Bright Angels & Familiars: Contemporary Mormon Stories

by Eugene England (Editor)

Book by

Genres: Mormonism, Short Stories, Lds

348 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

A remarkable teacher, writer, and human being, Eugene England (1933-2001) profoundly influenced thousands of students, readers, and colleagues. A tireless advocate of what he called “great books and true religion,” he co-founded Dialogue, the first independent Mormon scholarly journal, and the Association for Mormon Letters. His thought-provoking personal essays explored the issues of belief, peace, poverty, race, gender, academic freedom and community. An eternal optimist, he encouraged dialogue between conservatives and liberals, skeptics and believers, traditionalists and postmodernists during the decades-long culture wars. England’s life and work reveal a faithful scholar and loyal critic who followed the admonition of Apostle Paul: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great anthology of recent LDS writers. Both uncomfortable and moving stories of people grappling with the challenges of life and the sometimes-cruel, ironies of trying to be better people.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like any anthology, this book has its ups and downs. I gave it 4 stars even though a strict average would probably have brought it down to 3. I tend to be optimistic, though, and concentrate more on the handful of really really good stories and give them more weight. And what can I say, I just want to promote good Mormon literature.

"Outsiders" is a great story about the mysteries of growing up--learning about faith, sex, love, and anger and how they are all intertwined. I loved it. Great young woman coming of age story. "Opening Day" was a really beautiful story about relationships between fathers and sons and exploring pacifism and violence in our culture. "Benediction" is just hilarious and perfectly Mormon. "The Fringe" is what you would expect from Orson Scott Card: a great, fun sci-fi story. "The Christianizing of Coburn Heights" is another wonderfully Mormon story that just makes you smile but also worry about where you would be in the story.

A few others were good but nothing great, and a handful were just terrible. Overall though a fun book to peruse, and even better, you can read it all online

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories by Mormon authors, but not necessarily about Mormon themes. The one that sticks in my mind the most is "Opening Day" by Douglas Thayer. It is well written and heart-rending in the personal struggle that this young return missionary goes through about returning to deer hunting. This story will stick in my mind a long time. The others were of varying interest to me. Since the book was published in 1992, I expect that there is now a lot of new LDS authors that could be added to this collection. It would be interesting to read their short stories and see the new talent in the world of LDS fiction.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of LDS short fiction is really, really good. Some of the best are:

--"Where Nothing Is Long Ago" by Virginia Sorenson (a sort of true-crime and true faith mix)

--"The Christianizing of Coburn Heights" by Levi Peterson (a fictionalized sermon that goes down easy)

--"Benediction" by Neal Chandler (hilarious send up of ward politics as played out in a gospel doctrine class)

I don't mind loaning it to anyone nearby who'd like to read it.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this online at http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=7326