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Some "Classic"
LDS Novels (Anyway, I Think So)
by
Richard H. Cracroft
Mark Twain
said that "a classic is a book which everyone praises but no one
reads"; my personal definition of a "classic" is one which I have
read (usually several times) thoroughly enjoyed, and place on a
mental shelf to which I return again and again, and which becomes
part of my frame of reference, and which I will eventually read
again--and again (emotionally, if not actually), and recommend to
others--again and again.
With that definition
in mind, I present, 'umbly (and knowing that many readers will demur,
mumble, grumble, and wonder), a list of Some Novels Which I
Believe Will Delight, Uplift, Inspire, and Entertain Most LDS Readers.
My criteria are simple: 1) I personally like these novels; they
please me; 2).they are well-written; 3) they are reader-tested:
between 1972-2001, I have taught most of these books in my Literature
of the Latter-day Saint courses, some I have taught many times;
these novels have risen to the top of the heap as the books that
students like to read, discuss, and write about; 4) these are the
books that, for the most part, are redolent with LDS-ness; 5) I
have omitted some popular LDS novels and novelists from the list
because a) there are so many of them; b) they have not (yet) stood
the test of time--most of them, uplifting and entertaining and even
well written, are ephemeral-they come and they pass, without sticking
to the soul-at least to mine. In nearly every course I have taught
at least one current, popular novel; I have seldom taught them more
than once-and some of the books I'm recommending here are so new
I haven't had time to teach them yet!
And so the
canon-the "Classics"--that generally accepted list of enduring and
significant LDS novels gradually takes shape over time, and these
become the "standard works" of Mormon literature-the books which
one needs to know to be savvy about LDS literature. Many of the
books on this list belong to the "canon" of Mormon novels (a wonderful
list of LDS short stories is yet another column, down the road,
perhaps). Some don't belong-yet, and may never belong. Some of the
canonical novels are not on the list because they treat their subjects
in ways which would upset many :LDS readers-so I omit them, even
if I like them personally. Remember, this is a list of fine books
which I think will appeal to most LDS readers; it is my personal
list and, unlike some of my recent lists, is not a comprehensive
"Best Mormon Novels" list-in fact, I am painfully aware of the gaps
in this necessarily limited list and apologize for its unevenness.
But it's a good list and will, I suspect, have a number of surprises
for some of you who didn't know there is such a saintly body of
writing out there.
I invite readers
to send in recommendations of LDS novels which I have not
listed here, but which have made a difference in your lives and
which, classic or not, you feel would appeal to Classics Corner
readers. Send me your picks by May 25, with a one-line statement
about the book's significance. I reserve the right to judge as to
whether the book will appeal to our readers. So, enough disclaimers
and pussy-footing. Here's the list:
Some Novels Which I Think Will Delight, Uplift, Inspire, and Entertain
Most LDS Readers
(And If You
Disagree, Woe, Woe Be Unto You . . . )
Anderson, Nephi,
Added Upon (Bookcraft, 1898; 1997, 53rd Printing);
this is the "first" Mormon novel, the granddaddy of Saturday's
Warriors and My Turn on Earth; it's not great fiction,
but you can't beat the Subject Matter.
Arnold, Marilyn,
Desert Song (Covenant Communications, 1998), Song of
Hope (1999), and Sky Full of Ribbons (2000): a trilogy
of novels about a (less-active) LDS English professor who re-discovers
her Utah roots and her faith and has some exciting adventures en
route.
Brown, Marilyn,
The Earthkeepers Trilogy (Aspen Books,1992-1994)-Thorns
of the Sun, Shadows of Angels, and Royal House-the
saga of a Mormon family and the settling of Utah Valley through
World War I.
Brown, Marilyn,
Statehood (Aspen Books, 1995): an historical novel featuring
George Q. Cannon and the exciting time of transition between the
Manifesto of 1890, the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893,
and the coming of statehood in 1896.
Brown, Marilyn,
The Wine-Dark Sea of Grass (Cedar Ft. Inc., 2000); a well-written
historical novel about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the challenges
of plural marriage. Some people just don't like novels about massacres
and polygamy; this is a wonderful handling of both sensitive topics.
Card, Orson
Scott, Saints (TOR, 1984); a powerful and moving love story
set in Nauvoo and featuring Joseph Smith, Emma, and the fictional
heroine, Dinah Kirkham, who is Joseph's plural wife (she reminds
us of Eliza R. Snow); Card has written in my copy, "My love story
to our people"-and it is. Of course, any fiction attempting to portray
the Prophet Joseph and plural marriage is bound to unsettle some
readers, but Card succeeds in making Joseph Smith live, both as
a man and a prophet of God.
Card, Orson
Scott, Sarah: Women of Genesis (Shadow Mountain, 2000).
The first in a trilogy of new historical novels on women of Genesis,
Sarah is Card's imaginative take on the life of Sarah,
nee Sarai, wife of Abraham (nee Abram), and mother (at ninety) of
Isaac; Card takes his bearings from the Book of Abraham.
Card, Orson
Scott. The Tales of Alvin Maker, 5 vols (1987-1998); Seventh
Son, The Red Prophet, Prentice Alvin, Alvin Journeyman, Heartfire,
a wonderfully imaginative fantasy re-telling in an alternate world
of the life of Joseph Smith, Jr. /Alvin Miller, Jr. (a "Maker" with
supernatural powers) and Emma/Peggy (a "Torch"-a Seer); I love these
books-and so do my students.
Card, Orson
Scott, The Homecoming series, in 5 vols.: The Memory
of Earth, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall, Earthborn
(Hatrack River Publications, 1989-1998); an imaginative sci-fi
rendering of the Book of Mormon: the Over-Soul leads Nefi and his
brothers out of the city of Basilica on a distant planet, in order
to prepare his people to return to Earth, destroyed 40 million earlier
in a terrible war. Nefi is willing, of course, "to go and do what
the Over-Soul commands," knowing that the Over-Soul gives no commandments
to his children without preparing a way for them to accomplish the
mission. Fascinating.
Daybell, Chad,
The Emma Trilogy (Cedar Fort, 2000), three exciting time-travel
novels-An Errand for Emma, Doug's Dilemma, and Escape
to Zion-which take place in the 1860s, 1944, and in the future,
shortly before the coming of the Savior.
Fillerup, Michael,
Beyond the River (Signature, c. 1991). A well-conceived
and well-executed novel about Jon Reeves' struggle to find himself
and finally come to grips, as a young husband, father, and bishopric
member, with the gospel and the complexities of the world
as introduced to him years before by Nancy, his high school tutor
and friend. He makes it!
Heimerdinger,
Chris, Daniel and Nephi (Covenant Communications, 1993)
s, 1993), is an engaging and imaginative story of Nephi and Daniel
meeting in Jerusalem, antagonizing each other and then becoming
fast friends until Nephi and his family flee the city, and Daniel
faces captivity among the Babylonians.
Heimerdinger,
Chris, Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, series (1989-1998).
The first of Heimerdinger's fun stories of time-traveling adventures
of a contemporary LDS family among the Nephites. The whole series
is wonderfully entertaining, especially for teenagers.
Hughes, Dean,
Children of the Promise series, 5 vols (Deseret Book, 1997-2000);
a typical Mormon family from Sugar House, Utah, is seriously tried,
tested and threatened by
WWII, in these
wonderfully authentic historical novels which movingly evoke the
uprooting of American and Mormon lives, 1938-1947;
Kemp, Kenny,
I Hated Heaven (Alta Films Press, 1998)-about a man who, dying,
protests so vehemently to the powers that be about work left unfinished
that he get another chance.
Kidd, Kathryn
H., Paradise Vue (Hatrack River Publications, 1989); a
hilarious, serio-comic novel about a very funny Paradise Vue Ward
and its slightly unorthodox Relief Society presidency; followed
by its sequel, Return to Paradise (1997); and the tonally
related The Alphabet Year (1991);
Lund, Gerald
N., Fishers of Men, vol.1, The Kingdom and the Glory
series (Shadow Mountain, 2000); the first in Lund's series about
the life of Christ (begun and nearly completed, Lund tells me, before
he was sidetracked into writing The Work and the Glory
series.
Lund, Gerald
N. The Work and the Glory series, 9 vols. (Bookcraft, 1990-1998);
has changed the way millions of Mormons think and feel about Mormon
history, 1827-1847.
Marcum, Robert,
Dominion of the Gadianton (Bookcraft 1991) is one of Marcum's
several exciting adventure/mystery/intrigue novels.
McCloud, Susan
Evans, Where the Heart Leads (1979), is one among the 30-plus
LDS-centered novels, biographies, and histories by this prolific
and popular author.
Mitchell, Alan
Rex, Angel of the Danube: Barry Monroe's Missionary Journal
(Springville: Cedar Fort Inc., 2000) is the retrospective missionary
journal of Elder Barry Monroe, lately of the Vienna Austria Mission,
as he attempts to come to grips with the gap between an ideal mission
and a mission where one's message is constantly rejected. This is
a funny but basically serious novel about a young man's salvation
journey/mission.
Morris, Carroll
Hofeling, The Broken Covenant (Deseret Book, 1985). The
story of a woman's fall into sexual transgression, and the long
and hard way back.
Nelson, Lee,
The Storm Testament (1982-1990)-a multi-volume tale of
Western adventure among the Mountain Men and the Indians.
Nunes, Rachel
Ann, Tomorrow and Always (Covenant Communications 2000)
is another in the dozen popular romance novels by this prolific
author.
Parkinson,
Benson Y., The MTC: Set Apart (Aspen Books, 1995), features
the stories of several elders' coming-of-age experiences in the
Missionary Training Center as they prepare to serve in France. One
of the surprisingly few missionary novels in Mormon literature.
Perry, Anne,
Bethlehem Road (St. Martin's Press, 1990), not actually
a "Mormon" novel, but one of her internationally popular best-selling
Victorian mystery series, featuring Inspector Thomas Pitt and his
astute and liberated wife, Charlotte. Perry is a convert to the
Church and lives in Scotland. This novel is, in part, about a Mormon
woman who is starved to death by an abusive, chauvinist husband
who denies her the right to make decisions about religion.
Perry, Anne,
Tathea (Shadow Mountain, 1999), a landmark in Mormon literature,
Tathea is, at the turn of the 20th to the 21st
century, what Added Upon was at the turn of the 19th
to the 20th century--a wonderful fantasy re-telling of
the Plan of Salvation as experienced on another planet, but one
still covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Tathea, a deposed queen,
undertakes an allegorical Gospel Journey, receives and translates
The Book, and preaches the gospel throughout the world It's full
of sound and profound doctrine and gives the reader a refreshing
distance and re-take on old truths.
Smith, Robert
Farrell Smith, The Trust Williams Trilogy (Deseret Book,
1999-2000), is comprised of, All Is Swell: Trust in Thelma's
Way, Falling From Grace: Trust Williams at the End of the World,
and Love's Labors Tossed: Trust and the Final Fling. These
hilarious novels recount how Elder Trust Williams spends his mission
in Thelma's Way, a backwash of Mormonism, founded by Thelma, a headstrong
Saint who, while leading her party of pioneers out of Nauvoo, got
lost and ended up in the Tennessee hill country. Trust and companion
are sent in to redeem the Thelma's-Way-Saints, whose faith and organization
has suffered wonderfully from 150 years of in-breeding and neglect.
The adventures are wacky and, well, hilarious. You'll love these
novels.
Taylor, Curtis,
The Dinner Club (Published by the author, 2000); the fast-paced
tale of a luke-warm Mormon who becomes a Latter-day Saint by forgiving
his straying wife. One of the first LDS novels to be set in contemporary
California.
Taylor, Samuel
W. Heaven Knows Why (1948; Aspen Books, 1994)-still vying
for the title of Mormonism's funniest book, this book, by the son
of Mormon apostle John W. Taylor and grandson of President John
Taylor, has fun with revelation, the Word of Wisdom, and a backsliding
Jackson Skinner, as his late grandfather, now an angel assigned
to the membership division in the heavenly bureaucracy, gets permission
to appear to Jack and frighten him back on course to the Kingdom.
It all works out just right, and only Heaven Knows Why. First
published in the old Collier's magazine.
Smurthwaite,
Donald S., Fine Old High Priests (Bookcraft, 1999) is the
story of Marcus and Sam, two Latter-day Saints, friends, and neighbors,
and how they came to be a pair of "fine old High Priests"; a beautiful,
tender, and moving tribute to Latter-day Sainthood; this is a book
that everyone should read for a gentle yet powerful spiritual recharge;
and his recent sequel, A Wise, Blue Autumn (Bookcraft,
2000) is more of the same; these are, I think, must reads for LDS;
my Mormon lit. students think so, too. These books are LDS responses
to Tuesdays at Morrie's, only better.
Sorensen, Virginia,
The Evening and the Morning (1949; Signature, 1999), follows
Kate's visit to her Mormon village home in Sanpete County, where
she confronts the results of her adultery and flight from Mormonism
some twenty years earlier. This is fine novel by a writer of national
stature who left the Church to became an Episcopalian.
Weyland, Jack,
Charly (1980), and Sam (1981) are two of Weyland's
many very readable short novels for LDS teenagers centered in meeting
and overcoming contemporary challenges. It's easy to get happily
hooked on Weyland's well-told and morally well-founded stories.
Whipple, Maurine,
The Giant Joshua (1941; Western Epics Inc., 1976) one of
the finest-and perhaps most controversial-of the novels on the list;
the story of the founding of St. George and the life and pioneering
hardships of Clory, the fourth wife of Abijah MacIntyre; it is a
wonderful and intimate look at life on the Mormon frontier. Some
readers don't like its rawboned (and distorted?) picture of life
on the Mormon frontier; others see it as inspiring tribute to the
Mormon people; one reader wrote to me last month that she became
interested in the Church because of this book; old-time St. Georgeans
saw the book as a betrayal. It isn't; it is a wonderful read, as
Whipple portrays the Mormon settlers of that arid region as "human
beings by birth and only saints by adoption."
Woolley, David
G., Pillar of Fire (Covenant Communications 2000); the
first of a projected 7 novels centered in 1 Nephi and The Book of
Mormon. Woolley brings the Holy Land alive with rich detail about
life in Jerusalem in 601 B.C. This is a solid historical novel.
Yorgason, Blaine,
Charlie's Monument (1978) and The Windwalker (1979)
are best-selling and enduring short novels for young adults, among
a number of fine novels, as is The Bishop's Horse Race
(12979), by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason. You can't go wrong with
any work by the Yorgasons.
Young, Margaret,
House without Walls (Deseret Book 1990). Recounts the story
of a Jewish convert to Mormonism.
Young, Margaret
Blair and Darius Aidan Gray, One More River to Cross, Book
1 in the Standing on the Promises series (Bookcraft, 2000);
the first in a series of historical novels about Elijah Abel, Jane
Manning, and several other black Mormon pioneers.
Young, Margaret
Blair, Salvador (Aspen Books, 1992)-a fine novel about
the darkening of idealism among an American family of Latter-day
Saints touched by religion gone awry in the jungles of El Salvador.
You can find
more information about these books on-line, at the websites for
LDS publishers; for example, at Covenant Communications' website,
there is an interesting list: "Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Published in the LDS Market"; and there is a great deal of information
to be found on the "AML List.com," website for the Association for
Mormon Letters. Good reading!
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