Sweet Thunder (Doig) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Filled with an abundance of rich characters… it is Butte itself, a tough-fisted city of plungers and promoters, bootleggers and union workers, sharpers and window men and crooked boxers, that binds the story together. Doig re-creates one of America's legendary cities and fills it with characters to match.
Denver Post


Doig, who holds a Ph.D. in history, is at his best in his historic novels, and he unspools this compelling tale among the clatter of typewriters and the 'sweet thunder' of printing presses… Marvelous… yet another Montana book worthy of Doig’s prodigious talents.
Seattle Times


There have been many charming rogues through literary history, and Mr. Doig brings us another one: Morrie Morgan… Doig has a gift of making oddballs believable and lovable, as well as a gift for capturing place and personality in deft strokes… an entertaining story at a high intellectual level.
New York Journal of Books


Butte, Montana in the 1920s meant Anaconda Copper Mining Company squeezing the town, its residents, and the land for everything they've got. Doig brings back the charismatic Morrie Morgan...last seen in 2010's Work Song, in this stirring tale of greed, corruption, and the power of past sins.... Doig's attention to detail, both historical and concerning characters of his own creation, is as sharp as ever.... [R]eaders both seasoned and new will fall under the spell of Doig's Big Sky Country.
Publishers Weekly


Morrie Morgan is back, accompanied by our favorite loopy characters from Doig's acclaimed Whistling Season and Work Song. It's 1920, and after a whirlwind honeymoon, Morrie and wife, Grace, return to Butte, MT, where despotic power resides under one mighty thumb, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.... Verdict: With a master storyteller's instincts and a dollop of wry humor, Doig evokes a perfect landscape of the past with a cast of memorable characters. A treasure of a novel. —Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO
Library Journal


Think Shane but with dueling journalists instead of gunfighters… A stirring tale given a melancholic edge by the fading influence of print newspapers in our very different modern world.
Booklist


Morrie Morgan returns to again confront the evil Anaconda Copper Mining Company, as well as several unwelcome reminders of his checkered past.... Doig also quietly conveys the injustices and cruelties of American history, particularly in the realistically depressing and temporary resolution of the union's struggle with Anaconda.... [W]elcome evidence that Doig, in his 70s, is more prolific and entertaining than ever.
Kirkus Reviews