Serena

Rash has crafted a truly stunning novel, a clash of beauty and violence as ambition and greed run unchecked in the western North Carolina wilderness, where the mountains are rich with timber and men are desperate for work in 1929's depression economy. Against a pristine background systematically destroyed by an avaricious lumber company, the workers ply a dangerous trade where fatalities are frequent as a newly-married couple gobbles opportunity and uncut timber with insatiable urgency, leaving behind a scarred landscape. The Boston Lumber Company is thriving when George Pemberton and his new bride, Serena, step from a train in Waynesville, North Carolina, the Colorado-bred Serena primed for the next phase of her life in boots and pants, clearly not intimidated by the country or the fact that she is a woman. In fact, it is Serena's character that drives the narrative, a woman so ruthless that she astonishes the rough-hewn men of the camp with her first interaction. Waiting at the station is an outraged, inebriated father, his clearly pregnant daughter at his side. When the angry Harmon challenges Pemberton for his daughter's honor, brandishing a knife, Serena encourages her new husband to "finish this now". Harmon soon vanquished, Serena coldly informs Rachel Harmon, "That's the only one of his you'll have." Embarking on their married life and business enterprises, the Pembertons are inseparable, George bending to his wife's will as she deals expediently with every challenge and anyone who opposes their goals. The rangy Mrs. Pemberton rides around camp, supervising the crews on her Arabian white stallion, a tethered eagle on a perch on the saddle, much like the gyrfalcons of medieval times. Indeed, Serena is like a Nordic goddess, intractable and determined. Soon the company name changes to the Pemberton Lumber Company. Awed by his wife's spirit and vision, Pemberton is a willing accomplice to even the most heinous of decisions, a study in rationalization in the name of love. Rash's prose is filled with contrasts, the beauty of a wilderness daily destroyed, the Pembertons invincible with their money and powerful contacts, controlling anyone who would hamper their ambitions. The camp is peopled with eccentrics, men who endure daunting conditions, knowing that death stalks the careless as accidents erase one life after another. These laborers have an innate wisdom, watching the Pembertons, exchanging opinions of the fates of those who stand in opposition, simple men hoping to escape each new tract alive. For no one crosses these people without repercussions. After a tragic childbirth, when Serena learns she cannot have more children, she turns her wrath on Rachel Harmon and her baby, Jacob, the final obstacle. What ensues is harrowing, a penniless young woman desperate to escape Serena's vengeance, like a small, wild animal pursued by Serena's raptor. This is the territory of nightmares, but Rash is no nihilist, drawing his reader into that hope

This was a very interesting book! It was definitely a page turner. I have suggested it to my book club. From the very first page, I was captivated. I could not let go of the story. Serena is unlike most women. She is pure evil. You cannot believe the things that she is capable of doing. Read it!

Serena is an expansion of a long short story by Ron Rash. Pemberton's Bride is the longest and the best of the tales in Chemistry. A second short story from that book, Speckled Trout, was expanded into the novel The World Made Straight. Not many short stories--even long short stories such as Pemberton's Bride--can be made into successful full-length novels. Too often the result has a padded feel to it, as with Edgerton's Bible Salesman, which would have worked best as a novella. But Pemberton's Bride had a power to it, and was intense, compact, dark, and strongly character-driven. There are two central figures--George Pemberton and his new wife Serena--who arrive in western North Carolina to oversee operations on Pemberton's logging operation. A few of the main parts of the plot are altered when the 46-page short story was expanded into a 370-page novel, but the novel is deeper, richer, and darker--there's never a sense of padding. The very first paragraph of the novel (and short story) quickly set the lasting tone: in 1929 a backwoods father waits on the station platform for the arrival of the Pembertons. He is accompanied by his 16 or 17-year old daughter, pregnant by Pemberton, and carries a freshly-honed bowie knife to plunge into Pemberton's heart. After the Pembertons arrive, some words are exchanged, Harmon draws his bowie knife and approaches Pemberton. "'We're settling this now,' Harmon shouted. 'He's right,' Serena said, "Get your knife and settle it now, Pemberton.'" Which Pemberton indeed does. So you immediately see that Serena is no shrinking violet. She's tough--tougher than Pemberton--and brutal--more brutal than Pemberton. People who stand in the Pembertons' way have an unfortunate tendency to die, usually unpleasantly. Sheriff McDowell is the only one who can stand up to the Pembertons, and this is only because of toleration on the Pembertons' part. Logging during the Depression is hard and dangerous work: accidents, debilitating and fatal, are all too common, and there is always a group looking for work, for whom accidents to the logging crews mean possible job openings. There's the frightening Galloway, who does Serena's bidding and who brings death in his wake. For some authors, carefully-drawn characters are rare (usually compensated for with action). But with Rash, even unimportant people are carefully drawn. You feel as if you've come to know people well--you may not like them, but you know them. There are two other Southern writers that this novel brings to mind. First is Cormac Mccarthy. Some of Mccarthy's works have the same lyrical dark depth that Serena has, particularly the brooding Child of God. Child of God has a wonderful phrase in it "The provinces of night" which was used as the title of a novel that the second writer used. William Gay's novels have the same dark nature that Child of God and Serena have. All three authors have a lyrical quality to their writing, an ease with words an

One of Ron Rash's early short stories relates the tale of a Chinese potter who in despair, having failed to produce the perfect glaze and color for his pots, flings himself into the oven. The result, of course, is pottery that bears the glaze and tone that he sought. To a certain extent, this is what Rash has done with SERENA. Years of near maniacal labor have produced what is clearly his finest work of fiction to date. The story is epic; the female protagonist is like nothing in American literary fiction; and as the early sale of film rights would indicate, the novel is all but screen-ready. What makes this a really fine novel, however, is not just character development or plot or neo-Elizabethan convention. It is the line-by-line attention that a reader might ordinarily expect from poetry. Page after page, in SERENA, I got the same feeling that I get when reading McCarthy or Faulkner, the feeling that every word matters, the feeling that when Rash revised this novel, he didn't just try to fix what might have appeared awkward or out of tune. He did his best to make it as seamless and "perfect" as his sanity would allow. In the process he produced a balance between tension and humor, grimness and grit, destruction and reclamation while creating a role that will likely accelerate some lucky actress's career.

Ron Rash's previous books got better as they came along, but I don't know how he'll top this. This is the best American novel I have read of the 21st century, and in many ways it tells a uniquely American story. Even with the main characters' Macbethean megalomania, manipulation, and murderousness, Rash is far too gifted a writer to create two-dimensional villains. Like the other characters in this novel, the protagonists are complex, reacting to conflicting motives and second-guessing all those around them. Serena Pemberton is the most powerful, unforgettable character I have encountered in years. This is a novel that achieves what only the best do: a mesmerizing story, indelible characters, and gorgeous writing. If you doubt that Ron Rash is the best writer in America, pick up Serena.