Summer Fire

by Douglas H. Thayer

Owen, just turning sixteen, protected, self-righteous, innocent, leaves home to work on a Nevada hay ranch for the summer. Believing in his own perfectibility, in his ability to control himself and circumstances, he expects a great summer. Instead he is confronted with Staver, the ranch foreman, who is cynical, corrupt, and terribly scarred in body and emotion by war. Faced with a real and threatening evil for the first time in his life, Owen must fight for what he believes and for his own manhood.

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Helynne]

This is an early work (about 1970?) by Douglas Thayer, professor of English at BYU and one of the most prolific and respected of LDS novelists. Although Summer Fire has not become as popular as some of Thayer’s later works, I think it is a wonderful look at how an orthodox LDS upbringing in central Utah has shaped (and maybe somewhat skewed) the perspective of an adolescent on the cusp of manhood. Fifteen-year-old Owen, whose father died when he was a baby, has been raised by his mother and paternal grandmother. He has grown up in his late father’s own bedroom, where, predictably, the lingering presence of his dad is a daily reminder of duty to family and to righteous living . Owen is the product of a sheltered and dogmatic upbringing, which includes numerous lectures on chastity—and they always include dire warning about the evils and consequences of immorality, Owen is slightly self-righteous, but mostly apprehensive and bewildered about the ways of the world with which he has virtually no acquaintance. This novel details Owen’s day-to-day duties and life’s lessons during a summer job with his cousin at a rural farm. Thayer’s intimacy with farming chores and respect for the land and its animals are described in luscious, and sometimes disturbing detail. One graphic scene shows Owen’s witnessing of the slaughter of a calf (quick and merciful, with a bullet to the head), and the subsequent efficient sawing off of the head and limbs and the skinning and processing of the body for cuts of meat. At the end of the summer, has Owen has grown a lot in knowledge of farming and a personal work ethic. How his perspective on spirituality may have changed is left somewhat to the reader’s interpretation. This is a simple story on the surface, but one that provokes rethinking of values and morals we tend to take for granted or accept at face value.

[Barefoot Mike]

This was the first novel by Douglas Thayer that I have read, but he quickly became one of my favorite authors of mormon-themed literature. The characters, while complex and deep, felt realistic. The imagery was always crisp and vibrant, and the symbolism caused me to ponder throughout my reading.