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A review by jdintr
The Risen by Ron Rash
3.0
My grandfather was a family doctor in a small, southern town. I remember working in his office during summers off from high school, much as Bill and Eugene had done. I want to emphasize that these facts are the only ones I share with the events in this book!
Rash reveals a mystery at the beginning of the book--a young woman's bones emerge from a creek bank. Her body bears marks of murder (and worse). To Rash's credit, he keeps the reader guessing right up until the final chapter.
The town of Sylva, as constructed by Rash, is very believable. Eugene and Bill, raised in the shadow of an overbearing grandfather, are broken by his dominance and turn away--Eugene into drink, and Bill into a marriage that his grandfather had proscribed. The emergence of the remains of a young woman that both boys had romanced (?) in the fabled summer of 1969 help to bring their relationship into new light.
I loved Rash's sense of place and the voice through which he told the story. I felt, though, that Ligeia--the antagonist--was a crudely drawn vixen: too open with her sexuality, too closed with her motives other than the acquisition and sale of drugs. This cost my rating one star.
As Ron Rash books go, this is for people who are big fans, like me, or for those interesting in exploring 60s-era rural North Carolina through the mind of one of the region's finest writers.
Rash reveals a mystery at the beginning of the book--a young woman's bones emerge from a creek bank. Her body bears marks of murder (and worse). To Rash's credit, he keeps the reader guessing right up until the final chapter.
The town of Sylva, as constructed by Rash, is very believable. Eugene and Bill, raised in the shadow of an overbearing grandfather, are broken by his dominance and turn away--Eugene into drink, and Bill into a marriage that his grandfather had proscribed. The emergence of the remains of a young woman that both boys had romanced (?) in the fabled summer of 1969 help to bring their relationship into new light.
I loved Rash's sense of place and the voice through which he told the story. I felt, though, that Ligeia--the antagonist--was a crudely drawn vixen: too open with her sexuality, too closed with her motives other than the acquisition and sale of drugs. This cost my rating one star.
As Ron Rash books go, this is for people who are big fans, like me, or for those interesting in exploring 60s-era rural North Carolina through the mind of one of the region's finest writers.