Review
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Title: Tales of Unworthiness: Three Short Stories
Author: Paul H. Dumm
Publisher: Self Published
Genre: Religious Fiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 103
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 978-1-965129-00-5
Price: Paper, 9.99; Kindle, 5.99
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Paul H. Dumm’s Tales of Unworthiness, as its sub-title states, contains three short stories: “Beneath the Stage,” “The Blessing,” and “Sector 69-G.”
“Beneath the Stage” is about a young man named Timothy Fisher. As his story begins, Timothy is eleven and in a primary class being taught a lesson on the priesthood. He is preparing to be ordained a deacon and is worried about passing his worthiness interview. He has made mistakes and has a list of sins that he is worried about. What will the bishop do when he confesses? How will this affect young Timothy?
“The Blessing” begins as Joseph Higgs is in the process of moving from a SLC ward that he has only been in for a short time. He gets a call from a family he home teaches but barely knows. Paul Grayson has fallen in the snow, injured his head, and needs surgery. His family wants Joseph to come and give him a blessing. But Joseph has sins that he has not repented of. The blessing promises recovery based on Paul’s faith and obedience. But he is unconscious. His wife and teenage son begin to worry that their lack of faith and obedience may hinder his recovery. What will happen?
“Sector 69-G” opens with the resurrection of Reuben Owen McGowan. Reuben never accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the LDS Church, though he crossed paths with the missionaries once. The total combination of all his sins and his rejection of the missionary’s question, “Would you like to hear a message about the Savior?” has caused him to be placed in the telestial Kingdom. What will become of him?
Mormonism, for all its accomplishments, good will, and finer points, has its share of challenges. Among these are the methods by which obedience is taught and the extent to which guilt and shame, whether intentional or not, play a role in those teachings. In Tales of Unworthiness, Dumm has done an EXCELLENT job of exploring the impact of Mormon use of shame and guilt in an entertaining and thought-provoking way.
Tales of Unworthiness is filled with many fun and entertaining bits of Mormon culture that LDS readers will recognize and likely have experienced. One example is a lesson question for children about “Superheroes” that leads to a discussion about how the priesthood of God is the greatest superpower. Another very Mormon moment is a reference in a lesson about how Jesus used the priesthood to change water into “grape juice.” Tales is filled with many such fun, groan-worthy pokes at some of the sillier aspects of Mormon life. These moments could have easily slipped into cheap attacks and insults, but Dumm presents these moments with fun and mirth without sinking to mockery.
I’ll be honest. When I was presented with a copy of Tales of Unworthiness, I wasn’t expecting much out of it. It is a small, thin, unremarkable-looking paperback that was self-published, and I agreed to read it more to be nice than anything else. I figured reading it would be kind of a quick, easy, “Meh” type of experience that I would get over with and move on. SO, I was really surprised by how much I absolutely enjoyed it. The stories are fun, engaging, well-written, and really make you think about the challenges in LDS culture and theology and how they have affected your life. I ended up reading these stories multiple times to get their full impact and will enjoy reading them again. If I were to rank the three stories, I enjoyed “Beneath the Stage” the most, found “The Blessing” to be the most thought-provoking, and while I certainly enjoyed “Sector 69-G,” compared to the other two, it felt a little long. But it is still good and quite enjoyable.
Tales of Unworthiness is brief and reasonably priced. It is great to be able to support local, independent authors, and Dumm is definitely worth supporting. I highly recommend Tales of Unworthiness to Mormon and post-Mormon audiences.