A Celestial Omnibus: Short Fiction on Faith - Hardcover

A Celestial Omnibus: Short Fiction on Faith, unlike most anthologies of fiction with religious themes, has a healthy respect both for doubt and belief. The title story, by E. M. Forster, is a fable about the use and abuse of literature as a means of salvation. Forster emphatically rejects the idea that literature can save us and, instead, offers an understanding of stories as tabernacles, where the reader meets strange characters who quickly become familiar to her and cause her spirit to experience a unique, transcendent joy. That's certainly true of the stories in this collection, which include "Pigeon Feathers," by John Updike; "A Father's Story," by Andre Dubus; "Cathedral," by Raymond Carver; and a haunting meditation called "On Mortality," by Maxine Hong Kingston. Although the religious sensibilities of these stories are pretty sophisticated, more than a few of them feature children as protagonists, which makes A Celestial Omnibus especially appropriate for families who like to read together or for smart junior high school students who are hungry for some meaty late-night reading.

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. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.