Serena

by Ron Rash

“This is what we want,” she said, her voice deepening, the emotion so often controlled fully unbridled now. “To be like this always. No past or future, pure enough to live totally in the present.”

Serena wants to live a life of pure vitalism, something she learns her husband cannot do. When working on the novel, this moment was important, an early moment where Pemberton realizes his wife is willing herself into a purity he cannot achieve.