I loved Ron Rash's Serena. It was a beautiful and dangerous story. Rash's writing might be described similarly. This book of short stories and a novella, all centering around Serena's world, took me right back. It was filled with human tragedy and decency, strife and triumph. And ended with a new Serena story to give me chills and make me sweat. Loved it!

Rash writes about the relationship between nature and humans in Appalachia. These short stories are fiction, but very relatable. The characters are trying to survive and take care of their families in difficult circumstances. They are dependent on the land for their livelihood, but also vulnerable to outside forces, weather, and cruelty. Rash has a unique voice and I always come away from his stories with a sense of heightened respect for the human capacity to overcome hardship and somehow find some beauty. I was provided an advance ecopy of this book by NetGalley and Doubleday in exchange for an honest review.

A strong selection of short stories. Loved the plot twist in the first one. Beautiful prose as usual from Ron Rash.

Another outstanding collection of short fiction by an acknowledged master. Rash hooks the reader almost immediately with each story, rather than slowly grinding through an expository set-up like some other authors do. My only complaint is that the stories here aren't as rich in the Appalachian lore for which Ron Rash is justifiably renowned. But that's a small complaint measured against his overall achievement. A great writer!

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1427303902639298441/3151290594515931490

“Write what you know” is a bit of writing advice that Ron Rash follows consistently. Whether in modern day or during the Civil War, his novels, stories, and poetry are set in the mountains and foothills of Western North Carolina.
In his latest book, In the Valley, a collection of short stories and a novella, he opens with a story set near the scene of the Shelton Laurel incident, where tensions between Unionist and Confederate sympathizers came to a head with the killing of thirteen Union sympathizers, one a young boy. Rash explored these dark pages of history in his novel The World Made Straight and returns to the rural landscape in “Neighbors.” In this story, a widow is confronted by soldiers purportedly hunting for men loyal to the union, while taking scarce food and livestock. Dependent on neighbors for survival, Rebecca, the protagonist, must keep her late husband’s loyalties secret to avoid jeopardizing herself and her young children.

“When All the Stars Fell,” set in more modern hard times, shows a son in a caught in a dilemma between his father’s unswerving integrity and his own need to get even with what he sees as just one more wealthy, powerful man taking advantage of their family construction business because he can.

Several of Rash’s protagonists are measuring others’ sorrows and losses against their own. The narrator of “Sad Man in the Sky” a helicopter pilot taking tourists to view the changing colors in the mountains, bends the rules to let a broken man rain down gifts on his former stepchildren, unearthing memories of his own service in the Vietnam War.

Jake, a Brevard art professor, in “L’homme Blessé,” is still reeling from his young wife’s sudden death a year earlier when Shelby Tate, a former student, asks to show him the primitive paintings with which her late great uncle covered his walls after returning from the service in Europe in the mid-40s.When Jake recognizes the strange animal images from photographs of the Pech Merle cave in France, he goes with Shelby to visit an old man who had served in the war with her uncle to solve the mystery.

In small towns just off I-40, Rash peoples his stories with the broken, the lawless, people caught between good and evil, between helping others or looking the other way. While his stories all have a darkness, they give a glimmer, sometimes just a hint of light. Often the stories end without clear resolution, letting readers imagine what the characters might find just down around the corner.

Opening the pages of In the Valley, Rash’s fans have to fight the temptation to turn to the end of the book to reach the title novella “In the Valley, “a shorter sequel to Serena, his novel from 2008. The title character Serena Pemberton returns to the timberlands she has left for clearing as the deadline for the project completion nears. Many of the characters from the novel—the ones that survived—return for this narrative. In this tale, less a retelling of Macbeth this time, but no less Shakespearean, Rash’s timbermen are forced to work at a deadly pace, with too little food or rest. Serena’s henchman Galloway and his blind mother, with her evil gift of second sense, doom any who oppose Serena or try to escape her reach. Aware that Rachel Harmon and her child Jacob, the illegitimate son of Serena’s late husband, may not have put enough distance between themselves and the amoral timber baroness, Ross, a minor character in the early novel, sees his options narrow.

While the novella, like the earlier novel, lacks stereotypical heroes and antagonists, Rash leaves no question about the true villains and victims in his story.

One of the perennial favorites at Nashville's Southern Festival of Books, Rash will appear in this year's virtual festival.

I must admit, I'm bias for having met and spoken with Ron Rash. However, every story in this was excellent. The Serena story dragged a bit, but it was still just so great to get back into that world with those characters. I haven't yet read something by Rash that I didn't enjoy. Will definitely recommend.

Rash delivers again in this collection of short stories. I had just finished reading Serena and the novella, “In the Valley,” filled in the missing pieces. Excellent!

IN THE VALLEY: Stories and a Novella Based on Serena
Ron Rash
Doubleday
ISBN-13: 978-0385544290
Hardcover
Short literary fiction

It has been a while since we have been favored with a book from Ron Rash. While he hasn’t been silent since his novel THE RISEN in 2016, his short story output has been scattered across a number of worthy though sometimes difficult to locate publications. IN THE VALLEY gathers seven of those stories from 2017 through 2020 as well as two works original to the volume, those being “Ransom” and the title work, which is a novella which comprises almost half of the book and which serves as a sequel to Rash’s 2008 novel SERENA. Each and all are memorable to varying degrees, with some stories containing his best prose to this (late) date.

The stories comprising IN THE VALLEY cross time even as they stay primarily ensconced within the American South. “Neighbors” tells the story of a widow during the Civil War who must hold a secret close to her heart not only from her neighbors but also from a gang of marauders. In the present, “When All the Stars Fell from the Sky” concerns a father and son business that is brought to a crossroads by a difficult customer who highlights the passing of a different and better era. “Sad Man in the Sky” is just what the title says, involving a helicopter pilot and his strange passenger with an enigmatic cargo and a poignant errand. The past reaches into the present during “L’homme Blesse,” in which prehistoric art seen in a French cave during World War II manifests itself in an isolated North Carolina farmhouse slated for demolition. It is almost the most unusual story in this collection, surpassing only “The Baptism,” in which a devil of sorts on horseback seeks with ill intent salvation from a reluctant minister and receives more and less than he expected. “Flight” unfolds like the petals on a flower, telling the story of a probationary park ranger who finds a way to deal with her retiring boss and a recalcitrant fisherman. “Ransom” reveals itself in a similar manner. The daughter of a wealthy man is kidnapped and held for ransom while being treated almost kindly and gently, for reasons that are only gradually revealed and which have lasting effects upon all concerned.

The novella “In the Valley” is an interesting addition to this collection. It continues after the close of SERENA, and concerns a large plot of land which must be cleared of timber by a date certain in order that contractually-imposed financial penalties will not be imposed. The story is told from a number of different viewpoints, chief among them one of the workers as they are worked close to death --- and in some cases, past it --- in an effort to meet a deadline which is seemingly impossible. Serena Pemberton, now a widow, appears throughout the story as a quietly but extremely malevolent presence, as does Galloway, her enforcer. Meanwhile, the young woman who bore the late George Pemberton’s child out of wedlock lives in fear of Galloway’s inevitable appearance but prepares for him. “In the Valley,” although complete in itself, reads almost as if it is an interlude between SERENA and a yet-unpublished work which will complete the saga at a date in the future.

This brings us to “Last Bridge Burned” and “The Belt,” my two favorite stories in the collection. “Last Bridge Burned” concerns Carlyle, the proprietor of a convenience store, who is struggling with sobriety when a hot mess in the form of a young woman shows up at the door after closing time. Carlyle is faced with the choice of extending a kindness to her and possibly --- probably --- regretting it. The results of his decision radiate outward in time and space. “The Belt” is quietly terrifying, poignant, and suspenseful. It begins quietly enough with an elderly man tasked with watching his great-grandchild, something which he has done before and often. Fate takes a hand and as with “Last Bridge Burned” a choice is made.

Each of the stories in IN THE VALLEY shares some elements with the others. One is Rash’s remarkable prose, which elevates even the simplest story to an epic tale. Another is the frequent unpredictability of what does or does not occur. One can be almost right in guessing what will occur, but never totally on center. Yet another in the sharp and memorable characters Rash creates, each of whom put one in the mind of a friend, acquaintance, or relative. You will find all of this and more within the pages of IN THE VALLEY, which is very much worth the wait. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2020, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

My Thoughts:
I've been a fan of Ron Rash's for more than ten years, since I read Serena (my review). I'm always eager to read more of his work; when I saw this collection included a novella based on Serena, I knew I wanted to read it right away. I thought I might race through the short stories to get to the novella but two things stopped me: I began to worry that the novella might not live up to my memories of the book on which it was based and the short stories are too good to be rushed.

Richard Price, who knows brutal writing, calls Ron Rash a "gorgeous brutal writer." In everything Rash writes, there is a brutality and these stories are no exception: a group of Confederate soldiers threaten to burn down the barn and take everything of value from a young mother and her children, an ex-con tries to airdrop toys to the children he loves but has been banned from seeing, a kidnapped young woman is turned into a drug addict, and an abusive ex-husband demands to be baptized so he can marry a his former wife's young sister. But Rash's darkness is never entirely without heart and hope, saving his work from complete despair. Last Bridge Burned helps us see how small acts of kindness can make all the difference; The Belt showed us the ultimate gift of love. And, my God, his writing is as incredible as it was when I first picked up his work. From small slices of a life to epic tales, Rash gives readers vivid imagery and memorable, relatable characters.

And the novella? It gave me everything I wanted - Serena Pemberton at her Lady Macbeth best, the battle between human lives and profits, astonishing violence, and tenderness. Perhaps, best of all, Rash left me with the hope that we may not yet have seen the end of Serena.

There aren't a lot of reviews of this collection out there so you're going to have to trust me on this one. If you can handle the darkness and violence, and are a fan of short stories, I cannot recommend this collection enough,

Ron Rash’s story collection, ‘In the Valley,’ carves new tale from ‘Serena’ (a Mountain Times (Boone, NC) review and interview)

A dozen years have elapsed since Ron Rash published “Serena,” a novel set in 1930s North Carolina Appalachia detailing the story of Serena and George Pemberton and their cutthroat timber business. But in those 12 years, according to the author, at least one of those details needed a more full telling. So we have in Rash’s newest collection of stories, “In the Valley” (Doubleday), the title novella exploring the lumber baroness and company in ways the novel only hinted at.

Because this is Rash’s seventh book of stories, those hints show a deft pen. A typical collection of short works from Rash, the Parris distinguished professor in Appalachian cultural studies at Western Carolina University, leaves readers not only looking at a forest that has been clearcut, but marveling that they got there by the felling of a single tree at a time.

In “In the Valley,” Rash layers 10 stories with the destruction and redemption of people you know, or met or had over for Thanksgiving dinner. In the past, and in the interview here, Rash has admitted his admiration for the form of the short story, and each presented in “In the Valley” is proof of that veneration.
Sharing his insights into the stories and people populating his new collection, the following interview with the author has been edited for length and clarity.

Tom Mayer: You’ve said in the past that your novels are years-long labors of love, but that you have an especial fondness for the short story. “In the Valley” is your seventh short story collection, so I’m guessing that the fondness hasn’t faded.

Ron Rash: No, not at all. It’s still my favorite form and I’ve said this to other people, it’s my favorite and most challenging, and in a way that’s part of the appeal of it — to really see what’s possible in that kind of form. It also allows me to use what I’ve learned from writing poetry and novels and bring all that into it. At least, that’s my hope.

TM: Another lasting fondness that remains strong is your love for the setting of Appalachia, where “In the Valley” and your previous works are set. You grew up in rural North Carolina and, I believe, spent many summers in Watauga County, didn’t you?

RR: Yes. My grandmother was born in Aho and a lot of my relatives still live on Aho Road and yeah, I would spend my summers out there. Actually, I would spend my summers with my grandmother. That’s an area very dear to me. I kind of had a Huck Finn existence because it was just my grandmother and me on that farm and it borders the Blue Ridge Parkway. I would roam the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was wonderful.

TM: Is it solely because of those memories, or is there more to what keeps drawing you back again and again to this region in your writing?

RR: I realized I’ve been lucky enough to have writers such as James Joyce, (William) Faulkner and Eudora Welty that showed me that there’s enough here. That I’ll never exhaust it. And, just the idea that one of the most effective ways to approach the universal is through the specific. Eudora Welty said this better than I can. She said that to understand one place well is to understand all other places. I like that idea. But also because of my family: Both of my mom’s and my dad’s families have been in Appalachia since the 1700s. Part of it is being compelled to try to understand their stories by very often going into the past and my love of the region. That’s the place I want to write about.

TM: You have a gift for pulling universal tragedies out of ordinary, or as you said, specific lives.

RR: That’s my goal. In a way it shows something I do believe — that it’s not just about elite people. (Ordinary people’s) lives are rich and complex. We know that on some level, but at times it’s easy to forget that.
TM: Short story collections are often driven by a theme. In “In the Valley” the unification I’m seeing is destruction. And that destruction — of culture, environment, honor, morals and respect — is driven by a number of things in specific stories: greed (“In the valley”), lack of opportunity (“Last bridge burned”), poor choices (“Sad man in the sky”), pure meanness (“The baptism”) and generational clashes (“When all the stars fall from the sky”). Is this a fair assessment?

RR: Yes. Certainly, the time that we’re living in, the last few years, have been really tough. And now it’s even tougher with what’s happening with the virus. One reason I wanted to go back to “Serena” was that (I’m seeing today what I) wrote in “Serena” 12 years ago — I’m seeing now this peril for the national parks. There’s a lot of push to change what is considered wilderness that can be mined or timbered. My hope is that this (story) would remind us how hard won these national parks were and what they were fighting against. In some ways, (“In the Valley”) is a dark book. You’re seeing people in trouble, but I hope you’re also seeing people who rise above it. People who fight it. To me, that’s also important. Not to just give into cynicism.

TM: That’s interesting to me, because I’m also seeing these stories tied together by what I’m going to call, “limited redemption.” Limited based on the opportunities and choices that remain after the destruction takes place. Take, for example, the pure unselfishness after a very selfish existence at the end of Jubal’s life in “The Belt” — arguably the most touching story in the collection — or Carlyle’s actions in “Last bridge burned.”

RR: I like that “limited.” I don’t want to write sentimental stories where everything just kind of works out because that’s not true to life very often. Faulkner had a quote that I dearly love. He said that he believes that most people are a little better than their circumstances ought to allow. That to me is a kind of limited optimism. To me, someone like Carlyle shows that. He acts in a way in that moment in a way that’s a little better than everything that has been part of his life. Some of it is his own fault, certainly. We see it “In the valley” because what Ross does essentially saves Rachel and her son’s life. He keeps that horrible woman (Serena) from killing more people or causing more destruction, but at the same time he has to give his life to do that.

TM: That leads into a question I have about the concept of “culture of honor.” The writer Malcolm Gladwell defines this term as a world in which a man’s reputation is at the center of his livelihood and self-worth. This concept is at the core of “When all the stars fall from the sky,” in which a man failingly tries to teach his son how honor is at the core of the family business. Is this where our society is heading today? A cautionary tale? Both?

RR: In that story my hope is that we can see the outside pressures on the younger man. But, the idea of honor and that we should act honorably, I would say that from my own experience with my family, that’s been a really important thing. It’s important that we do try to act honorably. We all fail. But it’s important we try. A lot of times people can rise to that. One reason I wanted to use that (Dietrich) Bonhoeffer quote at the beginning (“and I do not mean the faith which flees the world, but the one that endures the world …”) — you know, Serena does really represent an overwhelming force in the world, but there always seem to be people who rise up against it. I want to believe that. Sometimes they fail, sometimes they don’t. To me, it’s a tragic story (in “When all the stars fall from the sky”) in that the father has tried in his own life to instill something in his son and at the end we not only recognize that the son has rejected it, but that the father knows it, too.

TM: Well, speaking of Serena and overwhelming forces … the theme of destruction that carries throughout the book is at its height in the title story’s novella — your first published novella, I believe, by the way — in which you just about blow up the world. We’ve spoken about the necessity of putting attention on our national parks, but is there more that drew you back to this novel?

RR: Yeah, yeah. What happened is that in “Serena,” Ross is an interesting character, but I always sensed with him that he was more educated and that there was something really deep and important in him and I hadn’t been able to get it into “Serena.” For me, the book and the novella is as much about Ross. He had hounded me as a character and I always wanted to go back. But the one thing I didn’t want to do was write “Ghostbusters 2.” I’ve always been very suspicious of that. Obviously there are examples of people who have done it well, but I didn’t want to do it in a novel. And, I’ve never done a novella, actually the last forms of those I’ve never done. I admire the really good writers who have done them: Denis Johnson has a great one, “Train Dreams.” It’s a wonderful form and it’s a really hard form, as I found out. So, this gave an opportunity to try something very different … and it also fit the overall tone of the stories in the book. Thematically it fits.

TM: Speaking of fitting thematically: In “In the valley” you define Serena on an even more granular level than in the novel as one of the most ambitious and ruthless female protagonists in literature. Critically, she’s been compared to Lady Macbeth — but I don’t see her as a woman likely to step off stage and commit suicide. To me, she’s more King Herod. I mean, after all, that the child lives is what drives her obsession. Your thoughts?

RR: You’re absolutely right. There are obvious parallels to “Macbeth,” but I’ve always thought and said she’s much stronger than Lady Macbeth — who cracked in a way that we can’t imagine Serena would. The actual quote at the beginning of the book (of “Serena”), the epigraph, is not from Shakespeare, but (Christopher) Marlowe (“A hand, that with a grasp may grip the worlde.”). And Marlowe’s characters tend not to be regretful. I think of (Serena) as someone who’s not going to break. That’s one reason I thought the movie (“Serena,” 2015 by Magnolia Pictures) really made a mistake. … One thing I did with that opening (of the novella), that might be subtle: You know the Hitler movie, “Triumph of the Will,” they had him descending out of the clouds like a god. I wanted the same thing with Serena (in the opening of that story).

TM: I can see a master’s thesis in the working just on this novella.

RR: Well, I don’t know. … Those are the kinds of things I do to amuse myself. It’s just one of those fun things.

I have read many Ron Rash short stories and I enjoy them even though shorts are not my favorite. They usually are dark and gritty with a few zingers thrown in for shock value or consideration. This book is composed of nine shorts plus the novella In The Valley, a continuation, and hopefully end of, the Serena story. Serena is back to clear cut one more mountainside as quickly as humanly possible, but certainly not humanely. Characters you love to hate, and who hate each other.

For me, short stories are not memorable unless tied together somehow, but there was one stand-out story I greatly enjoyed. Ransom involves a kidnapping, but money alone is not the point or the motive. Ron Rash demonstrates over and over, revenge is so sweet. Delicious in fact.

The 4-star reviews below were posted to Hillbilly Highways, Amazon, and Goodreads on 8/5/2020:

Ron Rash is a master of the short story, but a reader’s conclusion on In the Valley will depend on the title story, a novella set in the world of and featuring the title character from Serena that takes up half the volume.

I am not the target audience, to the extent it is possible for me to not be the target audience for a Rash work. Serena remains my least favorite Rash novel, and any attempt at another story featuring Serena is handicapped by the novel telling the end of her story. Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised by In the Valley, and it is well accompanied by the preceding stories.

In the Valley sees Serena returning from Brazil to her final North Carolina holding. A contract says the equipment will be ready (and loaded!) by a seemingly insurmountable deadline. And there is other unfinished business with George Pemberton’s bastard son.

Rash wisely uses the deadline to get the last of the timber cleared from the ridgeline to create drama and executes ably. I also like that Galloway’s mother plays a significant role. One of the things I liked about Serena is that it is the rare Rash tale with a clear supernatural element. The other thing Rash did I really like is to intersperse chapters with short descriptions of the animals fleeing the destruction of the clear cut.

All of the stories in this volume, I believe, are set in the mountains of North Carolina, Rash’s most common setting. The time frames range from the close of the Civil War to the present, again in keeping with Rash’s prior work. The standout works are L’homme Blessé, about a young college professor still trying to process his wife’s death, and The Belt, about a Civil War veteran trying to squeeze one last bit of luck out of his lucky belt buckle as the river rises (a common Rash motif).

Table of Contents
Neighbors
When All the Stars Fall from the Sky
Sad Man in the Sky
L’homme Blessé
The Baptism
Flight
Last Bridge Burned
Ransom
The Belt
In the Valley (novella)

Disclosure: I received a complimentary, advance copy of In the Valley from the publisher.

I’ve never been a fan of short stories, but Ron Rash has made me rethink this opinion. These stories are beautifully written and Rash manages to transport the reader to the Appalachian countryside and makes characters so real that you’re sure you know the folks. To end by revisiting Serena, one of his most memorable and formidable characters, was icing on the cake. I enjoyed every word of this book - Ron Rash is one of my favorites.

“When will you have achieved all your ambitions, Mrs. Pemberton?” she asked, as others jostled around them.
“When the world and my will are one,” Serena answered.

--------------------------------------

The mountain lion was the first to depart the valley. The front paw lost years back to a trap’s steel teeth was warning enough. As the trees began to fall, others followed: black bear and bobcat, otter and mink, some in pairs, some singly. Then beaver and weasel, deer and muskrat, groundhog and fox. After them raccoon and rabbit, opossum and chipmunk, squirrel and vole, deer mouse and shrew . . .

Ron Rash writes of place and people. The place is Appalachia, the people are its residents, and those who stop by to extract what it has to offer.

One thing I want to do is for landscape and my characters to be inextricably bound together. I believe the landscape people live in has to affect their psychology. - from the Transatlantica interview

The time? Fluid, any time from the Civil War to the present.

In a sense, I’m writing a current that runs through time in those stories. And, also, paradoxically time is a kind of geography as well: it is also a way of showing people in much different cultural mindsets, even within a specific culture, and thus another way to probe for the universal within a specific cultural landscape.

There are nine stories and one novella in this collection, the book taking its title, In the Valley, from that longer piece.

Many of these stories include bullying behavior. A Trumpian sort tries to stiff his contractors. A wife-beater demands what he sees as his rights despite his crimes. A thuggish person seeks to intimidate all around him. A corporate exploiter brings on a fitting punishment. But there are also stories that touch the heart without that external stress. Sad Man in the Sky offers a beautiful thought to counter a troubled past. L’homme Blessé shows a form of comfort for those in particularly difficult times. A good deed stands out in a low-end life in Last Bridge Burned. Rash counterpoints evil and redemption in his work. No less here. Throughout, the beauty of Rash’s writing raises the level, of all the tales told.

If the language were not so beautiful and sublime, particularly in a play such as King Lear, the experience would be unbearable. What I’m trying for in my work—it’s up to the reader to decide if I do—is the sublime. I want my work to take the reader to that place. And I think you can do that with that juxtaposition of language and violence. - from the Transatlantica interview

But most of all there is In the Valley. If you have not read Rash’s masterpiece, Serena, I urge you to either order it online or dash out to an open bookstore and pick up a copy ASAP. It is one of the best novels ever. Sadly, the film that was made of it was a huge disappointment. But that changes nothing about the book. Read it, please, please, please. You will not be sorry. You can read In the Valley without having read Serena, but, really, don’t. This novella continues the tale of Serena Pemberton, a Lady MacBethian figure, with no moral restrictions. Her only law is greed, and if that requires some violence, no problem. Her personal thug, Galloway, despite having lost part of an arm, does his best to spread his pain around.

I think I tend to use maimed characters with the idea that the world they inhabit is wounded. - from the Transatlantica interview

Serena stands in for extraction industries of all sorts. Her only goal is to take as much as she can get. Attempting to clear-cut the remains of the land left to her when her husband died, under mysterious circumstances, in the novel, she feels no obligation to clean up the mess she leaves behind, ecological or human. Serena drives her men like slaves and will stop at nothing, even manipulating time itself, to see that the job gets done on schedule. Rash includes several chapter-end inserts that list all the local life that has been removed with each new level of destruction. I included one of these at the top of this review.

Ron Rash fully recaptures the feel, and substance of the novel, using a crew of workers as a Greek chorus, and showing Serena in all her horror. There is old world magic in the form of a blind, and dark-hearted seer, and plenty of dread-inducing people and situations to keep you from getting too comfortable. Serena is a horror movie monster. What she is doing to the land is as horrific as what she does to any who get in her way. It is a riveting read, with heroics as well as cruelty, and the sort of imagery that let you know you are in the hands of a master.

THE STORIES

Neighbors - Mrs Rebecca Penland and her two kids are threatened by a group of Confederate raiders in Union territory. She expects that she will suffer what many of her neighbors have, her property in whole or part being burned, and maybe worse. But she also knows that her neighbors will rush to her aid.

The women would bring food enough to get Rebecca and the children through the winter. Men would bring axes and the surrounding woods would sound like gunshots as the honed metal struck in the November air. All day the women would cook and tend fires. Children would gather kindling, then scuff among ashes for the iron nails that had secured the shingles. Everyone would work until dusk, then return the next day to help more. Ira Wilkey might or might not say We will get through this together, but that was understood. They were neighbors.

There is a great twist here. Be ready.

When All the Stars Fall from the Sky
Father and son contractors have a very different approach to the world. Pop is old-school, contracting on a handshake. He is a stickler for detail, even if that makes him slower to complete projects. Junior is much more a person of the present, willing to cut corners, always looking to make a few extra bucks on the cheap. They make the mistake of taking on work from a very Trumpian sort, someone eager to squeeze the absolute most out them without offering fair compensation. How they respond shows the change that has come over too much of the nation.

When Brent was growing up, his father would point out how a plumber in Brevard had done shoddy work but then gone out of business, or how a county clerk embezzled money for three years but ended up in prison. It catches up with you, son, he’d say. But plenty did get away with it, Brent knew. All you had to do was look at the recession, which almost caused him and his father to lose everything. The silk-tied crooks who’d done it weren’t arrested and no one pretended they ever would be. People like that got away with anything. Get caught robbing folks, all you had to do was pay back part of what you stole. Turn a million people into drug addicts, you didn’t spend a day in jail.

The treatment of Roger Stone would fit right in. Why be decent in an indecent world?

Sad Man in the Sky - (there is a link to the story in EXTRA STUFF)
A poignant tale of a chopper pilot offering Smokey Mountain Park Tours taking on a job flying a bedraggled-looking man to a dodgy part of the area. The things he sees stirs images from the past. I press the pedal and the skids lift free of the earth. As always, memories of long-ago flights tense my stomach.. He does not know what his passenger is all about, but hopes for the best.

L’homme Blessé
Jake Yancy, an art teacher at Brevard College, is asked by a former student to check out artwork done by her Uncle Walt in a cabin that is set to be demolished. Walt had returned home from his combat in Europe damaged, but brought back as well memories of peace and beauty, from a surprising source. Yancy is able to relate, given his own recent losses. What he finds when he investigates is remarkable.

The Baptism
Jason Gunter is young and off-the-scale arrogant. He wants Reverend Yates to baptize him. Yates is not inclined, given that Gunter is a wife beater, who may have killed one wife already, and has driven off a second. Now he has his mind set on wedding that one’s 14year old sister, Pearl.

Four congregation members on his porch, Marvin Birch at the head. They do not want him to baptize Gunter. He says there is a chance that the baptism may cleanse his soul, even if he does not really expect it to do so. And if he refuses, he will force Eliza [Pearl’s mother] and Pearl to walk in the freezing cold to another preacher much farther away, endangering their health.

A tough tale on the challenge of doing the right thing while contending with the demands of religious law and an awful human being.

Flight - (there is a link to the story in EXTRA STUFF)
Stacy is a Park Ranger with a powerful feel for the land she is charged with protecting. A boorish sort makes life difficult for others wanting to fish there. Even though her boss tells her not to engage with this rectum, she cannot let this behavior stand and does what she can to interrupt him. There is an underlying stream here of belonging to the land, not just visiting, but participating and engaging, not just playing. I was reminded of Becky Shytle in Rash’s novel, Above the Waterfall. Becky had found a similar connection to and solace in nature, a way fore her spirit to take flight. Trout turn up frequently in Rash’s writing. In Flight, Stacy points a visitor to where real, not stocked, trout might be found.

Trout have to live in a pure environment unlike human beings; they can’t live in filth! And so I think there is a kind of wonder; to me, they’re incredibly beautiful creatures…when such creatures disappear, we have lost something that cannot be brought back. - from the Transatlantica interview

Last Bridge Burned
Carlyle is down three jobs and two wives. He is closing in on 60, working at a gas station, shutting down for the night, when a woman comes by, thirtyish, just ditched from a car heading to Nashville. “Last bridge burned,” she says. Will he help her out? What about Carlyle? Are there any more bridges for him? This line just kills me. He made some coffee and sat in the front room, staring at nail holes in the wall where pictures once hung.

Ransom
Jennifer, daughter of a particularly well-to-do father, wakes in the trunk of a car, kidnapped, held by her abductor, who is not obviously otherwise unkind to her, for a prolonged period. She tries to engage him in conversation, as one does. Making yourself human makes it tougher for them to treat you like you are disposable. Her kidnapper lost a child, although he will not speak of her. A killer O Henry-ish twist ties this one up.

The Belt
Jubal is 80 years old, a Civil War woundee, his life spared when an incoming minié ball glanced off his considerable belt buckle, which sports an eagle with claws extended, his very lucky belt. He is caring for his great-grandchild while his grandson Rob, and wife Lizzie, head into town to sell their eggs and butter. But a big storm is coming and the river is rising way too fast for comfort. The sandbars had disappeared, but the big boulder midstream broke the onrushing water like a ship’s hull. No flood had ever submerged this rock. Can Jubal hang on until his grandson and his wife return? Can he keep the little one safe? The land provides, but the land can also take away. A scary story of contending with natural forces run amok and looking for a bit of luck. With obvious resonance to the climate crises of today.

I think people in mountains tend to feel very close to that place. … There’s almost the sense that the mountains are rising up around them, protecting them, almost like a womb. There’s a sense of security in a way. I think that also at times it can be oppressive. There’s a sense of mountains looming over people, reminding them how small and brief their lives are. I find it interesting to see what I can do with that as a writer. - from the Daily “Yonder interview

In the Valley is a magnificent collection, showing off one of America’s greatest writers at the peak of his powers, in his favorite form.

Short fiction is the medium I love the most, because it requires that I bring everything I’ve learned about poetry—the concision, the ability to say something as vividly as possible—but also the ability to create a narrative that, though lacking a novel’s length, satisfies the reader. - from The Daily Beast interview

He takes on classic conflicts, particularly exploitation of the lesser by the greater, or at least, by the cruder, but with a modern sensibility. He brings his poet’s ear for language to the short prose form, elevating the stories to high art. And he does this without losing the ability to engage, to make you feel, and to make you consider. And if that is not enough, he adds in twists that would make O Henry proud. My only gripe about In the Valley is that it did not go on forever.

He headed west on Highway 19, the directions on the passenger seat. The leaves were off the trees now, revealing time-worn swells so unlike the wild, seismic peaks and valleys beloved by European Romantics such as Pernhart and Friedrich. Sturm und Drang. Yet the Appalachians were daunting in their uniformity, a vast wall, unmarked by crevices that might provide an easy path out.


Review posted – July 31, 2020

Publication date – August 4, 2020

Links noted in the review can be found in the full Goodreads version

I have long been a fan of Ron Rash’s writing but these are the first of his short stories that I have read. They are absolutely wonderful. He is a wizard at leaving the reader with the feeling of epiphany by what he has said with impressions rather than spelled out in words on the paper. That brings me to the novella at the end of the book. It is actually an addendum to the novel Serena that he wrote sometime ago. I loved that book. In fact, because it was long since passed on to someone else’s house, it appears that I must buy myself another copy to refresh my memory. It will be a great candidate for a reread as will these stories.

Ron Rash never ceases to surprise me with his ability to create stories and novels that breach time and subject. This book of short stories and a novella about Serena, a continuation of his novel, is excellent. They go from the Civil War period to the present and many deal with interpersonal dynamics.

Neighbors is about a Civil War Widow who has a surprise for the Confederate soldiers who come knocking at her door, intent to take her food supplies and burn down her barn. When All the Stars Fall From the Sky deals with irreconcilable differences between father and son, a generational situation that is resolved in an extraordinary way. In Sad Man in the Sky, Rash examines the mistaken judgments we make about people and the humanity that lies even in peculiar circumstances. Outsider art is the subject of L'Homme Blesse, along with the trauma that preceded its creation. The Baptism is a powerful story about a batterer whose first wife has run from him and he is now determined to marry her younger sister. He goes to the minister and asks for a baptism. The minister deals with his moral code to make his decision. Flight is one of my favorites. A young female park ranger is faced with a bullying man who does not want to obey the law. She has had a series of psychiatric issues and despite her supposed fragility she stands tall and strong in this situation. Last Bridge Burned is about a man in recovery who is locking up his small store when a bedraggled woman comes knocking. He lets her in and later finds out a surprising truth. Addiction looms large in ransom, a story about the kidnapping of a college girl whose family is well-off. Her kidnapper treats her moderately well but starts her on a path of no return.

Serena, the novella, had me enchanted despite my abhorrence of many of the characters. Serena has continued to run the logging company with an iron will after Pemberton's death. There is a saying in the bible - and eye for an eye. There is a counter saying - if you adhere to an eye for an eye, ultimately everyone will go blind. Serena doesn't care if everyone goes blind as long as she has her rattlesnake catching eagle and her horse to ride on. Any betrayals, real or perceived, are met with severe punishment, including death. She continues to look for Pemberton's illegitimate child and its mother, hoping to find and kill them both. Meanwhile she has stripped the area of trees, causing almost all wildlife to depart. The land is barren and unwelcoming.

Rash writes poetically about the land and is able to provide a sense of place - colors, scents, wildlife, plants and trees. It is obvious that he loves the environment and his pen gives it a life of its own. He sees the uniqueness of the human condition and the surprises that confront us in many situations. I loved this book and am looking forward to his next one.

Well before this stellar new volume of collected short stories, Ron Rash has taken up a lot of space on my bookshelves. I am particularly drawn to his novles and rarely read short stories, but I am etremely gratefu that I had the opportunity to read this volume. I went from one engaging story to the next as if reading a page turner of a great novel. Rash's ability to pull the reader into another world, another time is stunning, even when those worlds and times are different three pages later. I found I could not put the book down. My only reservation was with the characterization of Serena and her deadly cohort. The novel Serena is one of the finest, most unexpected, I have ever read. I regret the movie so distorted it. However,in this volume, when Rash turns to Serena again, I was disappointed that she had somehow become a super-skilled vaiiainess, rather than a fully rounded human being going the wrong direction. Otherwise, Rash again demonstraits his fine ability with tight prose, tight plots, tight but full characterization all accomplished in a few pages at a time. I felt myself pulled deeply into each of these stories except Serena's. A superb read.

Gloriously written stories by a master of the genre, with all of Ron Rash's signature gifts of splendid characterization and haunting themes. A book to place beside his wonderful novels on your bookshelf!

IN THE VALLEY will delight fans of literary fiction. Ron Rash is a master at character development even within the confines of a short story. Here, we are treated to short stories ranging from the Civil War era to present day plus a novella following up on SERENA. Each entry is strong - finely crafted in terms of the characters, who come to life on the page, vividly rendered rural settings, and carefully constructed plots. Rash's descriptions are lyrical but never overwrought. It's obvious he labored hard over each word; it's equally as apparent that he loved every minute of it, giving us a gem of a collection.

The first element in all of Ron Rash’s writings is always the land, its scents, colors and contours. Then there are the people who interact with the land, its history and their own personal lives formed by it. In these stories, the author’s talents, insights and word mastery are on full display.

Favorites include: Neighbors – a young Civil War widow is confronted by Rebel marauders. With few resources, she sets a price she is willing to pay. Ransom and Last Bridge Burned are concerned with addiction, handled in two very startling ways. In The Belt an old man wonders about a belt that saved his life on the battlefield. It now serves him as a talisman but perhaps something more. When All the Stars Fell From the Sky is about the slow fracturing of a father/son relationship, a poignant end to differences that will not be healed. Lastly there is the novella length In the Valley which revisits Serena Pemberton. Evil may not always be totally vanquished but sometimes it may be kept at bey.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a review title. Ron Rash is a national treasure and a true interpreter of the place and people where he lives. Highly recommended.