Eureka Mill

I bought this book without realizing it was a book of poetry. I then compounded my error by taking it on vacation with me. When I opened it and found it was poetry, I thought the start of my vacation was ruined. Until now, I've avoided poetry like the plague, but when I gave in and forced myself to read it I was moved, touched, and taught by Rash's great poems. Not a bad one in the bunch. I really, really look forward to reading the two other books I bought of his at the same time: Chemistry and Other Stories and a novel, The World Made Straight. Even if you think you don't like poetry, you'll love this book. Wayland Stallard

Rash's work really deserves a larger audience. He has a command of language and image sadly lacking in too many contemporary poets, and he has a compassion for his subject matter that is even rarer.Rash's work is neither too personal nor esoteric. He is concerned with recording, in verse, the lives of men and women who would otherwise be forgotten. His subject matter is COMMUNITY, as one would expect from a Southerner. In this case he writes of the Carolina millworkers in the early part of the twenthieth century who literally turned their lives off to the cotton mill bosses and submitted themselves to lives of heat, early hours, drunken sprees, boredom, and lint-inflicted disease and death.In many ways EUREKA MILL is a novel in verse. Rash certainly has a novelist's eye for detail, nuance, characterization, and place. And there are also great affinities to the Twelve Southerner's I'LL TAKE MY STAND. EUREKA MILL provides a kind of verse correlative for the essays in that classic work. Mass industrialism has forced people off the land and out of the lives they have known for generations and has left them with...what? Alienation, bitterness, and early death.A powerful volume, worthy of a wider readership.

Ron Rash has invoked the memories of my childhood, the town I left so long ago, and the memories of friends and their families. I was immediately transported to the envrirons of Chester, SC and put in touch with the people I knew growing up.If you grew up in any one of the small southern mill villages, this book will be your transportation to the past. If you were not so fortunate, this book will paint you an accurate portrait of the times and people.For the uninitiated, "Eureka" is pronounced you-RICK-er (accent on the middle syllable)or, at least that's how my Daddy (Southerners of my generatuion always call their male parent Daddy)always pronounced it,Congratulations Ron, you have a winner!

This chilling collection of poems takes us back to a wonderful place. A childhood of mill houses, cotton fields,and cotton mills. A place where a man would burn his lungs and lose his soul. These tragic poems by my boyhood friend Ron Rash allow me to see where I came from and how far I have to go.I encourage everyone with a soul to buy this book..