Serena by Ron Rash

 

Serena by Ron Rash
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a haunting book of destruction, violence, and power. Sounds horrible, I know; but I think anyone who lives in/loves East Tennessee or Western NC and loves the Smokies will find this riveting. Fans of a gorgeous rendition of Macbeth will, too. And, well, if you just love a well-crafted story, here you go.

The story centers on George and Serena Pemberton, lord and lady of a lumber empire in the late 1920s. Their only goal is to get rich by cutting down trees (so painful to read!), and no one can stand in their way. They are violently opposed to this harebrained idea of turning the mountains into a national park (who wants to look at trees and waterfalls, they ask?), and they are nearly completely united in being coldblooded and heartless. But the one obstacle they don’t agree upon is George’s illegitimate son, Jacob. The novel is told mostly through the lens of the Pembertons, but Jacob and his mother, Rachel, get several chapters. I often despise books that have utterly contemptible protagonists, but in this case, Rash made me love to hate Serena (AKA Lady Macbeth).

Woven throughout the book are cameos of Horace Kephart, who fought to create the GSMNP; a Greek chorus of timber men; an oracle; and the creation of our beloved Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This isn’t a book that brings any sort of joy, except for the joy of an exquisitely written story. And also… knowing that the Pembertons lost, as I look at the Smokies from my front window right now.


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Book Review: A Land More Kind Than Home

The front cover declares this novel by Wiley Cash "as if Cormac McCarthy decided to rewrite Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird." And so of course, because I love both of those authors—Harper Lee much more than McCarthy—I was intrigued.

And if that comparison wasn't enough, the novel has snake handlers, and I am fascinated and repulsed by the notion of snake-handling churches. I read Fred Brown's nonfiction The Serpent Handlers several years ago, so I had a basic understanding of the whys and hows of the snake-handling tradition.

This is the story of nine-year-old Jess and how his family fell apart—how he lost everything at the hands of one evil man, disguised as a pastor. It's also the story of love gone awry, selfishness and sacrifice, children lost, revenge and forgiveness, and redemption.

The story unfolds through three voices: Adelaide, the town's midwife who knows children shouldn't watching adults handling writing serpents; Jess, the fierce protector of his older brother, Stump, who can't speak for himself; and Clem, the sheriff who can't prevent tragic outcomes. The center of all the evil is Pastor Chambliss, a low-life crook who is charismatic enough to seduce a whole congregation into snake-handling—and covering up his mistakes.

There are a lot of "how coulds" in this novel: how could Jess's mother…, how could his father…, how could all these people… —but I can't spoil the novel by investigating those specifically. The question really is: what is lost inside a person that makes them follow a single person so blindly?

It's a tragic book, really, but so beautifully written. The reader wants to best for nearly everyone who is left at the end, and I can't say I like to think about how Jess will turn out as an adult. If Cash writes a sequel, I'd snatch it up in a second.

Highly recommended. Cash is a fantastic writer and storyteller. There was nothing distracting about this novel, and I could have read twice as much of it. I also recommend Brown's book The Serpent Handlers alongside Cash's novel. This is our book club's choice for next month, so I look forward to the discussion and reactions.

Linked up at Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books