2017
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
while noting that Rash’s “prose style is usually simple and direct, with few of the baroque rhetorical flourishes that mark Faulkner’s fiction or that of Cormac McCarthy, despite Rash’s admiration for both authors” (7–8). John Lang’s nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Ron Rash’s works provides enough detail and depth to use this study as a supplemental text in the classroom as well. In discussions of individual works, Lang’s frequent references to other texts draw out similarities in structure, characterization, plot, or theme as skillfully as a tailor might stitch together two pieces of cloth. Lang succinctly concludes his study by claiming, “Rash’s fiction and poetry have that honesty and edge and merit the quality of attention they will surely receive from general readers and critics alike in the years ahead” (127). Indeed, in Understanding Ron Rash, John Lang is an explorer, sketching out a map that future scholars will follow and further embellish. For The Ron Rash Reader, Randall Wilhelm has mined Rash’s estimable writings for pieces that are representative of whole, individual works; the result is this collection, which, according to Wilhelm, “provides an illuminating map of Rash’s work over the years [and] allows readers access in one edition to his development as a writer and craftsman and to the themes and concerns that run obsessively throughout his poetry and fiction” (4–5). The Reader
RANDALL WILHELM holds a BFA from Winthrop University, an MA in English from Clemson University, and a PhD in American literature from the University of Tennessee. He is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Anderson University in Anderson, SC.
successfully achieves its goals, and in doing so casts a remarkably wide net with its scope while still managing to plumb the depths of Rash’s writing. The collection opens with an essay by Wilhelm titled, appropriately, “Blood Memory.” This not only introduces the works included in the Reader, but also serves as a combined biography and critical discussion of Rash’s writing. Identifying Rash as a “fierce triple threat in contemporary literature” (8), Wilhelm proceeds to explicate much of Rash’s work with great detail, explaining along the way the intention of each selection – drawing upon connections between pieces, for example, so that readers may trace a theme or motif through Rash’s career. Wilhelm’s analysis of selected poems drills down to specific sounds and word choice while still maintaining an eye on the place of such details within the larger discussion: “This interweaving of sound and sense is the stuff of poetic genius and shows the subtle, startling, and powerful complexity of Rash’s work as a poet of the ‘first order’” (10). Wilhelm continues on to address each publication, individually holding them up to a light as a jeweler might with a collection of precious stones, and discusses the structure and strengths of each one, marveling at their beauty both technically and aesthetically. Organized by genre, and within genre, chronologically by publication, Wilhelm has included significant pieces from each of
RIGHT Randall Wilhelm with North Carolina writer, Ron Rash, at the Emory and Henry College’s 25th Annual Literary Festival, Emory, VA, Sept. 2006
Rash’s publications. Each of Rash’s five short story collections is represented by three stories, and readers can easily refer back to Wilhelm’s introductory discussion for a careful close reading of each short story. The stories, from “The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth” to “Their Ancient Glittering Eyes” and “Where the Map Ends” offer readers new to Rash’s writing an entrée to his use of humor combined with somber themes, his use of place to invoke memory, and his frequent drawing upon historical events with new light and understanding. The novel excerpts are, without exception, the first chapter or chapters. This provides readers with enough of a taste of a work to tantalize them to continue reading the novels in their entirety; it also provides readers with context and prevents disorientation from picking up a selection in medias res. The Reader concludes with two important sections: “Selected Nonfiction, 2006–2011” and “Uncollected Stories, 1998–2013.” While much of Rash’s work is drawn from his life experiences, it is refreshing to see a section of essays wherein the readers know that the first person is Rash himself. In these four essays, Rash discusses his early COURTESY OF RANDALL WILHELM
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