Soon the Light Will Be Perfect

The first Gulf War is on the horizon in a small town in Vermont. The men who work at the local factory hope government contracts will give them work, and the local Catholic church prays for those involved while protesting abortion clinics. In a word, this is America.

Dave Patterson’s Soon the Light Will Be Perfect destroys you while it gives you hope. The twelve-year-old boy at the heart of this story is on a journey to discover what he truly believes about God, about girls, and about himself against a backdrop of poverty and fear. His mother is sick, his father is terrified, and his older brother is absent in the way of all older siblings who figure out the world and leave their littles behind. At the heart of it all is Catholicism and a doubt that makes the boy feel both too young for the troubles he sees and wiser than his elders in all the ways that count.