Review
———–
Title: Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist
Author: Michael Austin
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Year Published: 2021
Pages: 114
Format: Trade Paperback
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780252086144
Price: $14.95
Reviewed by Kevin Folkman for the Association for Mormon Letters
Michael Austin, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, has a track record of writing literary criticism and academic subjects that are as readable and engaging as the best of novels. In “Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist,” Austin uncovers the Mormon influences that shaped Vardis Fisher’s voluminous output, even as Fisher downplayed his upbringing in the religion that he abandoned upon entering adulthood. Fisher authored novels and non-fiction works about the rural Idaho where he grew up, splitting his time between teaching and working for the depression-era WPA Writers Project. Then, in 1942, Fisher won the Harper Prize for literature, the most prominent American literary award of the time, for his fictionalized “Children of God,” a retelling of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Revered by critics, it was poorly received and mostly ignored by LDS leaders and members for its naturalistic and worldly portrayal of events and persons involved in the Restoration.
Fisher’s widow vehemently maintained that he was never really Mormon and did her best to distance her husband’s legacy from the religion he rejected shortly after his baptism at age 20. Austin, however, finds evidence in Fisher’s work that although he never practiced the religion as an adult, it laid claim to much of Fisher’s formative years. As Austin observes, it was the religion he was most familiar with.
“If Fisher really did use [his] novels to try and understand the ideas and prejudices that formed his younger self, then we should expect to see traces of a recognizably Mormon worldview mixed in with everything else—a bread-crumb trail leading back to the religion of his youth. And we do.” [p62]
Fisher himself recognizes this, as expressed in a conversation between a character and Vridar Hunter, Fisher’s alter ego in several of his novels. Even as Vridar tries to assert his non-religious status, the character stops him cold: “Yes you are. Religion is like smallpox. If you get a good dose you wear scars. You had a good dose.” [p22]
As Austin sees it, Fisher had many scars. Much of Fisher’s output, Austin claims, is Fisher using his writing as a means of understanding his own life. Born into Idaho’s rural isolation, he was initially schooled at home with a Bible, a Book of Mormon, and one or two other books as texts. Fisher eventually attended a high school in town, boarding with another LDS family. His higher education came first at the University of Utah, which at the time promoted an orthodox Mormon lifestyle, and later at the University of Chicago where Fisher acquired his PhD. He was separated for much of this time from his first wife, Leona. Tensions increased in their marriage until Leona committed suicide when Fisher announced his intention to leave her for a fellow graduate student. Fisher blamed himself, Austin writes, “…and in order to understand his own failure and try to make sense of his experiences, he devoted the next ten years of his life telling the story of their courtship and marriage in the four autobiographical novels that he would later refer to his ‘tetralogy.’” [p7] These four novels told the story of Vridar Hunter, a thinly veiled reference to his own name, Vardis Fisher.
Similarly, Fisher’s least successful and yet most ambitious project was a twelve-volume fictional history of mankind from prehistoric times down to the present titled “The Testament of Man.” The books encompass evolution, Neanderthals, Old Testament-style prophets, tensions between Hellenistic and Orthodox Jews, the early Christian church, and ends with a return to the story of Vridar Hunter in the 20th century. In all of the “Testament of Man,” Austin finds many of the “scars” of Fisher’s Mormon upbringing. Fisher contrasts the struggle for meaning between “enlightened” characters who reject the existence of God and the strict rules of religion that he viewed as denying humankind’s essential nature and those who cling to their religious beliefs despite what Fisher perceives as its repressive and destructive influence. Austin, however, finds that many of Fisher’s protagonists still find something to admire in those who obtain peace and meaning in their religious practices. As Austin notes, “Fisher rarely takes a side when he can figure out how to be on both sides of a question at the same time.” [p45]
Few of Fisher’s works are still in print. His most recognizable work might be the adaptation of his novel “Mountain Man” as the basis for the 1972 Robert Redford film “Jeremiah Johnson.” Austin correctly positions Fisher’s “Children of God” as the work that ushered in the Golden Age of Mormon Literature, including such works as Maurine Whipple’s “The Giant Joshua” and Virginia Sorenson’s “A Little Lower Than the Angels.” In “Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist,” Austin reminds us of an important literary heritage in Mormon culture that is easily overlooked. And as much as Fisher’s widow and others tried to distance him from the faith of his youth, Fisher bore those scars openly. Austin shows that Fisher never escaped the environment of his formative years. “Vardis Fisher” builds on Austin’s long career of critical analysis of the classics of Western Literature and applying those same tools to scriptural texts. His brief yet insightful prose in “Vardis Fisher” makes for a delightful and engaging read. His observations and arguments pour easily from the page, making what could be a challenging subject an insightful resource for students and aspiring writers of Mormon literature.