Meteors in August

Lizzie Macon--whose sister, pregnant by an Indian, has been banished from the family--represses her sexuality and becomes involved in charismatic religions in this exploration of religious and racial prejudice in a Montana mill town

Bullied wives, maimed men, haters of Indians, exhibitionists, petty preachers and rebel congregations are among the northern Montana townspeople who grope for individual deliverance in the background of this exceptionally promising debut novel. Misfit Lizzie, its adolescent narrator, escapes her older sister's predicament--a teenage pregnancy that caused her to run away when Lizzie was still a child--and concludes: "I figured a girl wasn't going to get too many breaks in her life and that I'd better find a way to show God I was grateful." She is guided by the local Holy Roller ("Jesus might be kind, but God and Mrs. Graves were only merciful"), but observes that fire-and-brimstone goodness does not stave off catastrophe. Rather, she learns not to reject sin but to forgive it. These themes might seem syrupy in less able hands, but Thon's steely-eyed, sharpshooting prose brings both urgency and spontaneity to her characters and their conflicts. Lizzie's feelings of rejection, her determination and her perceptions of the stultifying rural squalor are wrenchingly palpable, and Thon is clearly a writer to watch.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a tough yet elegantly written novel about a girl growing up in a small town in Montana. For Lizzie Macon, life is difficult, both physically and emotionally; she receives little kindness from her parents, community, or classmates. Somehow the days pass, and the ebb and flow doesn't much affect the town, until one August, when a fiery and horrific trio of events occur: the local saloon burns to the ground, a mildly retarded and much misunderstood neighborhood boy hangs himself, and a small plane falls out of the sky and sinks to the bottom of the local lake, drowning the young girl trapped inside. The turmoil of these events has an odd, disquieting effect on the townspeople, as well as on Lizzie herself, but ultimately it serves to wake her up and make her realize that she's in control of her own life. Written with a refreshing and unique directness, this novel is a pleasure to read.
- Jessica Grim, Univ. of California at Berkeley Lib.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.