I may no longer be a practicing Latter-day Saint, but this is the kind of cultural artifact that keeps me thinking of myself as Mormon. Peck’s writing—see also Heike’s Void, which I’d love to reread—depicts a beautiful Mormonism that I still feel connected to and that represents what the religion can be at its best.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have complaints about these stories. They’re very male-centered (I’m not sure any of them pass the Bechdel Test), and even though it’s one of my favorites in some ways, the story of the crafting of the Liahona bugs me for the way that it imposes Mormon theology on first temple Israelite religion, as Mormons tend to do.

Yet, these stories resonate deeply with me. Some are funny, others moving, and several are both.

• Wandering Realities: The Mormonish Short Fiction of Steven L. Peck
• Steven Peck
• Mormon literature
• Liahona
• Heike's Void
• Mormonism