Ron Rash: A Reading & Reception

Wednesday, August 7, 2024
10 am to noon
Orion Chapel and Schoolhouse
350 & 194 Orion Lane • Jefferson, NC 28640

We have twelve amazing authors scheduled for the 2024 On the Same Page Festival, and we can’t wait to share all of them with you! In the meantime, we are delighted to announce that we will be hosting a Reading & Reception with Ron Rash (Serena, Above the Waterfall, The Caretaker) on Wednesday, August 7 at the Orion Schoolhouse and Chapel in Jefferson. The reading will begin at 10 am in the chapel with light refreshments served in the schoolhouse afterward. No prior registration is required for this event.

RON RASH is the author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to the critically acclaimed novels The Risen, Above the Waterfall, The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; five collections of poems; and seven collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, Nothing Gold Can Stay, a New York Times bestseller, Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award, and In the Valley. Three times the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, his books have been translated into seventeen languages. He teaches at Western Carolina University.

Review of The Caretaker by Ron Rash

I finished this book almost entirely in one sitting.

The setting is familiar (Blowing Rock and environs, but in the early 1950’s, before it got so trendy), the people are believable, and there are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. The story is told from several points of view, but primarily that of Benedict Gant, a young man/old soul who is the caretaker of the local church and cemetery. His best (and really only) friend is Jacob Hampton, scion of the community’s most affluent and influential family. Jacob is married to Naomi, who was definitely NOT his parents’ choice for a daughter-in-law. Jacob is drafted to go to Korea, and the story unfolds from there.

While some difficult issues from that time are addressed, such as the polio outbreak and the Korean Conflict, they are used as devices that shape the characters’ development – but they aren’t shoved down the reader’s throat.

This book is in many ways a paean to the nature of friendship. I could also probably write an essay on the theme of parenting in this short novel – but I won’t.

Review by Donna