Thurston, Carol (M.) 1938(?)-2001

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THURSTON, Carol (M.) 1938(?)-2001

PERSONAL: Born c. 1938, in Arlington Heights, IL; died of leukemia, July 7, 2001; daughter of Cecil E. and Vera B. McWharter; married George B. Thurston (a professor); children: John Douglas, Mary Elizabeth. Education: University of Texas at Austin, M.A., 1977, Ph.D., 1979.

CAREER: University of Houston, Houston, TX, assistant professor, 1979-82; press aide and speech writer for Senator Lloyd Doggett, Austin, TX, 1983-84; writer.

MEMBER: Sisters in Crime.

WRITINGS:

(With Robert F. Schenkkan) Case Studies in Institutional Licensee Management (monograph), National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 1980.

Flair (novel), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1987.

The Romance Revolution: Erotic Novels for Women and the Quest for a New Sexual Identity, University of Illinois Press (Champaign, IL), 1987.

Sins of Our Mothers (novel), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1989.

The Eye of Horus, Morrow (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Carol Thurston's novel The Eye of Horus crosses the centuries to tell a mystery story in which present-day characters try to determine the reason behind the death of an Egyptian woman centuries ago. When Kate McKinnon examines the mummy of Tashat, she finds that her hand and ribs are broken. And there is the broken skull of a man nestled between the mummy's legs. This discovery leads to an investigation of who Tashat was and why she may have been murdered. Anne Dingus in Texas Monthly found that the novel "brims with mummies, gods, and pharaohs, providing a mega-fix for Egyptophiles and a great read for everyone else." "Thurston provides plenty of fascinating insights into everyday life—diet, court ritual, and religion—in fourteenth-century BCE Egypt," George Needham wrote in Booklist. Harriet Klausner in BookBrowser called The Eye of Horus "an extraordinary mystery that keeps the audience riveted on what happened in the past and what is happening in the present."

Thurston was inspired to write The Eye of Horus when she read a newspaper story about a mummy being x-rayed. The x-rays showed that the woman had been tortured and murdered. Before writing her novel, Thurston spent six years researching Egyptian history. She even visited Egypt to get the feel of the country. "The more Thurston learned about Egypt," Anne Morris reported in the Austin American-Statesman, "the more interesting she found it. 'The history of Egypt is being rewritten,' [Thurston] said, citing technological advances and scientific dating, as well as the evolving study of the language itself. 'The cooperation between disciplines has changed archaeological analysis'. . . . 'Egypt is a wonderful setting,' the novelist said. 'So much is unknown or controversial. You have to use your imagination.'"

Thurston once told CA: "For me the bridge between nonfiction and fiction was speech writing, a liberating experience in the sense of freeing the imagination after years of expository writing, and entering into thinking in dialogue."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Literature, May, 1988, Judi M. Roller, review of The Romance Revolution, p. 317.

Austin American-Statesman (Austin, TX), August 27, 2000, Anne Morris, "Interest in Mummy Turns into Novel," p. K6.

Austin Chronicle, August 18, 2000, Adrienne Martini, review of The Eye of Horus.

Booklist, June 1, 2000, George Needham, review of The Eye of Horus, p. 1865.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), October 17, 1987.

Journal of Popular Culture, summer, 1989, Ray B. Browne, review of The Romance Revolution: Erotic Novels for Women and the Quest for a New Sexual Identity, p. 166.

News & Record (Piedmont Triad, NC), December 7, 2000, review of The Eye of Horus, p. D1.

Psychology Today, October, 1987, Kate Ellis, review of The Romance Revolution, p. 66.

Texas Monthly, August, 2000, Anne Dingus, review of The Eye of Horus, p. 32.

Times Literary Supplement, March 11-17, 1988.