In the days before sunscreen, soccer practice, MTV, and Amber Alerts, boys roamed freely in the American West--fishing, hunting, hiking, pausing to skinny-dip in river or pond. Douglas Thayer was such a boy. In this poignant, often humorous memoir, he depicts his Utah Valley boyhood during the Great Depression and World War II. Known in some circles as a Mormon Hemingway, Thayer has created a richly detailed work that shares cultural DNA with Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. His narrative at once prosaic and poetic, Thayer captures nostalgia for a simpler time, along with boyhood's universal yearnings, pleasures, and mysteries.

Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood

Religion & Spirituality

Thayer, Douglas

Christian Books & Bibles

Zarahemla Books

When Harris Thatcher's father dies, the boy's journey into manhood becomes complicated with questions of faith, the meaning of life, and the capriciousness of death. Harris soon finds himself preaching the Mormon gospel as one of the first missionaries to West Germany following the devastation of World War II. Little does he know that his own war horrors await him upon his return home, when he is drafted into the Korean War. Starting out in the same 1940s-era Provo, Utah, that Thayer brought to life in his memoir Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood, this novel deepens and darkens as Harris is drawn into his harrowing Korean ordeal. Will he survive the war, not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually? And if he does survive, what other trials does death hold in store?

The Tree House

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Douglas Thayer's third collection presents a dozen of his career-best stories, including several that have never before appeared in print. BYU emeritus professor of English Richard Cracroft describes this work as "LDS literary fiction at its finest, written with Thayer's crisp style and shot through with his trademark irony, tempered by his faith." Author Elouise Bell says, "This work illuminates the Mormon culture with unique depth and variety, but also shows us, with equal power, the American West in fresh, moving frames."

Wasatch: Mormon Stories and a Novella

Short Stories & Anthologies

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Books by Thayer, Douglas