Hello,

Don't think of this as a review, just a rushed recommendation and some spontaneous reflections.

A friend introduced me to Paul's work. I've found it germaine to this list and its stated interests in developing a Mormon culture of literature. Paul is a Catholic, and the book is a mixture of biography, lit crit, and just plain old storytelling about 4 key Catholic writers who, Paul claims, engaged in parallel pilgrimages.

They are Thomas Merton (famous monk, wrote "Seven Storey Mountain"), Dorothy Day (famous activist, founder of Catholic Workers, wrote "The Long Loneliness), Flannery O'Connor (Southern master of the grotesque, wrote "Wise Blood"), and Walker Percy (Southern polymath, wrote "The Moviegoer").

I've found the reading fascinating as I see confirmed the profound religious faith and mysticism involved in writing excellent literature that would not fit into traditional religious categories. It makes me wonder whether there isn't the possibility of our generating some such literature of our own. I think for many there's the desire to know that Mormonism is mainstream, that, among other things, Mormons have their own authors too.

But these four writers aren't about that, they're about exploring the passionate, confusing, all-consuming quest for God in their literature, springing from a base of faith in God and the possibility of communion with him, but not a description of a journey that can never be undertaken. I think Catholicism is big enough to include all of them. I'm not sure that Mormonism is that big yet. I know this can be a controversial topic, and I don't want to get anyone's dander somewhere it wasn't before, but I strongly recommend this book to people trying to understand what it means to write religious literature as a Mormon. I think Paul captures the pilgrimages of these distinctive but united figures quite admirably, and I hope that some of us can write true fiction that arises from those same hungers, passions, and insights. It's still in hardcover, but it's cheap at the online booksellers. I find the descriptions of the inner lives of these writers quite moving and impressive. Though I'd heard of O'Connor's Catholicism, I'd never realized Percy's background, and I'm excited to re-read Moviegoer with that knowledge in mind (regardless of the critical rules i'd be violating).

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Yours,
 
Samuel Brown, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
sam@vecna.com