Go In Beauty

by Michael Fillerup

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 0975508016
• ISBN13: 9780975508015
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Palmyra Press
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fillerup Fan

I've long been a fan of Fillerup's short stories published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and I especially enjoyed his collection "Visions and Other Stories," which as I recall was published some fifteen years or so ago. Fillerup, I think, is one of the most talented contemporary Mormon writers, and his stories are remarkable for their precisely wrought prose, their well-motivated characters, and their spiritual insight and maturity. Needless to say, I was excited to order and read his latest work, the first novel of his that I have read. At this point, since I've generously praised Fillerup for his earlier writing, I suppose I should explain why I gave this work four stars instead of five. Though the novel is far better and more poignant than nearly any Mormon work I've read recently, I was slightly disappointed by the characterization in this novel. For some reason, Fillerup always keeps us a bit distant from his characters, never allowing us direct access to their thoughts or emotions or motivations. As a result the work seems always to move at the same real-time, slightly abstract pace, reminding me a bit of a highly descriptive script for a play. I wish Fillerup wouldn't hide his talent for narration and characterization that so was so evident in his earlier works, and to be honest, I can't quite figure why he decided to depart in stylistic approach from his earlier, highly successful, and well-respected stories. The approach employed here, it seems to me, distances the reader from the characters and robs them of one of the greatest benefits of novels vs. plays or TV or movies: namely, the ability of a reader to see the world directly through the eyes and thoughts of another person. Now, having said that, I should say that Fillerup here is still better than nearly anyone else writing religious fiction these days, and this novel is definitely worth buying. If you haven't read Fillerup before, start with his earlier collection (listed above), if you can still find a copy, and then work your way into Go In Beauty. This is a wonderfully written and executed novel, but one that in my humble opinion could have been better if Fillerup would employ his remarkable skills of characterization and point-of-view narration more freely. Ultimately: A great novel that doesn't quite live up to the high standard of Fillerup's earlier work, but is still better than the work of nearly any of the other Mormon writers I've read recently.