Lightning Bug (novel)


Lightning Bug was published in 1970. It is a story of lost love and the search for a rekindling of that love by main character Latha Bourne. Donald Harington wrote this novel as a tribute to his childhood home.

Plot

The novel starts with a depiction of the mood and setting of a hot summer night in the tiny Ozarks village of Stay More, using rich description to invoke all of the senses. The story focuses on the complicated relationships of the main character, Stay More's postmaster, Latha Bourne, with the narrator Dawny, with a teen-aged girl named Sonora who lives in Stay More during the summers, and with an itinerant preacher named Every Dill, who, it turns out, has a long and complicated history with Latha. The story moves between several different time-lines within Latha's life, from the present-day in which Every Dill shows up while Dawny and Sonora are summering in Stay More to Latha's memories of Every when they were children and teen-agers in Stay More to her years in a Little Rock asylum as a young adult.

Characters

Minor Characters: