The Cove by Ron Rash
My rating: 4/5 cats
another quietly wonderful book from ron rash, about a couple of outcasts trying to grab a little happiness out of a life filled with loss and loneliness.
this one takes place in north carolina during WWI, in a remote and “gloamy” cove, where a brother and sister live isolated by superstition and circumstances. the sister, laurel, has a large purple birthmark believed by the entire outlying town to be a sign of witchcraft, and the cove where the two reside is believed to be haunted. after their parents died, the two of them lived alone until hank went to war, where he lost a hand View Spoiler », leaving laurel completely cut off from human contact and deeply lonely. there is only one man in town they can call a friend; the rest cross the street or spit when the two have to go to town for supplies. the heroism clinging to hank after his experience in the war has mitigated his situation somewhat, and people begin to treat him less shabbily, but laurel has no chance – she is doomed to solitude and loneliness, isolated in this presumably haunted cove.
until a mute and illiterate traveling flute-player loses his way in the cove, gets stung by a million bees, and is nursed back to health by laurel. as he recovers, and is able to help hank with the farm chores hank’s single hand is inadequate to perform alone, he and laurel form a bond.
and laurel gets her chance at happiness.
this being ron rash, the happiness is not guaranteed – there are going to be a lot of complications. i guessed the “twist” part just by reading what will be the flap copy, but i don’t think that matters. this isn’t about the reveal,View Spoiler », but about laurel’s struggles to carve out a place for herself when she has been given so few options.
it is also about birds. birds who are being driven out of their habitat by farmers protecting their crops, birds pecking each other to death, birds who will not leave a fellow bird behind. so many different birds exemplifying so many different traits of our human characters. but rash pulls it off without it feeling treacly.
and the character of chauncey, our “bad guy,” is terrific. it’s strange that this is the character who seems the most richly drawn and the most nuanced, because he is awful and smarmy and self-aggrandizing and one of those misguided true believers who, if there energy were harnessed towards ANY USEFUL GOAL AT ALL, would be a hero. instead, he is a german-hating pre-nazi, down to the symmetry of his uniform and his desire to burn the german-language books in the library.
he’s an awful character, but a wonderfully-written character. and definitely my favorite in this book.
all the previous “spoilers” in this review were just silly television giggles that i didn’t want cheapening the main text of a review of a serious-toned book, but this following one is an actual spoiler about an incredibly small passage in the book, but one that made my heart physically ache with emotion.
View Spoiler » that scene broke my heart and i would have loved more moments like that throughout this fine, but not emotionally jarring, novel.this one didn’t kick my reader’s ass the way Serena did, but it is a very good, quiet piece of writing from an author more people should be reading.
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