In the Valley

Starred review from June 15, 2020
The 10 stories in Rash’s revelatory collection (after The Risen) range from contemporary slices of life to period character studies, and from quiet closet dramas to miniature epics. The title story, a pendant to his 2008 novel, Serena, flirts with the mythological in its extraordinary depiction of Serena Pemberton, the steel-willed owner of a Depression-era logging camp, who rules over her employees and the forests that they’re felling like a raging Fury. Standouts among the book’s contemporary entries include “L’homme Blessé,” in which a grieving widower finds consolation in prehistoric art reproduced by a traumatized WWII veteran on the walls of his room; “Ransom,” about the peculiar bond a kidnap victim develops with her abductor; and “Sad Man in the Sky,” whose main character, a newly released con, engineers an audacious airborne stunt to deliver presents to children that a restraining order prevents him from visiting. In simple but eloquent prose, Rash describes the vulnerabilities, fears, and desires of his characters and shows how often they unite persons from vastly different walks of life and social strata. The skillful craftsmanship of these tales and their subtle but powerful climaxes make for profoundly moving reading.

Starred review from July 1, 2020
Rash's (The Risen, 2016) latest collects nine new short stories plus the titular novella. The stories cover a wide swath of time, from the Civil War to the present day, but all are set in the Appalachian region of North Carolina and return to Rash's signature themes, including revenge, redemption, and the effects of human activity on the natural world. Several tales take an unexpected turn as Rash gradually reveals details about the characters. When her home is raided by Confederate soldiers, a Civil War widow begs not to be spared, so that she can keep her neighbors from finding out the truth about her family; a kidnapped college student realizes that the ransom sought from her family is far more personal than financial. In the novella, a sequel to Rash's Serena (2008), a crew of loggers are tasked with clearing a treacherous ridge to meet a seemingly impossible deadline set by now-widowed timber magnate Serena Pemberton, who will stop at nothing to finish the job, no matter how many lives are lost; the same holds true in her search for the mother of her husband's illegitimate child. Rash's lyrical, atmospheric collection, with its strong sense of place, will appeal to readers of Rick Bragg and Jesmyn Ward.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2020

This collection of nine short stories and a novella features the return of the ruthless Serena Pemberton, a character introduced in Rash's Serena, published in 2008 and a PEN/Faulkner finalist. Rash's readers will recognize the themes here--family honor and pride, generational change, wounds of the past, hard living, and cruelty--but while the stories are familiar, they are also uniquely new and fresh. This is undoubtedly the work of a short story author of remarkable skill who cares for the South, in all its complexities. The title novella is so gripping and at times horrifying that it explains why Rash chose to return to Serena Pemberton. She is an unforgettable character. VERDICT At turns dark, craggy, and heart-wrenching, Rash's writing is never easy, but it is also lovely, moving, and rich in history and culture, just like the Appalachian region it so beautifully captures. Highly recommended for both those just discovering Rash and for returning readers. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/20.]--Shaunna E. Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll. Lib., VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Rash's latest is a collection of 10 stories anchored by a novella featuring the ruthless Serena Pemberton of his best-known novel, Serena (2008), as she returns to the U.S. and resumes her reign of terror. Though Serena has received the lion's share of attention, the short story has always been Rash's best genre. Several pieces collected here--mostly set in western North Carolina from the Civil War to the present--center on revenge that wants to see itself as righteous. Rash is expert at revealing the sword of vengeance's double edge--how honed it is, how it cuts whomever wields it. In the excellent "Flight," for example, Stacy, a wounded, justice-minded young park ranger, determines that she'll have the better of a local who keeps tauntingly poaching trout. Another standout is "The Belt," about an octogenarian Civil War veteran and his talisman, the lucky brass buckle that saved him in battle. His family has struggled mightily--that buckle's luck has never seemed transferable--but old Jubal hopes the luck might extend, in one last moment of crisis, to his namesake grandson, a toddler. Perhaps best of all is "L'homme Bless�," about a recently widowed art teacher summoned to a deep-country cabin where an old man, psychologically wrecked after World War II, lived out his days sheltered by his own art--a near-perfect re-creation of the drawings inside a French cave the shattered soldier had visited. But the title novella makes for the centerpiece. Unrepentant lumber queen Serena has returned home, where she needs to accomplish the impossible: clear-cut a last mountaintop forest in just days. To do so--with the help of her conscienceless enforcer, Galloway, and his terrifying, spooky mother--she must bribe, cajole, intimidate, murder, perhaps even bend the rules of time, but there's little Serena can't do. Sure, now and again Rash tries to channel Cormac McCarthy and fails; a couple stories seem slight; and so on. But those are quibbles, not disfiguring flaws. A brace of strong stories, and the novella's a fine, suspenseful contribution to the thriving genre of Appalachian mayhem.

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