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Serena

Ron Rash

Start date: December 15, 2009

Finish date: January 15, 2010

Discussion: Reading List

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What Members Thought

Apr 26, 2014 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebooks, southern, location-usa-nc, read2014, own

I finally read Ron Rash because he will be at the SC Book Festival this weekend. It looks like this book was even more timely because the movie version is in post-production. (Did I know that? Is that why I chose this book over the others? Or is it because it was $1.99 for Kindle?)

Serena is the story of the Pembertons, a logging tycoon couple that comes home married from Boston in 1929, to a small town in North Carolina where Mr. Pemberton has already impregnated a teenager there. When she and h I finally read Ron Rash because he will be at the SC Book Festival this weekend. It looks like this book was even more timely because the movie version is in post-production. (Did I know that? Is that why I chose this book over the others? Or is it because it was $1.99 for Kindle?)

Serena is the story of the Pembertons, a logging tycoon couple that comes home married from Boston in 1929, to a small town in North Carolina where Mr. Pemberton has already impregnated a teenager there. When she and her father meet the train and the scene ends in the father's death, I knew this novel wasn't going to be a mild-mannered Biltmore-estate story.

Because of the era and location, the Pembertons are at odds with the federal government and other landowners who are trying to build a national park bordering North Carolina and Tennessee before all of it is destroyed by logging. It was interesting to read it since I live an hour from the Blue Ridge Parkway and Waynesville, NC (the closest town to most of the novel) and have been to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park several times. I know what an important job generator the park became, possibly even more than the logging and mining industry had been. The Biltmore is mentioned, and the Vanderbilts, as well as Asheville. These are my frequent stomping grounds!

It's not easy to read an entire novel with unlikable characters, and Serena and George are both awful people. There are also moments of complete unbelievability that made it less than enjoyable for me, but I understand that the author was making Serena in particular a larger-than-life character. It was like the wild west in those coves and gulleys. They are really into each other, however.

"A kind of annihilation, that was what Serena called their coupling."

It was obvious to me that this kind of statement so early was going to be a foreshadowing, and I wasn't surprised by the ending.

I did like how Rash used obscure words that may have been part of the Appalachian vocabulary in that era - moiling, imprecations, chifforobe, stobs, lief, fantods (well, this is more of a DFW word), and rathering.

I will read more by Ron Rash. He seems to have an incredible grasp of the history of the place he writes about, even if I didn't care as much for the characters this time around.

Discussed on Episode 7 of the Reading Envy podcast. ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2009 Ruth rated it did not like it

Serious trash. Melodrama, bad dialogue, cliched characters. I kept seeing a bad Hollywood movie.

5 likes · Like · see review

Nov 21, 2009 Barbara rated it really liked it

Ron Rash's writing in this novel about North Carolina and the people who were striving to survive in it was absolutely lyrical for me. I particularly liked the parts involving Rachel Harmon. I've also read his short story collection Chemistry and Other Stories and loved those as well. But, his portrayal of the title character in this novel, Serena, falls short. He gives us no reason that she would have such an evil personality other than the fact that all of her family was killed in a fire. I th ...more

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Jul 18, 2014 Jessica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014, library, borrowed, fiction

Wow. I'm a bit stunned by this one. I started out not enjoying it all that much, but as I got into the rhythm it really does have the feel of a play with a Greek chorus, and Macbethian (not a word, but get over it - this week has killed my verbal skillz) drama as other reviewers have more eloquently mentioned. By the last third I couldn't put this down. I'll certainly check out the movie at some point, but really I'd love to see a play. ...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Robert rated it liked it

Well, I didn't like either of the main characters, but I did admire the structure and conception of the book. I was pleased with the portrayal of western North Carolina in the period following the market crash of 1929, with the onset of the Great Depression and its attendant social disintegration. The picture of life in the lumber camps, the rural, hand made cabins and hardscrabble farms of the local population and their lives was of interest as well. I found Rachel's character of the greatest i ...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Misty rated it really liked it

I just can't get enough of this local author! This book was set in the mountains of North Carolina and his love for this region is evident in his writing...such beautiful descriptions. ...more

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Oct 29, 2008 Pamela rated it it was amazing

This is among the best novels I read in 2008.

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Jul 23, 2014 Tulara rated it liked it

I tried hard throughout this book. It takes place during the Depression, but that's not the main focus - the focus is the lives of two people hell bent on cutting down all the forests in North Carolina and they treat their workers horribly. All the pretty writing and a glimpse into the elite at the time is not worth knowing all those trees and workers are treated with such disdain and disregard. engaging tale, but I struggled to continue, but I am glad I did. ...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Joyce rated it liked it

From a riveting opening scene, this book stays fascinating right through to the end. Kin to Lady Macbeth, Serena Pemberton arrives in North Carolina with her lumber baron husband ready to prove she's a match for any man. She certainly is. This book is gothic with echoes of Cathy from Steinbeck's "East of Eden." ...more

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Nov 03, 2009 Jennifer rated it liked it

The title character is a sociopath who murders her way across western North Carolina in the early 1930s. The author's writing is beautiful and I enjoyed hearing some of the early formation of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, but only a handful of the minor characters had any redeeming features. ...more

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