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A review by silentcat7135
Serena by Ron Rash
4.0
Serena's milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...then she drinks your milkshake, then everyone's milkshake, and then plans to travel to a country that has fewer pesky regulations on milkshakes.
If chapter 1 doesn't grab you, put the book down; it's not for you. In it, Pemberton arrives back to his timber holding with his new bride, Serena, only to be met at the train station by a young woman pregnant with his child and the young woman's father, out for justice. A knife fight ensues, partly at Serena's urging, and Pemberton kills the girl's father. Serena takes the father's knife, gives it to the pregnant girl, and informs her that as victor of the fight it by rights should belong to Pemberton but it is probably worth some money and will be the only thing she gets from them. Magnanimous of her, don't you think?
The Pembertons are awful people but hard to look away from. They are only for themselves...ambitious, corrupt, ruthless. Interesting to watch from the safety of them being fiction, in real life, they would make your life hell without a second thought, probably without even noticing. Other reviewers have referred to them in terms of an Ayn Randian ideal, and they would certainly put themselves above the rest of humanity, with petty rules, social or legal, not applying to them in their pursuit of profit. The novel is set before any sort of social safety net. Labour is cheap and working conditions brutal. Logging is still one of the more dangerous jobs today; back in the 1930s, death was a commonplace occurence. The author, like Joss Whedon or George R.R. Martin, isn't above killing off fairly major characters so a chase scene that happens late in the book has some real tension to it as the outcome isn't a foregone conclusion.
There are, of course, some decent human beings in the story, the young woman at the train station left to raise her baby without help being one of them, and the Pembertons's actions may occasionally be quietly criticized by other characters, but the novel itself, in contrast, seems to present them as almost a force of nature. They just are. Whether you root for the Pembertons in their all-consuming (in a very literal sense) quest or the decent people (which, I suppose, gives away my sympathies) is up to you.
This next part is commentary on something very spoilery so if you haven't read the book you probably don't want to read it...
A movie version came out recently, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. I'll probably watch it to see how well they caught the tone of the book, but to be honest, I have my doubts that the movie will feel adequately oversized in its scale. I think this movie should have been made back in the 40s or 50s even though it was written in 2008. Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are fine as actors, but this story should have starred someone like Charlton Heston or Kirk Douglas as Pemberton. Serena should have been someone like Ava Gardner, or better yet, Barbara Stanwyck. Oh well. You can't have everything, unless you're like Serena and willing to make whatever you want happen no matter the cost.
In summary, Serena was vastly entertaining, with awful characters I found it impossible to look away from no matter how much I was rooting against them.
If chapter 1 doesn't grab you, put the book down; it's not for you. In it, Pemberton arrives back to his timber holding with his new bride, Serena, only to be met at the train station by a young woman pregnant with his child and the young woman's father, out for justice. A knife fight ensues, partly at Serena's urging, and Pemberton kills the girl's father. Serena takes the father's knife, gives it to the pregnant girl, and informs her that as victor of the fight it by rights should belong to Pemberton but it is probably worth some money and will be the only thing she gets from them. Magnanimous of her, don't you think?
The Pembertons are awful people but hard to look away from. They are only for themselves...ambitious, corrupt, ruthless. Interesting to watch from the safety of them being fiction, in real life, they would make your life hell without a second thought, probably without even noticing. Other reviewers have referred to them in terms of an Ayn Randian ideal, and they would certainly put themselves above the rest of humanity, with petty rules, social or legal, not applying to them in their pursuit of profit. The novel is set before any sort of social safety net. Labour is cheap and working conditions brutal. Logging is still one of the more dangerous jobs today; back in the 1930s, death was a commonplace occurence. The author, like Joss Whedon or George R.R. Martin, isn't above killing off fairly major characters so a chase scene that happens late in the book has some real tension to it as the outcome isn't a foregone conclusion.
There are, of course, some decent human beings in the story, the young woman at the train station left to raise her baby without help being one of them, and the Pembertons's actions may occasionally be quietly criticized by other characters, but the novel itself, in contrast, seems to present them as almost a force of nature. They just are. Whether you root for the Pembertons in their all-consuming (in a very literal sense) quest or the decent people (which, I suppose, gives away my sympathies) is up to you.
This next part is commentary on something very spoilery so if you haven't read the book you probably don't want to read it...
Spoiler
There's something awesome in the terrible sense of someone whose narcissism is so great that she will kill her husband for showing a shred of humanity and responsibility towards his illegitimate child and its mother. She judges him unworthy of her because he is not as completely driven and ruthless as she. Wow. I understand why some reviewers compare her to Medea. There's a classical scale to her punishment for disappointing her.A movie version came out recently, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. I'll probably watch it to see how well they caught the tone of the book, but to be honest, I have my doubts that the movie will feel adequately oversized in its scale. I think this movie should have been made back in the 40s or 50s even though it was written in 2008. Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are fine as actors, but this story should have starred someone like Charlton Heston or Kirk Douglas as Pemberton. Serena should have been someone like Ava Gardner, or better yet, Barbara Stanwyck. Oh well. You can't have everything, unless you're like Serena and willing to make whatever you want happen no matter the cost.
In summary, Serena was vastly entertaining, with awful characters I found it impossible to look away from no matter how much I was rooting against them.