Parting the Veil

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Something about Mormonism keeps bringing Phyllis Barber back to its roots, something about the power of the miraculous she knew so intimately as a child. She was always fascinated by Sunday school stories of Joseph Smith's visions, about the Three Nephites rescuing people in harm's way, and about how unborn spirits talk to women in the night and ask to receive a mortal body. The idea that the veil between heaven and earth can be parted has never been far from her. The Mormonism with which Barber identifies begins with Joseph Smith's ideas which give her own imagination access to infinite conversations with heavenly beings and free-flowing consideration of any meritorious idea. These stories are drawn from western folklore and Mormon history and from portraits of contemporary people caught by religious ideals. As much as Barber vacillates between the need to know and the need to doubt, she can't help telling stories that wrestle with the possibility of a thin veil fluttering nearby.