Recent Reading

The Caretaker has been sitting beside my bed for many months because I didn't feel ready to read it. Rash can be a tad dark in his always beautiful writing, and the dark time we're in has had me reading lighter stuff. But finally I braved up and began.

Excellent writing as always and the characters and their stories grabbed me immediately.  A recluse with a damaged face, a young couple who marry despite parental opposition, the Korean War, an obsessed mother. . . and  what a plot! I had to keep going. Highly recommended for any time.

I continue to enjoy and be in awe of Leonard's snappy story telling and his way with dialogue. He is a perfect example of the writing teacher's mantra Show, don't Tell. These three were delightful.

On the other hand, I was surprised to find that I didn't enjoy these two from Alice Hoffman as much as I expected to, and found myself skimming through and quibbling with some anachronisms that annoyed me. Also, the two books were very heavy on the Tell as opposed to Show. It's all so subjective --some other time, I might have liked them more.

 

The Risen

A good blog friend sent me a copy of THE RISEN and I devoured it pretty much in one gulp. Set in nearby Sylva, it's the story of two brothers and the girl who changes their lives.

The writing is pure Rash -- thoughtful, crystalline prose, complex, self aware characters, and an eye (and pen) attuned to the smallest details of setting. And there's a complex moral issue to ponder -- can Evil be justified if Good results?

What threw me was that the book reads like a mystery -- a very, very good mystery -- and I found myself trying to solve it, to anticipate what was coming. This isn't a put down -- it was just a surprise.

Though as I tell my students, there's a mystery at the heart of every story -- will the protagonist get what he wants?

I loved the final pages of the book -- as the author played a bit with the fictional reality.

Ron is speaking tonight at UNCA -- tickets through Malaprop's. If only my class didn't meet then.

Go HERE for a NPR interview with the author.

Photo credit Ashley Jones

The Cove by Ron Rash

 This one's been on my To Be Read list ever since it came out. I'm a serious fan of Ron Rash's work and have said so here, again and again --  THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT and  SERENA. for example. (SERENA, by the way, is being made into a movie with HUNGER GAMES star Jennifer Lawrence in the title role. There's glory for you!)

What's more, I was a fellow faculty member with Ron last summer at WILDACRES

(and will be again this summer) and can report that, not only is he an amazing writer but he's also a Really Nice Guy who's not above donning a coonskin hat to participate in a silly 

skit.

 

THE COVE  takes place during World War I and is set in right here in Madison County, NC (the same place I call Marshall County in my books)in one of those deep dark hollers where secrets just naturally hide. Laurel Shelton and her brother live there, shunned by the folk of nearby Mars Hill who believe that Laurel is a witch. Laurel is desperately lonely and one day in the woods, she discovers a stranger playing a silver flute. . .

The story unfolds with the quiet inevitability of a mountain ballad. Rash recognizes and make full use of the melodious mountain talk and he brings the sensibilities of a poet to his descriptions.

THE COVE is a simpler tale than SERENA, but every bit as powerful. It made me think, too, of Charles Frazier's COLD MOUNTAIN -- another novel I loved.

I'm reluctant to say more than that I highly recommend this gem-like, rather brief (255 pages) novel -- I think the story is best experienced without too much foreknowledge.   But if you want to know more, here's a  NY Times review that, while not exactly a spoiler, may give a little more information that is quite necessary. Be warned.