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86th out of 219 books
—
377 voters
Saints at the River
by
Ron Rash
When a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, the people of the small South Carolina town that bears the river's name are thrown into the national spotlight. The girl's parents want to attempt a rescue of the body; environmentalists are convinced the rescue operation will cause permanent damage to the river and set a dange...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
July 1st 2005
by Picador
(first published January 1st 2004)
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Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod,
With its crystal tide forever
That flows by the throne of God?
Yes, we'll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river,
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of the Lord.
The words of that old hymn have always haunted me, maybe because a large portion of my childhood was spent on the banks of a beautiful river, tucked up in the mountains, where I felt God and the angels walking with me. When I first saw th...more
Where bright angel feet have trod,
With its crystal tide forever
That flows by the throne of God?
Yes, we'll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river,
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of the Lord.
The words of that old hymn have always haunted me, maybe because a large portion of my childhood was spent on the banks of a beautiful river, tucked up in the mountains, where I felt God and the angels walking with me. When I first saw th...more
I was deeply moved by Saints at the River, a powerful novel about a wild, scenic river in South Carolina (fictionalized as the Tamassee River but reportedly based on the Chattooga River) that claims lives in its dangerous white water "hydraulics" and that, in this story, inspires both enemies and valiant protectors. It will stay with me a long time as I reflect on the subtle complexities and potent themes.
This novel was outstanding on so many levels, not the least of which was the riveting plot...more
This novel was outstanding on so many levels, not the least of which was the riveting plot...more
Setting: Present Day (2004), Columbia, SC and the small town near the Tammasee River.
Main characters: Maggie Glenn (narrator and protagonist), a 28-year-old single newspaper photographer with mountain people roots; Allen Hemphill, journalist and Maggie's partner in the assignment; Luke Miller, Maggie's first love and stringent environmentalist.
Minor characters: Billy Watson, Clemson graduate and knick-knack store operator
Issues: Development vs. Environmental purism and conservation; Maggie Glen...more
Main characters: Maggie Glenn (narrator and protagonist), a 28-year-old single newspaper photographer with mountain people roots; Allen Hemphill, journalist and Maggie's partner in the assignment; Luke Miller, Maggie's first love and stringent environmentalist.
Minor characters: Billy Watson, Clemson graduate and knick-knack store operator
Issues: Development vs. Environmental purism and conservation; Maggie Glen...more
Saints At the River by Ron Rash (Picador 2004)(Fiction) is a good gothic Southern novel. The story opens as a ten-year-old girl is swept over a waterfall and drowned on a family picnic in the mountains of northern South Carolina. Her body is captured by the hydraulics of the waterfall and remains stuck there weeks after the accident. The local rescue squad's divers can't get her out, and the family wants all measures taken to free her. The problem: the river is covered by the federal "Wild and S...more
This is my second Ron Rash novel, however this book was written long before the first of his I read. No matter, this book is good, it’s just not as powerful and rich as Serena was for me cover to cover. This book is simple in plot, but Rash proves he can take us deeper into each character (but of course mostly the main character) to add depth to his story and a “likeability” as well as “relatability” to each. I just didn’t finish this book with the same intensity, and the story was just moderate...more
I read Rash's excellent Serena a year or so ago and was both excited and wary about his earlier books. He is a wonderful stylist, but I worried about becoming disappointed with his earlier books.
I was a little right to worry, but only a little. As in the prior book, he wonderfully evokes Appalachian Carolina. In both books, there is a theme of nature under threat and of pitiful victims. Here the story is as dramatic as in Serena, but on a much smaller scale.
In this book, a visiting girl drowns...more
I was a little right to worry, but only a little. As in the prior book, he wonderfully evokes Appalachian Carolina. In both books, there is a theme of nature under threat and of pitiful victims. Here the story is as dramatic as in Serena, but on a much smaller scale.
In this book, a visiting girl drowns...more
Apr 12, 2013
Irene
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Irene by:
Ken
Shelves:
fiction
This is my first novel by Ron Rash, but I did read Burning Bright, a collection of short stories, and I can't help but compare the two. My 3-star rating for this book is relative to my 4-star rating for Burning Bright.
Overall, this book just seemed lacking. The dialogue frequently seemed to me too formal and forced, not natural enough. It took almost the entire book to draw me in, and once I finally felt invested in the characters - right at the climax - everything was wrapped up a bit too quic...more
Overall, this book just seemed lacking. The dialogue frequently seemed to me too formal and forced, not natural enough. It took almost the entire book to draw me in, and once I finally felt invested in the characters - right at the climax - everything was wrapped up a bit too quic...more
I cannot begin to imagine how awful it must be to lose a child. To watch that child washed away before your eyes as you stand alone, unable to do anything about it. The first chapter is gut-wrenching in its description of the drowning of Ruth Kowalsky. I could picture her walking into the depths of the river without a thought of the dangers lurking just below the seemingly peaceful surface. Realistic, honest and heartbreaking, this could be a story from anyone's family. A perfect moment too quic...more
I am glad I discovered Ron Rash and plan on reading all his books. This book is based on a true event. A girl's body was trapped in a keeper hydraulic under a ledge on the Chatooga River in South Carolina. It happened while I was working for the USFS.The event pitted the family against the environmentalists who claimed that attempts to retrieve the body violated the Wild and Scenic River Act. It was heartbreaking and dragged on for weeks. It happened not long after JFK, Jr. crashed his plane int...more
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With the novel Saints at the River, I learned about characterization and how a man writing as a female character can seem ingenuine at times. I first read this novel in an ENC 1102 class and while reading it I noticed how the main character Maggie was portrayed. At times it didn't like Ron Rash the author stayed in character with her. It seemed at times that he wrote like a man writing emotions and thoughts for a woman when, as the reader, you're not supposed to notice that. In some scenes where...more
I have found another author who lives in and loves the Appalachian area! This is the second book by Ron Ras that I have read and enjoyed. This one is placed on the Tamassee River which borders on Tennessee and Georgia.
A young girl wades out into the river and is caught up in the current and trapped below a rugged falls. The story is wrapped around the desire of the parents to try to retrieve her body and the locals who want to preserve the beauty and wildlife of the river.
The voice of the stor...more
A young girl wades out into the river and is caught up in the current and trapped below a rugged falls. The story is wrapped around the desire of the parents to try to retrieve her body and the locals who want to preserve the beauty and wildlife of the river.
The voice of the stor...more
Didn't enjoy this novel nearly as much as his short stories. The characters never seemed to progress past an elementary stage of development to me, nor were they particularly likable or relatable. My biggest issue was with the central conflict, which I thought was overblown in the extreme. But maybe that is because I think people's obsession with recovering human remains and putting the needs of the dead over the needs of the living is ridiculous. The whole book is about these parents trying to...more
I am officially a Ron Rash fan now. I read Serena a few months ago and read this novel because a friend highly recommended it. As with Serena, I loved the local flavor, the descriptions of the South Carolina mountains. The story shares with Serena the conflict between environmental concerns and the all-mighty dollar. The narrator, a journalist who must return to her mountain home where the story unfolds, pulls you into her story immediately; you like her and trust her, and there is romance invol...more
Not often do I get to read fiction located in South Carolina, where the words evoke tastes, sounds, and memories quite familiar to me. There seems to be more novelists who write about our northern neighbor. So it was fun to enjoy such a good tale about family relations, painful events, and devotion to protecting wild spaces. Throw in a little romance, journalism, photography. Rash delivers a nice story, fairly well told and easy to read, that captures a little of life in the upstate (and Columbi...more
What an amazing surprise!! I will admit that I wasn't thrilled to read another 'person dies in a hydraulic' and there is fall-out from it. I thought it would be dark and depressing. What surprised me was the lightness of this read. There was romance - there was Southern intrigue - there were Yankees to conquer. There was intelligence and gentleness and a woman who might have been a writer had she not chosen to be a photographer instead. Many correlations could be made with my own life (although...more
My public library is promoting Ron Rash's Saints at the River because of its setting near Clemson, SC.
I found that the setting minimally held my interest, probably because I've only been a resident for little over a year. Rash's writing style and storytelling was fine, nothing extraordinary but I suspect my standards have increased within the past year. His story was spread too thin; it prodded moral debates on the environment, parent-child relations, dealing with death, and journalism styles....more
I found that the setting minimally held my interest, probably because I've only been a resident for little over a year. Rash's writing style and storytelling was fine, nothing extraordinary but I suspect my standards have increased within the past year. His story was spread too thin; it prodded moral debates on the environment, parent-child relations, dealing with death, and journalism styles....more
This is the first book that I have read by Ron Rash so I have nothing to compare it to with his style of writing. With that said, I liked it. I didn’t love it. I thought the subject was interesting with lots of potential. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I found it lacking. The characters were a slightly unlikable and maybe a bit under developed and I found myself wanting more from them. In fact the whole book could have used about another 100 pages to dive into the plot a little deeper....more
The conflict between environmentalists and "progress" is most apparent as the major plot centers around the retrieval of a young girl's body from the white water rapids of the Tamassee River. The subplot deals with the narrator's own conflict within herself and with her father. The prose is descriptive and at times lyrical. The weakness of the novel is that it probably does not "reach out and grab" the reader. It glides, somewhat like a current, and pulls the reader along, especially after the h...more
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To be honest, I almost gave up on this book, but was glad I didn't when I went back and read some other reviews that informed me this was based on an actual event when there was heated dispute between environmentalists and family over the removal of a body drowned in a river. The set up is intriguing, but the backstory really left me cold as did the characters. I've heard great things about this author, i.e., his history as a poet, but there is very little poetry in this prose. I will give him a...more
Ron Rash a new author to me, but his credentials read like a story themselves.
I enjoyed this poignant story that begins with the accidental drowning of a 12 year old girl. Parents want to attempt to recover the body; environmentalists fear that would cause permanent damage to the river.
Caught between the two is Maggie, a journalist who grew up in this small South Carolina town. While covering this national news story she is right back in the middle of her past...a past she vowed to forget.
A bea...more
I enjoyed this poignant story that begins with the accidental drowning of a 12 year old girl. Parents want to attempt to recover the body; environmentalists fear that would cause permanent damage to the river.
Caught between the two is Maggie, a journalist who grew up in this small South Carolina town. While covering this national news story she is right back in the middle of her past...a past she vowed to forget.
A bea...more
I read this book b/c it's the sort of keynote book for this student conference that my school is involved in. It tells the story of a controversy around the removal of the body of a drowned girl from a protected river. I like it for its treatment of the issues and the tensions between the different interest groups involved (locals vs. outsiders, environmentalists vs. pragmatists), and the question of what it means to know a place and whose knowledge has more value. The actual writing style didn'...more
I thought this book's plot was very interesting, but unfortunately it fell flat for me because character development was lacking greatly. Maybe I'm spoiled when it comes to character development because I love to read the classics, but I don't think my expectations are unreasonable. By the end of the book I didn't feel like I knew a single one of the characters well. Then again, every single character in the book was a flat, 2-dimensional character, so maybe not getting to know them wasn't so ba...more
This was an absorbing book although the years-old conflict between the photographer and her father hardly seemed significant enough to dwell upon. I recognize the need to parallel a guilty father/ lost girl relationship but I would have thought a more epic situation could have been devised. I also was disappointed to learn how many aspects of the story were lifted directly from actual events. This made the sub-plots appear that much more weak, as having been shoe-horned in to an otherwise alread...more
I like many of Ron Rash's books including "Serena" and "One Foot in Eden." This book has a mediocore story beginning with a drowning of a young girl in a river in South Carolina. A nice start and some lovely nature descriptions, but the story line of Maggie, a local girl who has moved away and is a newspaper photographer and a journalist who travel to the site of the drowning, is flat and uninteresting. Maggie has some issues with her father and some unpleasant childhood memories but these are p...more
Rash created a haunting story made realistic by its familiar setting. I found myself struggling with the novel's central dilemma as well as relating to the protagonist's reluctance to let go of past hurts.
My favorite line references "sweet tea" as a sure giveaway that someone ain't quite from these parts.
The novel's strong sense of place reminds us that we can be southern but not necessarily "local" and that despite difference of opinion, we have responsibility to "our own" -- whoever and whate...more
My favorite line references "sweet tea" as a sure giveaway that someone ain't quite from these parts.
The novel's strong sense of place reminds us that we can be southern but not necessarily "local" and that despite difference of opinion, we have responsibility to "our own" -- whoever and whate...more
Ron Rash writes a good book. He does a wonderful job creating his characters, and he has a great eye for the history, life, and landscapte of the Appalachian mountains. This book had all of those positive qualities, but it didn't have the same punch as One Foot in Eden or The World Made Straight.
The story revolves around a vacationing child who drowns in the Tamassee River. Her body is trapped in a hydraulic, and a controversy erupts about how (and whether) to retrieve her from the river. The gi...more
The story revolves around a vacationing child who drowns in the Tamassee River. Her body is trapped in a hydraulic, and a controversy erupts about how (and whether) to retrieve her from the river. The gi...more
At the very basic level, it's a story about the conflicts between environmentalists and examples of groups who believe we, as humans, can dictate and control nature. From this, several other stories are carefully spun in: the relationship between father and daughter, death and loss, familial bonds between neighbors and within small towns. Overall, not a bad book; there was certainly a surprise or two. The style of writing, however, made it a little hard to connect and empathize with the characte...more
I love this novel! This is my first Ron Rash novel, and something tells me I'll be reading as many as he chooses to write. I chose this book because my brother recommended him and this book is based in my home county... Oconee County, SC! The town of Tamassee is where my father was an elementary school principal, but he seems to be talking about the actual area of Long Creek, SC. The Tamassee River is actually the Chattooga, which serves as the SC/GA border in that area of the state, and is in f...more
At the beginning of the story, a young girl drowns in a river and her body is trapped deep in the water in a whirlpool below a falls. The rest of the book is the attempt of the parents to have the river redirected to reclaim her body versus environmentalists who insist that because the river has protected status, it should not be tampered with. Central character journalist moves from one side of the issue to the other, affected by her childhood growing up in the area.
Ron Rash is one of my favorite writers (Burning Bright! Siiiiigh) and I don't think it possible for me to read something of his I won't like. This book, though not my favorite, was very good. It's the way Ron Rash writes and the way his characters seem like they were always meant to be instead of people he made up that create such magic in his work. Normally, I might have found a story like this boring or annoying. Perhaps even a little preachy. As it happens, this story was simple and touching...more
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Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Finalist and New York Times bestselling novel, Serena, in addition to three other prizewinning novels, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; three collections of poems; and four collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other St...more
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