Song of Names: A Mormon Mosaic

by James Goldberg, Ardis E. Parshall, Scott Hales

In 2015, Beirut’s district president takes the dangerous road to Damascus once a month to bring the sacrament to Syrian Saints. In 1904, a ward rallies around a mentally ill member in Salt Lake City after he’s institutionalized. In 1844, a sister gathers new members on the South Pacific atoll of Anaa and teaches them the gospel by singing hymns from dusk until midnight. The twenty-two poems in Song of Names draw images from the lives of ordinary Latter-day Saints from many times and places to make a mosaic of discipleship. Accompanied by historical introductions, reflective essays, and original fine art sketches, this collaboration between James Goldberg, Ardis E. Parshall, and Carla Jimison is a monument to two centuries of struggle and faith.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Religion

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 19, 2020

About the author

James Goldberg’s family is Jewish on one side, Sikh on the other, and Mormon in the middle. His plays, essays, and short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Shofar, Drash, The Best of Mormonism: 2009, Sunstone, Dialogue, Prick of the Spindle, and Jattan Da Pracheen Ithas.

Goldberg works at the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. His wife, Nicole, teaches writing and runs literary contests with him. Together, they are raising three fascinating children.

Reviews

[Katherine Cowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be James Goldberg's best work. That's a tough claim to make, as everything he touches with his pen is brilliant, but I stand by it.

This collaboration with Ardis Parshall and others paints a much more complicated picture than we often see in religiously-oriented work, and a much more inclusive one, with a diversity of gender, race, locale, perspective, faith, and struggle. The format was brilliant--an introductory essay, giving historical background, followed by a poem, and wrapped up with a reflection meant not to provide answers, but move us to the right questions for our own lives.

This is a book that I need to come back to and reread.

[conor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved loved LOVED this book. The entire organization of the book is delightful and spiritual and powerful and challenging. Great work from all the contributors. The work is so wonderful that I wanted to devour it in one sitting, but so powerful that I knew and needed to sit with each poem, savoring them, one per day. The entire collection speaks to some of the best of Mormonism, around the world, largely in the stories of every-day Saints, lifting where they stood, tending their own corners of the Garden.

I'll be thinking about and revisiting this book over and over again. Spiritually nourished and called to live a better, more excellent way.

[Abigail Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I will be gifting copies of this to many friends and family members in the future. Incredible stories, incredible poetry.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounding up because "The Ballad of Ith Vichit" was just that powerful.

I have no idea how I missed this mashup of historical research, poetry, personal narrative, and visual imagery when it came out, as Goldberg and Parshall are two of my absolute favorites in Mormon thought and writing, but I am glad I finally stumbled upon it. They suit each other well as collaborators, despite working primarily in different genres - they share a passion for pushing the boundaries of who we typically think of as important when we tell the story of the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (particularly global boundaries), a willingness to look the messy side of faith and religion full in the face and hold it accountable while still vividly showing the beauty and power that our religion creates, and a knack for finding the important questions when you look at an individual's life. They also bring out the best in each other as writers. Parshall's gift for finding the easily overlooked details that really make the story pairs beautifully with Goldberg's lyrical imagery and eye for making a poem's form fit its content (I mean really, who else is using muwashshah in Mormon poetry? And it is perfect for that poem). I loved the global vision of Mormon faith they captured.

I hope more collaborations are coming in the future!

[Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meaningful and faith enhancing

This book is an artsy way of bringing our history to life. Not through the typical heroes and villains but the more plain and precious and sometimes simple folk of the gospel.

This book brings to light some folks from history that Saints might have included if it were planned to be a 104 volume series instead of just four.

Greatly enjoyed and invites the spirit in, especially the poetry!

[Julianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely compilation of historical research, poetry, and art. I am unsurprised that this group of people created such a book. It paints a fuller picture of what the gospel is, what it is not, and what it could be.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read in 2021 without question. Thoughtful, historical, literary, and spoke to the heart of human emotion. Just go buy a copy now.

[Gabriel Núñez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Song of Names: A Mormon Mosaic is hard to categorize. Because one of its authors is poet James Goldberg, I expected a poetry book. Because its other main author is Ardis E. Parshall, I thought it could perhaps be a history book. It also has illustrations by Carla Jimison, so I then thought that I had an artsy kind of book in my hands. Song of Names is actually all of those things. And the synergy of these different creators and their contributions results in a text that is informative, beautiful, and relevant to Latter-day Saints.