and hatred for a teenage bully, and finally "moral" mainly because they achieve by being confronted with a suppressed "breadth, balance, and proportion" (pp. wrong that is now tragically mixed up with viii-x). adamant death and undeniable love. I disagree. Though Peterson admits It is this wrong he had suppressed, and that literature "ought to enhance life rather Gavin's fumbling but courageous and faith- than to depress it" (p. ix), his defense of ful working it through, that make Zinnie unrestricted subject matter on the grounds Stokes into fine fiction. And it is a wrong of proportion and neutrality does justice from Marshall's own past in southern Utah, neither to the stories he is defending nor to apparently a schoolboy cruelty toward the power and influence good literature has some plain and rejected farmgirl with always had. Some things (fundamental foreign-born parents, that haunts this novel nihilism, for instance) have no place in with moving credibility. The same haunt- literature. And the best Mormon fiction, ing, personal memory gave power to Mar- including much of Peterson's, gives us shall's story of ten years ago, "Christmas much more than balance; it gives us new 200 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT visions of life, filtered and energized Song for One Still Voice" is understated. through a unique and serious moral intel- It documents the poignantly banal conver- ligence as well as a gifted and disciplined sations and reflections of a middle-aged artistic sensibility. Mormon couple traveling through the For instance, Peterson's own story in southern Idaho landscape of their youth this collection, "The Gift," is like R. A. (on the way home from a temple trip), Christmas's "Another Angel" in its unmer- who have unaccountably lost even that ciful, even embarrassingly accurate look at grace they once had. the "foolishness" of traditional faith as it Most of the other stories also come appears to people in our increasingly secu- together in pairs: Donald Marshall's "Lav- lar world. But also like Christmas, Peter- ender Blue" and Lynn Larson's "Original son's main achievement is to convey the Sin" both capture the strange mixture of yearning for faith that persists among the anger, regret, and hope in their young secularized. His protagonist, a skeptical Mormon protagonists' close escapes from- "existentialist" with a mistress, is touched sexual sin. by the spiritual charisma of a young Mor- creates an unforgettable mon elder. Though unable to accept all of Mormon teenager, whose attempt to be the gift offered, he is able, like Christmas's and appear a skeptic is tragically compli- heroine (the wife of a former Mormon who cated by her desperate and faithful love reads the Book of Mormon to better under- for a quadriplegic whose priesthood bless- stand him), to accept some of the grace ing promises seem to fail. Kevin Cassity and to feel deep nostalgia for the rest: gives us another young Mormon, inexperi- "Gerard was determined to marry Katrine, enced, narrow, even bigoted, who, while to give children to the world, to forgive working a summer in Alaska, finds himself God for not existing" (p. 117). slowly learning to appreciate the moral Two other stories look at another sincerity and life-changing spiritual experi- dimension of grace: how ineffably it ence given to non-. comes — and goes. Bruce Jorgensen's po- Karen Rosenbaum's "Low Tide" and Jo- etically crafted jewel, "A Song for One seph Peterson's "Yellow Dust" both provide Still Voice," gives us an ordinary man with harrowing confrontations with the possibility extraordinarily firm and reflective sense of of moving from the security of religious faith husbandry over crops and family. One and reliance on grace to the honest but terri- night while irrigating, he is given a vision fying faith that the universe is ultimately that "stuns him with delight and fear har- meaningless and death truly ultimate. monized like a major fifth," one that has Dennis Clark, one of our most talented no apparent reason or implication but but so far least published writers, tells of which enhances his life and ours through the complex struggle of a young Mormon the power of words to imitate the power of husband to be fully faithful to his wife, to actual experience: "Looking at it, he is avoid both self-gratification and gratifying weightless, in free fall as if the earth has flirtation, and of the small, uncertainly dropped from under him, or as if he is permanent, but certainly real gain he drawn up with the world's tidal bulge and makes through prayer, good humor, and loosed in the gravity of light, yearning persistence. farther out and from deeper within than David Wright, the talented playwright, in any prayer he has ever spoken. Unde- poet, and fictionist who died twenty years served, abounding, grace rings in his ago, tells of a very different struggle than bones." (p. 5) Clark examines but one that engages the Wayne Carver's "With Voice of Joy similar paradox of freedom and order: a and Praise" is as ironically overstated in boy must learn to accept disappointment contrast with its theme as Jorgensen's "A and limitation without losing passion and