Ron Rash’s prose is elegant even when his stories are spare. Even in the shortest novella or story, however, Rash can easily bring to life complex multi-sided characters with whom the reader can build a quick empathy. The primary setting of his novels and of this book, short stories, is Appalachia. The often-difficult environment and life in Appalachia, in combination with the troubles of the main story protagonists, should leave the reader desolate and desperate. However, there is an inherent dignity and strength in each of Rash’s characters, and so their stories leave readers rejuvenated and hopeful about the ability of humans to triumph over circumstance, including those they create themselves.
Rash’s stories span time and place, ranging from various wars to current day, up and down the Appalachians and Blue Ridge, from South Carolina to Boone. One theme is war and its toll on the combatants and those left behind. In Hard Times starving children in Haywood county during WWII scrap for food, especially eggs—it’s hard to believe it’s this century; and in Return a man changed terribly in war contemplates his life and its changes as he takes his bus ride from Charlotte to Boone after his Army release. Some stories are heartbreaking--an old man protecting the only earth and land his family has ever known. Others, macabre: the practice of digging up Confederate dead for the booty on their belt buckles.
Rash also explores the scourge of the meth problem in rural areas, seen from the eyes of family members. In Back of Beyond, a sheriff must do what is right to his addicted brother, regardless of what his heart tells him. Rash’s real sympathy lies with children of poor drug addicts in The Ascent, whose only Christmas is what they find in the backwoods…
Rash clearly shows that change, too, gives our worst fears play. You don’t ask much when the man of your dreams shows up at your door, making your life complete for the first time ever. Even if you know, somehow, that the man of your dreams is a nightmare for others. Or maybe you’ve moved on from Madison County and maybe you know better than to let a bird in a tree portend your future, but you do anyhow and you can’t explain what’s wrong to the educated people in Raleigh. Or maybe you’re just a county husband who fears the changes in his life and pride when his wife goes to college.
…and if Rash’s stories haven’t packed enough punch, he saves the one that makes you hitch-your-breath the hardest for last. After Lincolnites, you might just turn back to the front and start over again, as I did.
-Sheila
Click Here for More Staff Picks
