The Risen by Ron Rash
My rating: 4/5 cats
this is the second fairly quiet novel in a row from ron rash, after 2014’s Above the Waterfall. i wouldn’t recommend either of them to first-time rashers, because compared to some of his other books, they’re a bit spare in terms of story, but for people like me, who’ve already gorged ourselves on his meatier stuff and can appreciate this lighter touch more for knowing what he’s capable of when he lets loose, or for people who prefer their books a little wispy, it will still satisfy.
i liked this one more than Above the Waterfall, even though less actually happens in it.
it’s a pretty straightforward story – two teenaged brothers fishing in panther creek, north carolina meet a wild and careless girl named ligeia back in the summer of ’69 and spend the rest of the summer with her in a lazy haze of sex, drinking, and drugs before ligeia returns to florida. the individual choices the brothers make that summer set them each on the diverging trajectories their adult lives will take and will ultimately contribute to their long estrangement.
nearly fifty years after that summer, ligeia’s bones wash up in panther creek, revealing that she never did make it back to florida, and now there are many questions that need to be answered and family secrets to drag into the light. in chapters alternating between past and present, in a story dark with regret and wasted time, a man will look back on the defining summer of his life and see events more clearly from an alcoholic distance than he did when he was living them.
playing on this idea of faulty memory and missing information, the best part of this book is actually something that isn’t written – it’s a jaw-droppingly unsettling incident alluded to, but not spelled out, involving “the second cut,” which is a phrase that means nothing to you until it does, and when you clock the significance of it, there will be shivers. and i loved that – i loved his restraint in not writing that scene out but leaving it there teasingly, knowing his readers would get it. and it only makes me wish he’d trusted his readers with the other nice turn here – the one involving freckles – which, when it’s first revealed, is subtle and exquisite, but then is later hammered home at least two more times, destroying that nice delicate reveal and spotlighting something most readers probably already ‘got’ the first time.
but no matter.
it’s a quiet book, sure, but it still leaves its mark, and ron rash doesn’t need to bring fireworks and a marching band to impress anybody.
but know that he could, if he wanted to.
and you would be impressed.
*********************************************
so, i come home from breakfast with James Renner to find THIS in my mailbox.
sometimes life is pretty great.
