Ron Rash's New Collection: Burning Bright

Ron Rash–Burning Bright

You don't have to pay much atten­tion to this blog to know I'm a huge Ron Rash fan.  His new col­lec­tion Burn­ing Bright arrived in the mail yes­ter­day. I'm sav­ing it until tonight when I can devote full atten­tion to it. In the inter­im, here's a review from, of all places, the Har­vard Crim­son.

Ron Rash was born in Chester, South Car­oli­na and grew up in Boil­ing Springs, North Car­oli­na, and his writ­ing reflects his roots. In “Burn­ing Bright,” Rash pays homage to the land and the peo­ple of the Appalachi­an Moun­tains in which he was raised.

“Burn­ing Bright” is a col­lec­tion of short sto­ries which spans rough­ly 150 years from the clos­ing days of the Civ­il War to mod­ern times. Although the book tells a vari­ety of sto­ries and hosts a range of nar­ra­tors, Rash’s sto­ries remain nat­u­ral­ly cohe­sive. The books span a great num­ber of years, but the work remains uni­fied by a strong, organ­ic inter­nal force. Appalachia is one of the most pover­ty-strick­en areas in the Unit­ed States, and Rash’s work reflects the ten­u­ous rela­tion­ship that the peo­ple of this region have with each oth­er and the land beneath them. The impor­tance of the earth and the com­mu­ni­ties dri­ves each sto­ry togeth­er and remains unabat­ed through­out the work. More.

I've been look­ing for­ward to this one for quite some time, after the action-packed–how often can you say that about a lit­er­ary novel?–and fas­ci­nat­ing Ser­e­na and my favorite of his, The World Made Straight. I'll say more after I've got­ten into it tonight or tomorrow.