A Celestial Omnibus: Short Fiction on Faith

by J.P. Maney (Editor), Tom Hazuka (Editor)

Overview

Short Fiction on Faith

Luminous fiction on themes of faith and meaning from favorite writers, including Sandra Cisneros, Andre Dubus, Louise Erdrich, Stephen King, Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth, E. M. Forster and others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807083352
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	09/01/1998
Edition description:	Combined volume
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

J. P. Maney has taught English at the University of Utah and at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Tom Hazuka is associate professor of English at Central Connecticut State University. Both accomplished writers of fiction, Maney and Hazuka’s editorial credits include several other fiction anthologies, notably Flash Fiction, Sudden Fiction, Sudden Fiction International, and The Best of the West.

Editorial Reviews

This gathering of 26 stories by well-known writers on the nature and function of faith is more intriguing for the questions it poses than for any answers it offers. After all, fiction is more about gathering evidence than about arriving at succinct solutions. That said, there are some moving and persuasive tales here, such as Andre Dubus's "A Father's Story," about a man who violates the tenets of his religion to save his daughter; John L'Heureux's terse "The Expert on God," concerning a priest compelled, while ministering to a dying man, to confront his own uncertainties about the nature of faith; Flannery O'Connor's stunning tale "Good Country People," about a devout, crippled woman and a deranged Bible salesman; and Isaac Bashevis Singer's angry "Gimpel the Fool," offering a terse commentary on both this world and the next. Other writers here include Zora Neale Hurston, Vladimir Nabokov ("Christmas"), John Updike, Reynolds Price, and E.M. Forster. A useful and sometimes provocative gathering.

Kirkus Reviews