Reviews

Burning Bright by Ron Rash

iguana_mama's review

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

ida_ree's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

I stopped putting stars on my reviews.

I love Ron Rash's writing. He's an accomplished poet and uses that lyrical way with words to good effect in his stories, but without sacrificing plot. Most of these stories are introspective. And yet there are some twists. I sure there's a name for this literary trope that I don't know, but I notice a fair amount of characters doing what they believe has to be done, mowing down social mores along the way. 

saralashy's review

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Review subject the change. I’m not sure what i really read but i do know each story was captivating and did not screw around they were all blunt and got right to the kicker. Minus points for the pitiful old people stories

skmdevine's review

dark emotional reflective

4.0

tctimlin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

corioreo's review

5.0

Just read this in two sittings, less than 24 hours, and it was so enjoyable. I didn't even have time to make it a "currently reading". Just lovely, lovely, writing, and sad little stories.

liloud0626's review

5.0

That he can put so much power into so few words, well, it really is amazing.

sheldonleecompton's review

5.0

Rash is a short story warrior. He will take the top of your head plumb off with some of these. And the others, they'll break your damn heart and quicken your blood. I'm telling you, Rash gets out the broad sword with this collection. My favorite book of his so far.

indrabar's review

5.0

Excellent collection of short stories about life in Appalachia. Brutal and beautiful.

bluepigeon's review

5.0

This is the first book by Ron Rash that I read, and I will certainly read more of his work based on this experience. Rash brings the daily existence of mostly poor or down and out people to focus with unsentimental language that is sparse, yet ripe. I liked all the stories here, but perhaps my favorite is The Ascent, in which Jared makes repeated trips to a fallen plane that authorities are still looking for, returning with a ring that his meth addict parents pawn off for drugs and a bike for him. He is no fool; he knows it is only a matter of time before the bike, which had been promised to him for Christmas, will also be pawned off, but he does not protest. He just visits the plane wreck that nobody has managed to find, despite the helicopters circling above. Like in The Ascent, not much happens in most of the stories in this collection; nothing much that is drastic from an outside point of view, that is. Otherwise a lot happens: an owl perches on a large tree, its eye set on the neighbor's girl, and the large tree has to come down to fend it off, and a pawnshop owner has to straighten out his meth addict nephew, and soldier comes home after killing a Japanese soldier in the Philippines, and Lily, the wife of a Lincolnite, has to kill a Mr. Vaughn, a Confederate, to protect her family with one of her knitting needles. The title story, Burning Bright, is especially well crafted, leaving us to wonder if it will ever rain again, and save the forest from the arsonist, and the arsonist from himself.

Recommended for fans of Raymond Carver, Alice Munro, and Tom Drury.