Chemistry and Other Stories

by Ron Rash

Chemistry and Other Stories, A Picador Paperback Original

From the pre-eminent chronicler of this forgotten territory, stories that range over one hundred years in the troubled, violent emergence of the New South.

In Ron Rash's stories, spanning the entire twentieth century in Appalachia, rural communities struggle with the arrival of a new era.

Three old men stalk the shadow of a giant fish no one else believes is there. A man takes up scuba diving in the town reservoir to fight off a killing depression. A grieving mother leads a surveyor into the woods to name once and for all the county where her son was murdered by thieves.

In the Appalachia of Ron Rash's stories, the collision of the old and new south, of antique and modern, resonate with the depth and power of ancient myths.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Southern, Literary Fiction, Southern Gothic, Short Story Collection, The United States Of America

230 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2007

About the author

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 Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O.Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.

Reviews

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge Rash fan, I was not disappointed by Chemistry, a finalist for the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

I will admit that while I really enjoyed the first story, several of the earlier stories had me a little worried as some were less developed and weaker than what I've come to expect from Rash. Yet, by half-way I was once again feeling the "love."

Rash's prose are tight and poetic and for the most part his stories are well-constructed and feel complete (at least as short stories go). My favorites include "Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes," "Blackberries in June," "Dangerous Love," "Deep Gap,""Pemberton's Bride," (later turned into a novel, Serena--also a 2009 finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award) and "Speckled Trout" (which won the O'Henry Award and was also later turned into a novel, The World Made Straight).

If you're unfamiliar with Rash, you need only to check out these opening sentences to see what draws readers like myself towards his work:

Because they were boys, no one believed them, including the old men who gathered each morning at the Riverside Gas and Grocery.

When the sheriff stepped onto her porch, he carried his hat in his hands, so she knew Elijah was dead.

On those August nights when no late-afternoon thunderstorm rinsed the heat and humidity from the air, no breeze stirred the cattails and willow oak leaves, Jamie and Matt sometimes made love surrounded by water.

She did not dream about him. Anna dreamed about the others, the ones who died.

I met Lee Ann McIntyre on a date suggested by my wife. Kelly always read the personals as she drank her morning coffee.

When Ricky threw his knife and the blade tore my blouse and cut into flesh eight inches from my heart, it was certain as the blood trickling down my arm that something in our relationship had gone wrong.

Who could resist reading on? Definitely not me.

Would recommend to those with an appreciation for the short story format(particularly those with a Southern Gothic feel) or Ron Rash fans.

[David Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

He may be renowned as a novelist, but his short stories are where I think he shines. Ron Rash might just be the finest short story writer alive.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation moves South (from Winesburg, Ohio) where Ron Rash details the sad and sometimes tawdry tales of mostly Carolinians DEEP in the countryside, many of them so down and out it is as if they are from another epoch entirely. Unlike Sherwood Anderson, Rash does not feature a common character. Rather we get an assortment of tales published in various Southern literary magazines, collected such that the end stories are the strongest.

There's a bride from hell, a kid who stumbles upon a pot garden and thinks it's his to reap (oh, Lord, hasn't he heard of the OTHER reaper?), a father trying to save his drug-addled son, a mother going deep into the woods to observe last rites for a murdered son. Yes, it's uncomfortable at times -- and grim. You also should know that Rash never met an ending he could not stop just short of, too. Many of these short stories don't so much end as cease talking to us. Clearly this drives some readers to distraction, but I like it (because, in my opinion, it's more like life, which seldom ends story lines in neat little packages).

A writer's writer, Rash is a voice of the South worth listening to. And this from a New Englander (uh, that'd be me) who cannot tolerate Faulkner!

[Jenn Mattson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update, update: I wanted to document that my favorite story in the collection is "Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes" - I love it! And I use it as often as I can with my students; I think it's brilliant.

Update: I finished the collection and the last two stories freaked me the heck out! The story, "Pemberton's Bride" has been expanded into his novel "Serena" and the title character has been called a "Lady Macbeth of the Appalachian region." I would guess so. She scared the hell out of me. Sooo evil! And the last story, "Speckled Trout," has also been made into a novel, "The World Made Straight." I need to read these novels. He is simply an amazing writer - but his stories are violent and haunting and each ends with the potential for either disaster OR redemption. Very excellent collection.

So, I have to admit that the cover of this book - a dusty field with broken trucks and people dressed in redneck '70s fashion - did not appeal to me AT ALL. And the author's name, I'm sorry, but "Ron Rash"?! But boy-howdy do I love this man's writing - it's fantastic! The stories cover different eras of people living in the Appalachian region - pretty much in the same area of North Carolina. They are certainly a little grim, but there is a lot of humanity and redemption and gorgeousness. His writing and the dialect is effortless. I definitely need to pick up his novels when I finish this grad school death march thingy.

[farahxreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Some grief is like barbed wire that's been wrapped around a tree.The longer it's there,the deeper the barb go,the closer to the tree's heart."

Chemistry and Other Stories is a gripping collection of stories set in Appalachia, a rural community struggling with the arrival of a new era. I liked how the author manages to cover the entire class of the social spectrum, from bourgeois to the lowest class of the society. Some people might not like it because it is quite slow-paced but it was okay for my liking.

3.8/5 for Chemistry and Other Stories by Ron Rash. Recommended!

[Wilhelmina Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best short story collections I've read in a long time. I could not put it down.

[elderfoil...the whatever champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with "Burning Bright," the last set of stories I read by Ron Rash, I have to give this collection 3.5 stars. I wish I could give it more. The stories are certainly entertaining and well-written, down deep into some of the good stuff of southern Appalachia, but they mostly all seem too smooth in a sense. Often times I feel like Rash's starting point is an Appalachian cliche....like hunting that huge, mythic fish or finding your son strung out on meth or digging up a Confederate grave or partaking in pentecostal snake handling.......and indeed there are stories that hit each of those matters. And with such content, how could they not be entertaining for us window shoppers? While the stories are certainly not gratuitous or disingenuous, at the same time they seem to fail for the most part at reaching any of the higher insight or deeper considerations that draw me so strongly to Pancake and O'Connor, among others. In some sense his aesthetics remind me more of Suttree, but without McCarthy's linguistic wizardry. Still, two stories stood apart for me as ones that dug a little deeper. "Speckled Trout," about a young man stealing another's marijuana crop, moved along on a similar Ron Rash scale, meaning entertaining though none too deep, until the end. The final paragraph of the story changed little about the story's plot, but worked well to ponder a heavier aesthetic. In "Blackberries in June," doubtful to be one of many readers' favorites, Rash developed more social subtleties of the region by examining what it means to "get ahead," in southern Appalachian contexts. While lacking more of the colorful oddities and Appalachian quirks for entertainment, Rash examined an issue that would plainly not make sense, or at least not matter much, to most educated, middle-class readers outside the south.I'd like to see Rash attempt more of that kind of writing, even if it means losing all his recent awards.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Rash's collection of stories from Appalachia is a worthy addition to what one critic has called "the literature of place." Some of these stories are a little, dare I say it, obvious (for example, in "Honesty," Rash overplays his hand with characters that might as well be named Self-Doubt, Desperation, and Arrogance, a la John Bunyan) but when they aren't, they hit home. Rash's O. Henry Award-winning story "Speckled Trout" appears in this volume --it's stunningly rendered and every bit as powerful on repeated readings as it was on the first.

[LA · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Rash's poetic writing is powerful and wrenching, the stack-up of one sad story after another just zapped my usual enjoyment of his work. The short versions of "Serena" and "The World Made Straight" were excellent, but having read the novels at least twice, I was already ruined in their knowing.

[Sophie Sallade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yep, this is everything a gal like me needs.
✔️detailed depictions of Appalachian rivers, streams, towns, families
✔️stories that feel HONEST and true to the people & places they’re about
✔️hard truths, cruelness, love, morals, things that remind you about how awful and wonderful it is to be a human

The only thing I wanted from this collection of short stories is MORE. Get ready for me to be annoying about how I think everyone should read this book!

“Some grief is like barbed wire that’s been wrapped around a tree. The longer it’s there the deeper the barbs go, the closer to the trees heart.”

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having lived in and around Appalachia for most of my life, as well as working with the people there, I've always been fascinated with the place. Its beauty is matched by its brutality and Rash manages to capture that dichotomy so well. Most short story collections have some duds in the mix, but this was perfect from start to finish.

[Milt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long stories short. Imaginable.

[LindaJ^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirteen stories are offered up in this book. The last two were later expanded into novels -- Pemberton's Bride became Serena and Speckled Trout, originally published in 2005, became The World Made Straight. Serena, Pemberton's Bride, is one evil woman - enough said! In Speckled Trout, avarice goes very wrong for one young man. Of course, it is not too hard to understand why the unemployed young man did not take the advice of the person to whom he was selling the stolen "goods."

The other 10 stories are shorter. All take place in Appalachia in both past and more current times.
Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes tells the story of 3 old men, one old fish, and the arrogance of the game warden, a transplant.
Chemistry has a son telling the story of his father's struggle with mental illness, which caused the father to return to the Pentecostal religion of his childhood.
Last Rite is powerfully sad. A mother is determined to know the location of her son's murder so she hires a surveyor. It takes hours for them to ride horseback to the spot. This story evokes the hard life that Appalachian farm women live.
Blackberries in June tells the story of a young couple who are doing everything right to get themselves a better life than their parents. When the wife's brother is injured, they are faced with a difficult decision and you are left to wonder if there was any choice they could make that would not change them and make their life, in some way, very different.
Not Waving but Drowning takes place in an emergency room. A husband looks back at past miscarriages and wonders what next. Adding to the gloom, is the other couple in the waiting room -- the obviously battered wife whose husband keeps his arm "protectively" around her.
Overtime concerns what happens when the high school basketball star who went all the way to the pros before he succumbed to drugs enters a pickup basketball game with former high school team mates who are just making it.
Cold Harbor is appropriate for Memorial Day reading. A former Koran War nurse who I am sure has PTSD (back before it was recognized) goes to see the young soldier whose life she saved in the early days of her tour of duty. She hopes seeing him will help her. Sadly, he is a wounded warrior who now wonders if he would have been better off dead -- a gut wrenchingly sad story.
Honesty is about a college teacher who is unable to write the book he took a year's leave of absence to do. His wife suggests he answer the ad of a DWF for a relationship with a WM who wants to be the DWF's night in shining armor and write an article about it. The wife is a piece of work. The college teacher partially redeems himself.
Dangerous Love involves a carnival act -- a knife thrower who is too in love with his wife, who is the person he throws the knives around. This was a strange story and not among my favorites.
The Projectionist's Wife tells the story of a young boy who sees something he shouldn't have on the day he shoots and kills his first deer. It is a coming of age story in two senses.
Deep Gap -- The first paragraph of this story lures you in: "After the second time his hardware store had been robbed ..., Marshall Vaughn bought a pistol. He kept it under the counter, but unlike his younger brother Keith, a highway patrolman, Marshall was sixty before he needed to point the pistol at another human being, and it wasn't in his store but in an apartment 150 miles away." The story is about a father and his drug-addicted son.

Ron Rash is an author whose books I collect. He writes poetry, short stories, and novels. I've read 7 of his books and have almost as many yet to go. I find him consistently good in portraying life in Appalachia - past and present.

[H. P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Rash writes about my native soil—western North Carolina—and Lord does he write them well. The Tuckaseegee winds through my memories of college like it winds through Cullowhee (Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes). I grew up hearing stories about a kid from Shelby that was better than Michael Jordan ever was and threw it all away for drugs (Overtime). Where I grew up, you knew the drug dealers, and you knew their daddies (Deep Gap).

The final question of Blackberries in June has kept me up late at nights. Chemistry, Last Rite, and Cold Harbor all address the (emotional) pain of death from a different perspective. Chemistry, Last Rite, and Blackberries in June are powerful looks at family. Not Waving But Drowning and Deep Gap expose the awfulness of that which you care most about slowly drifting form your grasp. Blackberries in June, Overtime, The Projectionist’s Wife, and Deep Gap show a deep bitterness that runs through a downtrodden people. Honesty and Pemberton’s wife over a window into the hatred and contempt with which outsiders view highlanders. Speckled Trout cuts deep.

Not every story is a homerun. Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes leaves no lasting impression. It took me three or four reads to properly place everyone in the emergency room at the beginning of Not Waving But Drowning. Dangerous Love is almost laughable. The Projectionist’s Wife is a bit clumsy.

Pemberton’s Bride, a long short story, was expanded by Rash into the standalone novel Serena. It doesn’t really work as either, and the harsh view the main characters have of the people of Appalachia rankles even worse juxtaposed against stories told from their point of view.

This is still one heck of a collection of short stories, though, and I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in highland fiction. Rash is best known for his short stories, and this collection is one of his best: it was a finalist for the PEN/Falkner Award for Fiction and Speckled Trout won a 2005 O. Henry award.

Stories: Their Ancient, Glittering Eyes; Chemistry; Last Rite; Blackberries in June; Not Waving but Drowning; Overtime; Cold Harbor, Honesty, Dangerous Love, The Projectionist’s Wife, Deep Gap, Pemberton’s Bride, Speckled Trout.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ron Rash has written another wonderful book of short stories, most of them situated in Appalachia, the place he is so familiar with. Included in this collection is Pemberton's Bride, the first chapter of his novel, Serena, which I loved.

Their Ancient Glittering Eyes is a great fish story. Some boys see a huge fish as long as a leg and the old men in town, seasoned fishermen, don't believe them until they see the fish themselves. The fish is over six feet long and bigger than any fish ever seen in this area. What follows is an intense effort to identify and catch the fish. At one point, when the fish is almost grounded, "the sturgeon's wide mouth opened revealing an array of rusting hooks and lures that hung from the lips like medals".

In Chemistry, a teacher suffers from severe depression for which he is hospitalized and received electroconvulsive therapy. Once released from the hospital, he is given medication which he doesn't take. Told to take up a hobby, he starts scuba diving and reconverts to his childhood pentecostal church. "What I'm trying to say is that some solutions aren't crystal clear. Sometimes you have to search for them in places where only the heart can go."

In Last Rite, a woman is so obsessed with knowing where her son was murdered that she hires a surveyor to map out exactly where he was killed. Not Waving But Drowning is about a married couple whose marriage depends on the success of a pregnancy. In The Projectionist's Wife, a fourteen year-old becomes enamored of an adult woman. The metaphors of film and dreams are lovely as Rash describes the projectionist "as a weary clockmaker god threading the stuff of dreams through the projector's metal maze." Deep Gap is a story of addiction and of a father who goes through the steps of grief as he deals with his son's addiction. Speckled Trout, one of my favorites in the collection, is about a sixteen year-old boy who goes trout fishing and comes across a field of marijuana plants. He absconds with several plants and returns for more, hoping to make money.

All of the stories are gems and I loved reading this collection. Ron Rash does not disappoint.

[Helga Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a master storyteller of the South and writes about the Appalachia of western North Carolina. He has written many popular books of fiction, novels, poetry and short stories. I have been to many of his author book signings in the past. This is a collection of short stories representing the old and new south. Rash is so familiar with this region so his writing really portrays the lives of the people and culture.

In “Chemistry”, a teacher suffers from severe depression for which he is hospitalized and received electroconvulsive therapy. Once released instead of taking his medicine he takes up scuba diving and converts back to his Pentecostal church. In “Last Rite”, a woman is obsessed with where her son was killed and hires a surveyor to map out the location. “Deep Gap” is about addiction and a father who goes through steps of grief as he deals with his son’s addiction. “Speckled Trout” is about a 16 year old boy who goes trout fishing and comes across a field of marijuana plants. He steals several plants and returns for more, hoping to make money but gets his due. These are just a few of this gem of a collection of stories by this author.

[Rhonda Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I loved it! These stories shed beautiful, poignant light on tragedy, and the book has some incredible lines (I live for great lines!), like in "The Projectionist's Wife," when Rash writes about the projectionist in an old-time movie theater: "At age fifty-four I see him as I could not at fourteen, not so much an ill-humored wizard as a weary clockmaker god threading the stuff of dreams through the projector's metal maze, then onto the second reel so he might watch in impotent solitude as his work showly unraveled before him." Wow.

Or how about the beginning of "Not Waving but Drowning," when he writes as his opening lines, "Across the room a woman holds her front teeth in the palm of her hand. She stares at them as if they were a bad throw of the dice."

Good stuff!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old men in overalls sitting outside country stores. Giant fish. A scene in an emergency room. Mountain life captured so beautifully in a series of short stories. There are stories that will make you laugh out loud;like Their Ancient Glittering Eyes. Most speak to the human condition that is always hopeful in the most hopeless situation.

Rash knows the mountain life of Western North Carolina. A way of life that is going to be gone. Taken over by tourists and "foreigners" as my family reminds me every time I visit. The struggle to keep a family farm that will not be developed and gated for vacation homes.

Rash grabs you with each story and you cannot get the characters out of your mind and heart. That is a true writer.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Ron Rash and I enjoyed this collection of stories. I find that I do prefer his more historical fiction rather than his modern stories. I also tend to enjoy his novels more overall than his short stories. While Rash is not a happy ending type of author, I appreciate his real life situations and people. The people he writes about are people that I can relate to.

This collection was entertaining and easy to read, while providing a depth that is not found in many authors. Rash seems to understand people and develop his characters at a deeper level than other authors. He has a mastery of the mindset of southerners. I continue to enjoy his literature immensely.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chemistry and Other Stories by Ron Rash (Picador 2007)(Fiction), which is a collection of author Ron Rash's short stories, is excellence on the written page. There are thirteen stories presented here, and there is not a bad one among them. These tales capture the essence of the mountains of western North Carolina. Particularly noteworthy are "Their Ancient Glimmering Eyes" (on a prehistoric water beast), "Chemistry" (Pentecostalism), and "Speckled Trout" (marijuana poachers). I submit that Ron Rash and Annie Proulx are the two best short story writers working today. My rating: 8/10, finished 10/2/13.

[Sandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm also a fan of Ron Rash's novels and short stories, set in the Appalachians. I really enjoyed this batch of stories and looking foreward to many more. Mr. Rash is a gifted writer, and has a deep understanding of people living in poverty and raised in these mountains. He writes in the dialect of his characters, some humor, but mostly gritty and tragic.

From Blue Ridge Country:
"He's collected an intense set of short stories in Chemistry, creating characters that walk a narrow edge between dark and luminous, and the book is haunted by the independent spirit, fragile beauty and sometimes-paralyzing poverty of the Appalachian mountains."—Blue Ridge Country

[Clay Duda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Rash is an excellent writer. The stories are mostly kind of back-wooded theme tales of love, life, etc., but he manages to the entire social spectrum, from aristocrats to marijuana growing hillbillies. I'd say the main theme of his works (at least this collection) is coping with change. Timey Appalachian villages continually redefine themselves with the encrochment of the outside world... and pretty much everything is set in the Appalachia's in North Carolina (can anyone guess where he's from?).

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I've said before, Rash can really write, but I was a little disappointed with this collection. Many of the stories are a bit one-note, and several of the stories end a little too early. It seemed to me the real conflict and tension was just beginning when the stories came to an end. I felt a cheated, and that the characters were let off the hook.

That said, though, it won't keep me from reading more of Rash's work.

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional collection of short stories that capture the "Upcountry" of the Carolinas. Appalachia comes to life in these eclectic stories of rural life with universal themes. Two of the stories were the genesis for 2 of the authors novels: The World Made Straight ("Speckled Trout" - winner of the 2005 O. Henry Award) and Serena ("Pemberton's Bride") Any book club looking to discuss a short story collection would do well to select Ron Rash's collection of stories.

[E luvs Dan, Qhuinn, Tate, Po, Rule & Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a gem. When I bought it, I knew I'm going to enjoy it because its written by Ron Rash.
Its a book of short stories and though I'm not from the region where its based or also not from America, I could in a way imagine the stories and characters, because they are similar to folks back home. One should read this book if you are a fan of Ron Rash's writing or you enjoy good stories well written.

[John Pappas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Rash's collection of short stories sketches out the ethos of Appalachia, from the late 19th century to the present day, mostly without succumbing to the "gritty melodrama" of meth-infused narratives. The highlights of this collection, "Pemberton's Bride" (the starting point for Rash's novel Serena), "Speckled Trout" and "Chemistry" rise above by showing essential human truths, regardless of place of birth or class.

[Bill Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in Asheville at the recommendation of the local bookstore staff. I was not disappointed. Mr. Rash has a way to grasp you in the hollow of your chest with his writing. This book reminded me of another collection by Donald Ray Pollock, "Knockemstiff." Mr. Rash's writing is more refined than that of Mr. Pollock, but they both do a great job of capturing the reader. I can't wait to start "Serena."

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved all these stories, which is amazing, usually I get stalled somewhere in the middle of a book of short stories but not these. The stories are rich in the ways of the world and of family, all wonderfully written and gut wrenching and most of all real. All the stories were great, none were tiresome, none were confusing or made me wonder at the end "now just what was that story about anyway." I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading great stories.

[Anne Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best short story collection I've read since Hannah's "Airships." Every story resonates. Rash writes the peoples of Appalachia at different times and places, but all ring emotionally true. This collection deserves more than just a nomination for PEN/Faulkner. I'll reread it, which I rarely take the time to do.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a disappointment, not that the stories are poor, far from it, but because several appeared in an earlier collection and two were early chapters in his novels. I guess this was a stop-gap effort put out by his publisher to make money, but I am glad I didn't spend hard cash and get suckered. I really hate when they do this. . .without warning the reader.