{"id":3142,"date":"2023-11-05T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T20:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=3142"},"modified":"2023-11-05T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T20:54:15","slug":"things-done-for-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=3142","title":{"rendered":"Things done for love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer reviews the latest book from one of North Carolina’s finest novelists, Ron Rash.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

THE CARETAKER. By Ron Rash. Doubleday. 252 pages. $28.<\/p>\n

Ron Rash populates his North Carolina mountains with some of the meanest people you never want to meet. Serena<\/em>, the woman featured in his best-selling novel, was remorseless in her meanness, relentless in revenge. In his latest book, he has come up with a new shade of mean \u2014 things done for love. The Hamptons, the aristocracy of Blowing Rock, N.C., \u00a0in 1951, own the sawmill and the general store. Their son Jacob grows up in a carefully planned life \u2014 until he meets a girl of whom they don\u2019t approve. He marries her, they disown him, she gets pregnant and he gets drafted into the Korean War.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now at this point, the book takes on the quality of a 19th century novel by Thomas Hardy\u2014an intercepted message, an unsigned note, flowers sent anonymously, money paid for silence. It\u2019s a series of precarious propositions, which, if not handled carefully, could tumble down around the ears of the reader.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t. Rash maneuvers through the plot with care, focusing on what the book is really about \u2014The Caretaker<\/em>. Blackburn Gant was apprenticed to the caretaker of a hilltop cemetery at the age of l6. His face disfigured, his leg disabled by polio, his parents thought it best he be removed from the public eye, and from public scorn. He spends his time now much more comfortable among the dead than among the living.<\/p>\n

He is Jacob\u2019s best friend from childhood, however. When Jacob is sent overseas, he asks Blackburn to care for Naomi, his wife. In the course of that relationship, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer. When the deceit effected by the Hamptons ensues, Blackburn is thrown into a confusing maelstrom far removed from the quiet of his former existence. As complications evolve, he grows in both depth and definition. He becomes the source of compassion, love and moral integrity demanded for a resolution suitable to everyone, especially the reader.<\/p>\n

Rash handles dialogue and detail as deftly as ever, right down to the Borden Milk clock on the store wall. He has an ear for mountain voices, and an eye for mountain scenery almost unequalled in American literature. He doesn\u2019t describe the setting, he takes you there:\u00a0\u201cFrom this (graveyard) hilltop, the whole valley could be seen, an unfurling patchwork of farms and woods giving way to mountains appearing endless as heaven itself was said to be. On a dreary day though, the Bible\u2019s hopeful words sounded damp and gray, defeated. Nothing seemed certain but the grave\u2019s dark door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reviewers consistently call Rash an Appalachian writer. He isn\u2019t. He\u2019s a North Carolina writer, whose work makes the reader feel the way the book\u2019s Jacob felt, when \u201c\u2026the teacher would point out continents and countries\u201d on the globe, \u201c\u2026but always let her finger return to the anvil shape of North Carolina.\u00a0And we are here,\u00a0<\/em>she\u2019d said,\u00a0right here.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>No writer makes us feel here, in North Carolina, like Ron Rash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer reviews the latest book from one of North Carolina’s finest novelists, Ron Rash. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE CARETAKER. By Ron Rash. Doubleday. 252 pages. $28. Ron Rash populates his North Carolina mountains with some of the meanest people you never want to meet. Serena, the woman featured in his best-selling novel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,1292,4],"tags":[101,1332,810,88,1370],"class_list":["post-3142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary-literary-fiction","category-historical-fiction","category-north-carolina-authors","category-southern-fiction","tag-historical-fiction-2","tag-north-carolina-authors","tag-ron-rash","tag-southern-fiction-2","tag-the-caretaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3144,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3142\/revisions\/3144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}