Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems ed. by Eugene England and Dennis Clark

Abstract

74 Western American Literature The Harvest: Short Stories by Tomás Rivera. By Tomás Rivera. Edited by Julián Olivares. (Houston, TX: Arte Publico Press, 1989. 135 pages, $8.50.) This bilingual edition of Tomás Rivera’s complete short stories, edited by Julián Olivares, is a welcome addition to the increasing number of available creative works by Mexican-American authors. Well-known in the field for his popular novel, ... y no se lo tragó la tierra/. . . and. the earth did not part (1971), which examines the experiences of migrant Chicano farmworkers as seen through the consciousness of a young boy, Rivera possessesthat rare ability in writers to convert everyday episodes in the lives of ordinary people into small masterpieces of sparse yet often lyrical prose. The Harvest: Short Stories by Tomás Rivera. By Tomá Rivera. Edited by and “Eva and Daniel,” were originally intended as part of ... y no se lo tragó la tierra. The editor explains that the former was excluded because the repre­ sentation of the protagonist “did not conform to the romanticized portrayal of the pachuco as the rebellious Chicano hero that was appearing in this forma­ tive period of Chicano literature” (75). As a result of this somewhat question­ able editorial decision, “Pete Fonseca” was later published in several popular anthologies and became one of Rivera’s best known short stories. While it is true that Pete Fonseca is an unsavory rogue, he is a memorable creation whose evil influence, temporarily cloaked in good will, draws everyone into his net of deceit so that the final betrayal of his unsuspecting bride seems all the more heinous. The other excluded story, “Eva and Daniel,” told in the same narrative style as an event which has become part of the collective memory of the community, is less successful but characteristically Rivera in its focus on the small private tragedy of a young man whose wife dies in childbirth. The previously unpublished “The Harvest” and “Zoo Island” explore the same themes as Rivera’s novel. “The Salamanders” introduces biblical imagery in the endless rain which floods the beet fields, while “Looking for Borges” is a complete departure from previous themes in a brief parody of the Argentine writer. “Inside the Window” is of interest because it represents the only available extract of Rivera’s second novel, La casa grande del pueblo, which was cut short at the author’s premature death in 1984. PATRICIA DE LA FUENTE University of Texas-Pan American Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems. Edited by Eugene England and Dennis Clark. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989. 316 pages, $14.95.) Both Mormon and non-Mormon readers will be pleased and challenged by what they find here: over two hundred poems and fourteen hymns (most written between 1970 and 1989) by sixty-nine Mormon poets. But both groups of potential readers must first put aside any misconceptions engendered by the Reviews 75 title, which can be accomplished by opening the book anywhere and reading a few poems. Mormon readers who expect to find inspiration, doctrinally sound, even sentimental meditations suitable for church, home, and school will be surprised and perhaps dismayed by the challenging, insightful, and often unsettling poems that explore doubt as well as faith, death as well as life, and pain as often as joy. While the hymns and a few of the poems, “Prophet,” “To Kevin, Newly A Missionary,” and “Driving My Daughter to Moose Jaw for her Patriarchal Blessing,” speak directly to the Mormon’s religious life, all the poems seem to have been carefully chosen to provide material for mature reflection by thoughtful poetry readers, whether or not they are Mormon or even particularly interested in “religion.” Non-Mormon readers expecting exclusive Mormon language and theology will find varied poems that never preach, but often eloquently speak of uni­ versal human experiences of birth, growth, death, God, and the spirit, often expressed through symbols and metaphors drawn from the land, the changing seasons, early migrations to Utah, and love of spouse and children. Poems such as “To a Dying Girl,” “An Early Frost,” and “Coming Apart Together” explore what it means to be a seeker, a doubter, a...