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Saints at the River
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 areconvinced the rescue operation will cause permanent damage to the river and set a dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eightyear-old newspaper photographer who grew up in the town and has been sent to document the incident. Since leaving home almost ten years ago, Maggie has done her best to avoid her father, but now, as the town's conflict opens old wounds, she finds herself revisiting the past she's fought so hard to leave behind.
239 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 2004
About the author
Ron Rash
59 books1,890 followersRon 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 455 reviews
November 27, 2015
3.5★
"Ron Rash has written a book about the deepest human themes: the love of the land, the hold of the dead on the living, and the need to dive beneath the surface to arrive at a deeper truth.”
I agree. This is an earlier work by the author. It opens with a haunting short story included in his superb collection Burning Bright about a little girl who wades out into a river and is swept away. Based on a factual event, he weaves us another story pitting human desire against environmental concerns and challenges. The book blurb tells you what you need to know. Not as fully realized as his later novels Serena and The Cove, particularly with character development, but still a worthy read. I sometimes complain about books that are too long, in this case it might be too short to have brought the characters to full potential. I thought the sections on environmental concerns well done. He allows the reader to make up her own mind where she might stand on the issues. I would not recommend starting with this one if you have not read the author’s other works. It is best appreciated by a diehard fan wanting more Rash; that would be me!
From a man's argument against damaging a wild river to recover her body, I loved lines like this one: "...the girl's body is the Tamassee's now...the moment she stepped in the shallows she accepted the river on its own terms. That's what wilderness is–nature on its terms, not ours, and there's no middle ground.”
December 4, 2021
3.5 stars, rounded up.
This novel, Rash's second, begins with the drowning of a 12 year old girl in the Tamassee River in SC, protected by Federal Law from anthing that would disturb the river's natural state. Her parents witness the drowning, but her body is lodged behind some rocks and can only be removed by damming the river temporarily to divert the whitewater flow. So begins the tale pitting rabid naturalists against the parent's wish to retrieve their daughter's body at any cost. Add in developers wanting to set precedent for any type of encroachments, the townspeople who are divided, some politicians, and state and nationwide reporters and photographers, and you have a volatile situation.
The first chapter is eloquent and beautiful, which is always the case when Ron Rash writes about nature. It bogged down a bit with me when it was cluttered by several side stories. A photographer's relationship with her father, a love story (though underplayed) and some flashbacks that took the focus away from the main story.
Of course, my nitpicks don't take away from the fact that Ron Rash is an excellent writer who can pull it off and make me care about these characters. He presents all sides of this tragedy realistically and emotionally, leaving the reader to wonder which side they would take, and why.
All in all, a good read.
This novel, Rash's second, begins with the drowning of a 12 year old girl in the Tamassee River in SC, protected by Federal Law from anthing that would disturb the river's natural state. Her parents witness the drowning, but her body is lodged behind some rocks and can only be removed by damming the river temporarily to divert the whitewater flow. So begins the tale pitting rabid naturalists against the parent's wish to retrieve their daughter's body at any cost. Add in developers wanting to set precedent for any type of encroachments, the townspeople who are divided, some politicians, and state and nationwide reporters and photographers, and you have a volatile situation.
The first chapter is eloquent and beautiful, which is always the case when Ron Rash writes about nature. It bogged down a bit with me when it was cluttered by several side stories. A photographer's relationship with her father, a love story (though underplayed) and some flashbacks that took the focus away from the main story.
Of course, my nitpicks don't take away from the fact that Ron Rash is an excellent writer who can pull it off and make me care about these characters. He presents all sides of this tragedy realistically and emotionally, leaving the reader to wonder which side they would take, and why.
All in all, a good read.
December 11, 2021
3.5 rounded up
Saints at the River starts out with a horrifying incident in which a 12 year old girl is swept under the dangerous currents of the Tamassee River and drowns leaving her body trapped in a deep whirlpool. The people of this small South Carolina town are divided between the parent’s desire to retrieve their daughter’s body so that she can be properly buried and the conservation laws protecting the river. Ron Rash presents an environmental story in which the rescue of a drowned girl’s body is pitted against the sanctity of a river.
A newspaper photographer named Maggie is assigned to return to her hometown with a fellow reporter to cover the story that is making national news. Once there, Maggie’s past floods back when she encounters an old flame, Luke, who is the environmentalist championing the river’s protection. Luke is prepared to stop the company brought in to set up a temporary dam which could reroute the river’s water to allow divers to safely retrieve the body. The main problem is that holes must be drilled into the riverbank which would go against the conservation laws. Along with doing her job and bringing back her past and misgivings about being home, Maggie must also deal with other personal issues and an estrangement with her father.
What Rash does well here is presenting all of the different perspectives on the controversy created by the girl’s death, allowing the reader to make an informed choice on the matter whether to protect the land as the law states or make exemptions for bereaving families. Rash’s prose is unbiased and very thoughtful toward the controversy. He gives a particularly clear voice to the river that flows on regardless of what the people around it need from it or desire it to give them.
Saints at the River starts out with a horrifying incident in which a 12 year old girl is swept under the dangerous currents of the Tamassee River and drowns leaving her body trapped in a deep whirlpool. The people of this small South Carolina town are divided between the parent’s desire to retrieve their daughter’s body so that she can be properly buried and the conservation laws protecting the river. Ron Rash presents an environmental story in which the rescue of a drowned girl’s body is pitted against the sanctity of a river.
A newspaper photographer named Maggie is assigned to return to her hometown with a fellow reporter to cover the story that is making national news. Once there, Maggie’s past floods back when she encounters an old flame, Luke, who is the environmentalist championing the river’s protection. Luke is prepared to stop the company brought in to set up a temporary dam which could reroute the river’s water to allow divers to safely retrieve the body. The main problem is that holes must be drilled into the riverbank which would go against the conservation laws. Along with doing her job and bringing back her past and misgivings about being home, Maggie must also deal with other personal issues and an estrangement with her father.
What Rash does well here is presenting all of the different perspectives on the controversy created by the girl’s death, allowing the reader to make an informed choice on the matter whether to protect the land as the law states or make exemptions for bereaving families. Rash’s prose is unbiased and very thoughtful toward the controversy. He gives a particularly clear voice to the river that flows on regardless of what the people around it need from it or desire it to give them.
November 26, 2014
Dear Ron,
You're awesome. You not only write beautiful and poetic prose but you actually seem to understand what makes people tick. Your characters are so vivid, so real, so amazingly genuine, I feel as if I know them, intimately.
And let me tell you, if I wasn't already happily married I might admit to having a huge crush on you because, honestly, any man who understands women (or maybe just women like me) the way you do makes a girl's heart go pitter-patter. Not only do you give us strong heroines but you also give us sexy (though vulnerable) leading men.
On a more serious note...
There is not one underdeveloped, one flat one-dimensional character in this book. Furthermore, Rash successfully manages to develop a plot and several minor subplots in such a way that it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. I also love how the river becomes a character in the story.
And speaking of story?
I'm so impressed with Rash as a writer, in addition to a library book that I have here plus the three Rash works I've already read, I ordered another four Rash novels/short story collections, and I can't wait to read them all.
Would recommend to those who appreciate Southern Gothic fiction, complex and engaging characters, and fluid and competent writing.
You're awesome. You not only write beautiful and poetic prose but you actually seem to understand what makes people tick. Your characters are so vivid, so real, so amazingly genuine, I feel as if I know them, intimately.
And let me tell you, if I wasn't already happily married I might admit to having a huge crush on you because, honestly, any man who understands women (or maybe just women like me) the way you do makes a girl's heart go pitter-patter. Not only do you give us strong heroines but you also give us sexy (though vulnerable) leading men.
On a more serious note...
There is not one underdeveloped, one flat one-dimensional character in this book. Furthermore, Rash successfully manages to develop a plot and several minor subplots in such a way that it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. I also love how the river becomes a character in the story.
And speaking of story?
I'm so impressed with Rash as a writer, in addition to a library book that I have here plus the three Rash works I've already read, I ordered another four Rash novels/short story collections, and I can't wait to read them all.
Would recommend to those who appreciate Southern Gothic fiction, complex and engaging characters, and fluid and competent writing.
April 20, 2014
I am on a Ron Rash reading binge. This is his second novel and was published in 2004. Before his first novel in 2002 he had published poetry and short stories. As a transplant from the North (Michigan) to the South (Virginia), I am definitely a carpetbagger. I live in the South to take advantage of the fine climate: four seasons of three months each with relatively mild winters. I live in a town that nurtured Jerry Falwell and is located in the Bible Belt. I am an ethical humanist (a polite term for atheist) so this is not a match made in heaven.
Ron’s first novel, One Foot in Eden, leaned some on religion and was downgraded by me on that account. He seems to have become somewhat more secular in his more recent writing, something I keep an eye on. He is highly regarded for his writing skills, a regard that I think is clearly earned. He has a respect for nature and environmentalism that he shows in his writing.
I am reading GR reviews before, during and after the reading of the book because I am interested in learning about the author, Ron Rash. He is relatively new on the Southern literature scene and seems to be a brightly and rapidly ascending star. His talent, which began with poetry and short stories in the 1990s, has earned him attention in the Goodreads online group On the Southern Literary Trail. He was born in 1953 so is 61 now and lives in South Carolina.
Saints at the River grabbed onto me on the first page with the drowning described in the most humanistic. We also have a protagonist who is a woman, and a well portrayed woman according to most of the reviews I had already read. And Ron Rash is even in the book, hidden in the journalist who is going to get to know our heroine.
I like novels that teach me something. Ron Rash taught me about the usual stuff of novels, relationships and family and nature. But he also taught me about journalism, and professional photography and bonding fires.
And while he is teaching I am remembering the years we heated the house with a wood stove on Long Island and the quiet fire did not go out from week to week.
Sometimes in a book you notice funny things. Our protagonist Maggie is a professional photographer who has not yet switched to digital cameras and talks about why she likes film. And she washes dishes, doesn’t put them in a dishwasher. An old fashioned girl from the mountains who doesn’t have sex on the first date!
Highway 29 Motion Pictures is trying to make Saints at the River into a motion picture. In a promotional video for the film company, Ron Rash says,
So, as usual in his books, Ron Rash wants to teach us, to give us information that he thinks is important to help us make up our own minds. But in doing that he can tug on your emotions both ways in the argument. He presents the river both as a tool for the use and benefit of mankind as well as an independent, almost sacred force of nature.
Although the story is fiction, the events in the book about the drowning and attempted recovery of the body have some basis in reality. A lengthy article in the Summer/Fall 1999 issue of The Chattooga Quarterly describes an incident with many similarities. This publication of the Chattooga River Watershed Coalition can be found at http://www.chattoogariver.org/wp-cont.... Reading this article is an interesting way to see how a writer can transform an actual event into fictional writing. If a few more years had passed between the event and the book, it could be called historical fiction as some of Rash’s books are labeled.
Saints at the River brought me a fair number of meaningful memory jolts more than the average book. It could not quite make me cry, but it did bring me close with quivers and goose bumps. Five stars for the Appalachian natural reality that was created with some real mountain people.
Ron’s first novel, One Foot in Eden, leaned some on religion and was downgraded by me on that account. He seems to have become somewhat more secular in his more recent writing, something I keep an eye on. He is highly regarded for his writing skills, a regard that I think is clearly earned. He has a respect for nature and environmentalism that he shows in his writing.
I am reading GR reviews before, during and after the reading of the book because I am interested in learning about the author, Ron Rash. He is relatively new on the Southern literature scene and seems to be a brightly and rapidly ascending star. His talent, which began with poetry and short stories in the 1990s, has earned him attention in the Goodreads online group On the Southern Literary Trail. He was born in 1953 so is 61 now and lives in South Carolina.
Saints at the River grabbed onto me on the first page with the drowning described in the most humanistic. We also have a protagonist who is a woman, and a well portrayed woman according to most of the reviews I had already read. And Ron Rash is even in the book, hidden in the journalist who is going to get to know our heroine.
I like novels that teach me something. Ron Rash taught me about the usual stuff of novels, relationships and family and nature. But he also taught me about journalism, and professional photography and bonding fires.
Bonding fires originated in the Scottish midlands. A family’s hearth fire was never allowed to die down completely. Banked embers from the previous night’s fire were stirred and kindled back into flames. When children left to marry and raise their own families, they took fire from their parent’s hearth with them. It was both heirloom and talisman, nurtured and protected because generations recognized it for what it was – living memory. When some clans emigrated they kept the fires burning on the ships as they crossed the Atlantic.
And while he is teaching I am remembering the years we heated the house with a wood stove on Long Island and the quiet fire did not go out from week to week.
Sometimes in a book you notice funny things. Our protagonist Maggie is a professional photographer who has not yet switched to digital cameras and talks about why she likes film. And she washes dishes, doesn’t put them in a dishwasher. An old fashioned girl from the mountains who doesn’t have sex on the first date!
Highway 29 Motion Pictures is trying to make Saints at the River into a motion picture. In a promotional video for the film company, Ron Rash says,
I wanted the novel to have environmental concerns but I wanted to have enough faith in the reader so that the reader would make up his or her own mind about this situation. I don’t like people who tell me how to think. I don’t think art works particularly well as propaganda but I do think you can nevertheless focus on such aspects, certain concerns, particularly in my case environmental concerns that are important and at least bring them to the reader’s attention.
Source: http://www.highway29motionpictures.co...
So, as usual in his books, Ron Rash wants to teach us, to give us information that he thinks is important to help us make up our own minds. But in doing that he can tug on your emotions both ways in the argument. He presents the river both as a tool for the use and benefit of mankind as well as an independent, almost sacred force of nature.
Although the story is fiction, the events in the book about the drowning and attempted recovery of the body have some basis in reality. A lengthy article in the Summer/Fall 1999 issue of The Chattooga Quarterly describes an incident with many similarities. This publication of the Chattooga River Watershed Coalition can be found at http://www.chattoogariver.org/wp-cont.... Reading this article is an interesting way to see how a writer can transform an actual event into fictional writing. If a few more years had passed between the event and the book, it could be called historical fiction as some of Rash’s books are labeled.
Saints at the River brought me a fair number of meaningful memory jolts more than the average book. It could not quite make me cry, but it did bring me close with quivers and goose bumps. Five stars for the Appalachian natural reality that was created with some real mountain people.
November 27, 2021
Maggie is a child of the mountains, but she has been away from the mountains for a time, going to college and then working in Columbia, embracing the big city as a newspaper photographer. When a young girl drowns in the Tamassee River and is trapped there, her parents want to bring the body up at any cost, environmentalists fear the cost will be the destruction of the river itself. The stage is set for a battle, and Maggie finds herself in the middle, with a lot of personal baggage on both sides of the issue.
The story is a tad predictable in spots and over before you wish it to be. There is a cliche romance, but it does not dominate the story. These elements keep it from being great, but there are moments when it comes mighty close. Even though the environmental side cited Wendell Berry, which ought to have landed me solidly in their camp, I could see this through the eyes of the parents as well, you would want your daughter’s body. It would seem inconceivable that you would just go home and leave her there. In fact, what I admire most about Rash’s treatment here was that it was not preachy but realistic, right down to including all the players who come on the scene just to gain a political edge, money or recognition.
The river itself becomes almost a character, with a voice and a will that cannot be manipulated by a mere human.
Wolf Cliff is a place where nature has gone out of its way to make humans feel insignificant. The cliff itself is two hundred feet of granite that looms over the gorge. A fissure jags down its gray face like a piece of black embedded lightning. The river tightens and deepens. Even water that looks calm moves quick and dangerous. Mid-river fifty yards above the falls a beech tree thick as a telephone pole balances like a footbridge on two haystack-tall boulders. A spring flood set it there twelve years ago.
The characters make poignant arguments:
It's nice to know there is something in the world that’s uncorrupted. Something that can’t be bought and cut up into pieces so somebody can make money off it.
I particularly loved this example from a character who wished to leave the body where it lay:
…the girl’s body is the Tamassee’s now…the moment she stepped in the shallows she accepted the river on its own terms. That’s what the wilderness is – nature on its own terms, not ours, and there’s no middle ground. It either is or it isn’t.
The Appalachians are still a distinct and different region, with some of the best of what is old-fashioned intact, like community and loyalty. There is also a wisdom there that comes from the harder life and knowing nature in a way city-folk simply find it hard to comprehend. Perhaps because most people raised in a city don’t even realize that they cannot see the stars at night the way God meant them to be seen.
This is an early work for Ron Rash, and if you have read any of his later books, you will recognize the immaturity here, but there is also that hint of great things to come. After a rocky start with Serena, which I simply could not bring myself to love, I have read enough of Ron Rash to become a dyed-in-the-wool fan. As my Daddy would have said, “he is a t.c. huzzy”. It’s a compliment...means a very special one of a kind.
The story is a tad predictable in spots and over before you wish it to be. There is a cliche romance, but it does not dominate the story. These elements keep it from being great, but there are moments when it comes mighty close. Even though the environmental side cited Wendell Berry, which ought to have landed me solidly in their camp, I could see this through the eyes of the parents as well, you would want your daughter’s body. It would seem inconceivable that you would just go home and leave her there. In fact, what I admire most about Rash’s treatment here was that it was not preachy but realistic, right down to including all the players who come on the scene just to gain a political edge, money or recognition.
The river itself becomes almost a character, with a voice and a will that cannot be manipulated by a mere human.
Wolf Cliff is a place where nature has gone out of its way to make humans feel insignificant. The cliff itself is two hundred feet of granite that looms over the gorge. A fissure jags down its gray face like a piece of black embedded lightning. The river tightens and deepens. Even water that looks calm moves quick and dangerous. Mid-river fifty yards above the falls a beech tree thick as a telephone pole balances like a footbridge on two haystack-tall boulders. A spring flood set it there twelve years ago.
The characters make poignant arguments:
It's nice to know there is something in the world that’s uncorrupted. Something that can’t be bought and cut up into pieces so somebody can make money off it.
I particularly loved this example from a character who wished to leave the body where it lay:
…the girl’s body is the Tamassee’s now…the moment she stepped in the shallows she accepted the river on its own terms. That’s what the wilderness is – nature on its own terms, not ours, and there’s no middle ground. It either is or it isn’t.
The Appalachians are still a distinct and different region, with some of the best of what is old-fashioned intact, like community and loyalty. There is also a wisdom there that comes from the harder life and knowing nature in a way city-folk simply find it hard to comprehend. Perhaps because most people raised in a city don’t even realize that they cannot see the stars at night the way God meant them to be seen.
This is an early work for Ron Rash, and if you have read any of his later books, you will recognize the immaturity here, but there is also that hint of great things to come. After a rocky start with Serena, which I simply could not bring myself to love, I have read enough of Ron Rash to become a dyed-in-the-wool fan. As my Daddy would have said, “he is a t.c. huzzy”. It’s a compliment...means a very special one of a kind.
December 4, 2021
A twelve-year-old girl waded into the middle of the Tamassee River bordering Georgia and South Carolina so she could tell her friends that she had visited both states at the same time. She had no idea that the swollen river would suck her into a whirlpool, trapping her under the rocks.
Her death set off a battle between her grieving parents and a local environmental group. Her devastated parents want to set up a temporary dam to divert the water so divers can retrieve their daughter's body. The river is protected since it has the Wild and Scenic status, and environmentalists feel that the streambed should not be altered according to Federal regulations. It would also set up a precedent for other exceptions to the law. A developer, the divers, and various local people also have opinions while the Forest Service ranger is caught in the middle.
The wild, rain-swollen river is also a character. It's powerful and dangerous with raging water and granite boulders. It's a force of nature that has to be respected.
Maggie Glenn, the narrator, is the photographer for a major newspaper in South Carolina. Her poignant photograph of the grieving father, which accompanied the news report, swayed public opinion. But Maggie also has a history of working with the environmental group when she was younger.
"Saints at the River" showed the perspectives of many characters, each having valid opinions. The book also had interesting sub-plots which brought out the backstories of the characters. Maggie interacted with family and friends in her hometown, so the story also had lots of local color. The locals possessed first-hand experience with the Tamassee River and the mountain wilderness. It's always a pleasure to read Ron Rash's lovely writing.
Her death set off a battle between her grieving parents and a local environmental group. Her devastated parents want to set up a temporary dam to divert the water so divers can retrieve their daughter's body. The river is protected since it has the Wild and Scenic status, and environmentalists feel that the streambed should not be altered according to Federal regulations. It would also set up a precedent for other exceptions to the law. A developer, the divers, and various local people also have opinions while the Forest Service ranger is caught in the middle.
The wild, rain-swollen river is also a character. It's powerful and dangerous with raging water and granite boulders. It's a force of nature that has to be respected.
Maggie Glenn, the narrator, is the photographer for a major newspaper in South Carolina. Her poignant photograph of the grieving father, which accompanied the news report, swayed public opinion. But Maggie also has a history of working with the environmental group when she was younger.
"Saints at the River" showed the perspectives of many characters, each having valid opinions. The book also had interesting sub-plots which brought out the backstories of the characters. Maggie interacted with family and friends in her hometown, so the story also had lots of local color. The locals possessed first-hand experience with the Tamassee River and the mountain wilderness. It's always a pleasure to read Ron Rash's lovely writing.
November 4, 2021
3.5 rounded down.
I've read Ron Rash before and have enjoyed his books--novels as well as short stories. I enjoy his ability to capture people and situations, sometimes with very few words, and with a dispassion that invites you to move closer to discover for yourself what's buried in the text. Being one of his earlier books, this one was a bit less masterful with those skills. but he still spins a decent yarn.
A tragic outcome of human versus nature ultimately pits human against human in solving the problem of a young drowned girl being recovered from an unforgiving river. Since humans never agree on anything, tension and conflict abound as locals, reporters, and outsiders wrestle with preserving the protected habitat versus violating the law to bring the girl out for burial. Riffling through the story are remnants from personal histories....previous relationships, childhood memories and experiences, resentments carried through the years; those who forgive and those who don't.
"The early history of his life was like history written in chalk on a blackboard--something he could smudge and then erase through sheer good-heartedness."
"When children left to marry and raise their own families, they took fire from their parents' hearth with them. It was both heirloom and talisman, nurtured and protected because generations recognized it for what it was--living memory."
We may not carry physical embers with us when we set out into the world, but we definitely carry emotional embers...some which warm us and some which burn. Maggie's return to her home town as photographer assigned to record the proceedings brings her face to face with multiple embers from earlier experiences. This more personal element in the story gave it its heart, but it seemed to compete with, rather than compliment, the overarching rescue elements of the book, and I didn't get to know Maggie as intimately as I might have liked. In this case, Nash seemed to stay a bit too distant for my taste.
Still, a pleasant way to spend a few hours, and left me pondering what we could accomplish in our lives if we could all live "smudging and erasing" the parts of our histories that hold us back.
I've read Ron Rash before and have enjoyed his books--novels as well as short stories. I enjoy his ability to capture people and situations, sometimes with very few words, and with a dispassion that invites you to move closer to discover for yourself what's buried in the text. Being one of his earlier books, this one was a bit less masterful with those skills. but he still spins a decent yarn.
A tragic outcome of human versus nature ultimately pits human against human in solving the problem of a young drowned girl being recovered from an unforgiving river. Since humans never agree on anything, tension and conflict abound as locals, reporters, and outsiders wrestle with preserving the protected habitat versus violating the law to bring the girl out for burial. Riffling through the story are remnants from personal histories....previous relationships, childhood memories and experiences, resentments carried through the years; those who forgive and those who don't.
"The early history of his life was like history written in chalk on a blackboard--something he could smudge and then erase through sheer good-heartedness."
"When children left to marry and raise their own families, they took fire from their parents' hearth with them. It was both heirloom and talisman, nurtured and protected because generations recognized it for what it was--living memory."
We may not carry physical embers with us when we set out into the world, but we definitely carry emotional embers...some which warm us and some which burn. Maggie's return to her home town as photographer assigned to record the proceedings brings her face to face with multiple embers from earlier experiences. This more personal element in the story gave it its heart, but it seemed to compete with, rather than compliment, the overarching rescue elements of the book, and I didn't get to know Maggie as intimately as I might have liked. In this case, Nash seemed to stay a bit too distant for my taste.
Still, a pleasant way to spend a few hours, and left me pondering what we could accomplish in our lives if we could all live "smudging and erasing" the parts of our histories that hold us back.
April 19, 2013
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 with its multiple layers of story action and sub-plots revolving around family and community relationships of the main characters. The book grabbed me from the first sentence and never let go, immersing me in the story, but also forcing me to see the viewpoints of all the characters, to ask myself how I would feel if I were in any of their shoes, and to remind me that answers to life's deepest questions are rarely black and white or simple.
Ron Rash's talent for vivid detail and description was remarkable. In one scene, protagonist Maggie Glenn is remembering a day from her childhood:
"I was eight years old and we were picking blackberries on the east slope of Sassafras Mountain. We had come early, dew soaking our shoes as we sidled up land slanted as a barn roof, shiny milk pails in our hands. Morning sun brightened the mountainside as our first berries pinged the metal. Black and yellow writing spiders had cast their webs between some of the bushes, and dew beads twinkled across them like strung diamonds. My fingers purpled as my pail began slowly to fill, a soft, cushiony sound as berry fell on berry."
Oh, I was right there picking berries with her and seeing every detail!
One character, avid environmentalist Luke Miller, spoke movingly after a child's drowning in the Tamassee River to express why he felt wilderness must be preserved and protected. "...the girl's body is the Tamassee's now...the moment she stepped in the shallows she accepted the river on its own terms. That's what wilderness is–nature on its terms, not ours, and there's no middle ground. It either is or it isn't."
The last words of the novel, quoted below, have haunted me as I reflect on nature, its raw beauty and power, and its total disregard for human emotion.
"In the boulder-domed dark below the falls, no current slows or curves in acknowledgement of Ruth Kowalsky and Randy Moseley's once-presence, for they are now and forever lost in the river's vast and generous unremembering."
Cultures that are more in tune with nature know there are lessons in its patterns, cycles, and even its apparent vagaries.
Yet the lessons here go far beyond a simple appreciation for nature. This story and its characters' experiences teach us that we should try to keep ourselves in the flow instead of swimming upstream so much; that we should celebrate joys and acknowledge sorrows, but then let them go; that injustices, real or imagined, are poison to our happiness and peace of mind as long as they are retained; and that since everything is transient, we must embrace and savor every moment as it happens, then relinquish it, good or bad, to the "vast and generous unremembering."
This novel was outstanding on so many levels, not the least of which was the riveting plot with its multiple layers of story action and sub-plots revolving around family and community relationships of the main characters. The book grabbed me from the first sentence and never let go, immersing me in the story, but also forcing me to see the viewpoints of all the characters, to ask myself how I would feel if I were in any of their shoes, and to remind me that answers to life's deepest questions are rarely black and white or simple.
Ron Rash's talent for vivid detail and description was remarkable. In one scene, protagonist Maggie Glenn is remembering a day from her childhood:
"I was eight years old and we were picking blackberries on the east slope of Sassafras Mountain. We had come early, dew soaking our shoes as we sidled up land slanted as a barn roof, shiny milk pails in our hands. Morning sun brightened the mountainside as our first berries pinged the metal. Black and yellow writing spiders had cast their webs between some of the bushes, and dew beads twinkled across them like strung diamonds. My fingers purpled as my pail began slowly to fill, a soft, cushiony sound as berry fell on berry."
Oh, I was right there picking berries with her and seeing every detail!
One character, avid environmentalist Luke Miller, spoke movingly after a child's drowning in the Tamassee River to express why he felt wilderness must be preserved and protected. "...the girl's body is the Tamassee's now...the moment she stepped in the shallows she accepted the river on its own terms. That's what wilderness is–nature on its terms, not ours, and there's no middle ground. It either is or it isn't."
The last words of the novel, quoted below, have haunted me as I reflect on nature, its raw beauty and power, and its total disregard for human emotion.
"In the boulder-domed dark below the falls, no current slows or curves in acknowledgement of Ruth Kowalsky and Randy Moseley's once-presence, for they are now and forever lost in the river's vast and generous unremembering."
Cultures that are more in tune with nature know there are lessons in its patterns, cycles, and even its apparent vagaries.
Yet the lessons here go far beyond a simple appreciation for nature. This story and its characters' experiences teach us that we should try to keep ourselves in the flow instead of swimming upstream so much; that we should celebrate joys and acknowledge sorrows, but then let them go; that injustices, real or imagined, are poison to our happiness and peace of mind as long as they are retained; and that since everything is transient, we must embrace and savor every moment as it happens, then relinquish it, good or bad, to the "vast and generous unremembering."
February 13, 2018
“The fog finally thinned and the sun broke through. When it did we were in a section where stands of poplar trees lined both shores. As the last smudges of fog evaporated, the yellow sun-struck poplar leaves brightened like lamp wicks being turned up. The air felt charged and alive, like when lightning breaks the sky before rain. Thought we were in slow water, the river’s pulse seemed to quicken. Everything, including Luke and me, shimmered in a golden light. For the first time in my life I saw the river the way I believed Luke saw it.”
Saints at the River is the second novel by American poet, short story writer and novelist, Ron Rash. In late April, twelve-year-old Ruth Kowalsky from Minnesota, on vacation with her family, steps into the Tamassee River in South Carolina, slips over the waterfall and drowns. She is drawn into a hydraulic and sucked under, to be held there until the river sees fit to release her body.
Her parents obviously want to take her home to be buried, but the local Search and Rescue crews are unable to retrieve her. In spring, the Tamassee is a white-water river, making a dive for the body too dangerous, and the river comes under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1978, which precludes usual methods of retrieval like dynamite.
The community is divided: dissatisfied with efforts by the locals (he’s referred to them as hillbillies), Herb Kowalsky has brought in businessman touting his temporary dam; the white-water rafting business is concerned their river’s reputation will tip from thrilling to dangerous; a land developer sees the opportunity to weaken environmental regulations; loggers, too, resent the district park ranger’s power; and the environmentalists (tree-huggers) are determined to see the law upheld.
Photojournalist Maggie Glenn grew up in this town and knows most of the players well. She escaped to Columbia, but her boss has sent her back with Pulitzer nominee, Allen Hemphill to cover the story. Maggie’s evocative photograph at the scene sees politicians weighing in to the debate. But Maggie also has issues from her past in Tamassee to deal with (“It was not a convenient memory, because I couldn’t frame it neatly into the black-and-white photograph I’d made of my past.”), and Allen is not free of baggage, either.
Rash’s forte is his characters, and here they contend with grief, guilt, fear, resentment, and the need to forgive. Always, Rash’s love for, and connection to, the Appalachia and her people are apparent in every paragraph. “… an October sky widens overhead with not a wisp of gray or white cloud, just blue smoothed out like a quilt tacked on a frame. It’s a sky that makes everything beneath it brighter, more clarified…. Poplars and sweet gums hold clutches of gold and purple, but many leaves have already fallen. The thinning foliage makes the river seem wider, as if the banks have been pushed back a few yards on each side.”
His descriptive prose is often exquisite: “After death, everything in a house appears slightly transformed – the color of a vase, the length of a bed, the weight of a glass lifted from a cupboard. No matter how many blinds are raised and lamps turned on, the light is dimmer. Shadows that cobweb corners spread and thicken. Clocks tick a little louder, the silence between seconds longer. The house itself feels off-plumb, as though the foundations had been calibrated to the weight and movement of the deceased.” This is a moving and powerful read.
Saints at the River is the second novel by American poet, short story writer and novelist, Ron Rash. In late April, twelve-year-old Ruth Kowalsky from Minnesota, on vacation with her family, steps into the Tamassee River in South Carolina, slips over the waterfall and drowns. She is drawn into a hydraulic and sucked under, to be held there until the river sees fit to release her body.
Her parents obviously want to take her home to be buried, but the local Search and Rescue crews are unable to retrieve her. In spring, the Tamassee is a white-water river, making a dive for the body too dangerous, and the river comes under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1978, which precludes usual methods of retrieval like dynamite.
The community is divided: dissatisfied with efforts by the locals (he’s referred to them as hillbillies), Herb Kowalsky has brought in businessman touting his temporary dam; the white-water rafting business is concerned their river’s reputation will tip from thrilling to dangerous; a land developer sees the opportunity to weaken environmental regulations; loggers, too, resent the district park ranger’s power; and the environmentalists (tree-huggers) are determined to see the law upheld.
Photojournalist Maggie Glenn grew up in this town and knows most of the players well. She escaped to Columbia, but her boss has sent her back with Pulitzer nominee, Allen Hemphill to cover the story. Maggie’s evocative photograph at the scene sees politicians weighing in to the debate. But Maggie also has issues from her past in Tamassee to deal with (“It was not a convenient memory, because I couldn’t frame it neatly into the black-and-white photograph I’d made of my past.”), and Allen is not free of baggage, either.
Rash’s forte is his characters, and here they contend with grief, guilt, fear, resentment, and the need to forgive. Always, Rash’s love for, and connection to, the Appalachia and her people are apparent in every paragraph. “… an October sky widens overhead with not a wisp of gray or white cloud, just blue smoothed out like a quilt tacked on a frame. It’s a sky that makes everything beneath it brighter, more clarified…. Poplars and sweet gums hold clutches of gold and purple, but many leaves have already fallen. The thinning foliage makes the river seem wider, as if the banks have been pushed back a few yards on each side.”
His descriptive prose is often exquisite: “After death, everything in a house appears slightly transformed – the color of a vase, the length of a bed, the weight of a glass lifted from a cupboard. No matter how many blinds are raised and lamps turned on, the light is dimmer. Shadows that cobweb corners spread and thicken. Clocks tick a little louder, the silence between seconds longer. The house itself feels off-plumb, as though the foundations had been calibrated to the weight and movement of the deceased.” This is a moving and powerful read.
May 1, 2009
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 into the Atlantic and the full resources of the US Navy were used to locate and retrieve the plane and bodies. At one point the father of the dead girl said "if she was a Kennedy you'd get her out of there." How true! Anyway after a month or so they started to find body parts down river. None of this made it into the book but the book is very good and well worth reading. The country store/gas station where they hold jam sessions really exists.
January 12, 2009
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 this book on the shelf, I knew immediately where Ron Rash got his title and the whole time I was reading this book, the song would filter through my mind. Oddly enough, I finished the book while up in Rabun County, Georgia, across the wild and scenic Chattooga River from Oconee (it may be Occonee-- I have to double check) County, South Carolina, where the book takes place.
This is not an easy book to read. The opening scene is the death of a twelve-year-old girl, who drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, impossible to recover by the usual means. The small town that perches at the riverside is soon forced into the national spotlight as a conflict arises between the girls parents, who want her body recovered, and environmentalists who want to protect the river from the permanent damage rescue attempts will cause, and prevent future damage to a river which, after a long and hard fight, bears the protection of federal preservation. Throw into this Maggie Glenn, a photographer from a Columbia SC newspaper, who grew up in the area (and has demons from her own past to fight). Maggie was involved in the battle that helped the river earn its "wild and scenic" status, and in this story, finds herself documenting the drama of the river, observing the people she grew up with, and face to face with a father she had a falling out with years before.
When I first started reading the book, it was the oddest feeling--the opening of Chapter 2 gives directions almost to our front door here in Rabun County:
Like I said, it's not an easy read, or it wasn't for me, because of the conflicts between the two camps-- those that want to help the family come to closure and bury their daughter so they can begin to heal, and those that want to protect a spot on earth from further damage from mankind.
I know which group I'd be in, but I came to understand a bit more the viewpoints of the other. I like a book that makes you dig in and explore your own deep eddies and currents. And I like a book that allows me to gather at the river, with the saints and the angels, once again.
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 this book on the shelf, I knew immediately where Ron Rash got his title and the whole time I was reading this book, the song would filter through my mind. Oddly enough, I finished the book while up in Rabun County, Georgia, across the wild and scenic Chattooga River from Oconee (it may be Occonee-- I have to double check) County, South Carolina, where the book takes place.
This is not an easy book to read. The opening scene is the death of a twelve-year-old girl, who drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, impossible to recover by the usual means. The small town that perches at the riverside is soon forced into the national spotlight as a conflict arises between the girls parents, who want her body recovered, and environmentalists who want to protect the river from the permanent damage rescue attempts will cause, and prevent future damage to a river which, after a long and hard fight, bears the protection of federal preservation. Throw into this Maggie Glenn, a photographer from a Columbia SC newspaper, who grew up in the area (and has demons from her own past to fight). Maggie was involved in the battle that helped the river earn its "wild and scenic" status, and in this story, finds herself documenting the drama of the river, observing the people she grew up with, and face to face with a father she had a falling out with years before.
When I first started reading the book, it was the oddest feeling--the opening of Chapter 2 gives directions almost to our front door here in Rabun County:
To get to Temassee, South Carolina, you leave the interstate at the last exit before the Georgia line. You turn right at the stop sign , and suddenly mountains leap up as though they'd been crouching along the four-lane waiting for the car to turn. You follow Highway 11 into Westminster and turn left on Highway 76, and all the while the mountains get bigger, narrowing the sky until the gap between clouds and earth disappears. The two-lane road coils upward like a black snake climbing a tree. Soon you notice fewer homes and mailboxes and more cornfields and barbed wire and woods....The homes, except for a few two story farmhouses, are small A-frames and trailers. Then there are no houses at all, only curves with wooden guard posts jutting from the roadside...On some of these curves you will see a cross made of wood or styrofoam, Often there is a vase or a Mason jar filled with flowers, sometimes a plastic angel or a pair of praying hands. Shrines that make the ascent like some Appalachian version of the stations of the cross.
Like I said, it's not an easy read, or it wasn't for me, because of the conflicts between the two camps-- those that want to help the family come to closure and bury their daughter so they can begin to heal, and those that want to protect a spot on earth from further damage from mankind.
I know which group I'd be in, but I came to understand a bit more the viewpoints of the other. I like a book that makes you dig in and explore your own deep eddies and currents. And I like a book that allows me to gather at the river, with the saints and the angels, once again.
December 9, 2021
Good read. Solid placement feel especially. Something about or with core of his personality characterizations doesn't meld with my nuance of depth. You know how these people are and believe, have principles FOR SURE. But somehow you don't get them, themselves? Maybe I an too base Yankee. This is much better than Selena for me.
December 23, 2021
My favorite Ron Rash book yet. His gentle treatment of the Carolina Mountain folk and the Tammassee River makes this a true gem. I highly recommend it.
My thanks to the late Mike Sullivan, aka Lawyer, and all the folks at the On the Southern Literary Trail group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books.
My thanks to the late Mike Sullivan, aka Lawyer, and all the folks at the On the Southern Literary Trail group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books.
September 23, 2014
I've read Nothing Gold Can Stay and loved it, so when I decided to read Saints at the River I was fully expecting it to be wonderful. His short stories humanize southern and in particular Appalachian stereotypes, and Saints at the River did do this through plot, but, unfortunately, failed at empathizing and humanizing with the characterization of Maggie, the first person narrator.
Maggie defines herself by the men in her life and has very little personality and opinions of her own--father, lover, ex-lover, brother shape her opinions and actions. She incessantly describes the physical attributes of the men around her, and also, for some reason when she's paired with Allen, a journalist, who is unfamiliar with the Appalachian town that she's from and where the story they're covering is taking place, she allows him to drive the entire time though she's the one who knows where they're going. Shouldn't she be driving? This wouldn't have bothered me so much if she had been a real person, had been characterized with empathy and as a human being, but she wasn't.
Part of the problem lies in the first person narration. I enjoy 1st person, but it requires the writer to get into the inner thoughts of the protagonist. Maggie instead narrates the thoughts and actions of the men around her, never reflecting on her own opinions, her own thoughts, her own humanity. Even her memories of childhood center on her father and brother and rarely drift to her mother, and then only cursory.
However, the story he tells about the conflict in the town is excellent, which is why I give this 2 stars instead of 1. I just wish he'd told it through a different lens.
I'm not sure if I'll read more by Rash. When I read Nothing Gold can Stay, I was amazed by his writing ability. Because of that, I'm willing to read another of his novels. But it will have to wait until the effects of Saints at the River have worn off some.
Maggie defines herself by the men in her life and has very little personality and opinions of her own--father, lover, ex-lover, brother shape her opinions and actions. She incessantly describes the physical attributes of the men around her, and also, for some reason when she's paired with Allen, a journalist, who is unfamiliar with the Appalachian town that she's from and where the story they're covering is taking place, she allows him to drive the entire time though she's the one who knows where they're going. Shouldn't she be driving? This wouldn't have bothered me so much if she had been a real person, had been characterized with empathy and as a human being, but she wasn't.
Part of the problem lies in the first person narration. I enjoy 1st person, but it requires the writer to get into the inner thoughts of the protagonist. Maggie instead narrates the thoughts and actions of the men around her, never reflecting on her own opinions, her own thoughts, her own humanity. Even her memories of childhood center on her father and brother and rarely drift to her mother, and then only cursory.
However, the story he tells about the conflict in the town is excellent, which is why I give this 2 stars instead of 1. I just wish he'd told it through a different lens.
I'm not sure if I'll read more by Rash. When I read Nothing Gold can Stay, I was amazed by his writing ability. Because of that, I'm willing to read another of his novels. But it will have to wait until the effects of Saints at the River have worn off some.
May 28, 2015
"It's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission" is the theme here.
So onto the Ron Rash checkoff list--
Appalachia, down-home folk, strong female lead, past sins hovering over, death. Yup, all here!
The title comes from a verse from a hymn, Shall we gather at the river?
A short read about a photographer who covers the story of a drowning in her hometown.
So onto the Ron Rash checkoff list--
Appalachia, down-home folk, strong female lead, past sins hovering over, death. Yup, all here!
The title comes from a verse from a hymn, Shall we gather at the river?
A short read about a photographer who covers the story of a drowning in her hometown.
January 6, 2011
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 in the last truly wild river in South Carolina. Her parents want to damn the river to pull her body out. Local environmentalists do not want the river changed, fearing any change will only empower the rapacious developers. A reporter, returning home perhaps to say hello to her estranged father, covers the story.
The book has its problems. The author makes one or two ham handed stabs at introducing southern culture. I found it highly unlikely that someone born and raised in the Carolinas would not be aware of vinegar based barbecue sauce, for example.
Still the book is well written, with conflicts that resolves in believable,emotionally powerful ways. It also has the great benefit of being short.
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 in the last truly wild river in South Carolina. Her parents want to damn the river to pull her body out. Local environmentalists do not want the river changed, fearing any change will only empower the rapacious developers. A reporter, returning home perhaps to say hello to her estranged father, covers the story.
The book has its problems. The author makes one or two ham handed stabs at introducing southern culture. I found it highly unlikely that someone born and raised in the Carolinas would not be aware of vinegar based barbecue sauce, for example.
Still the book is well written, with conflicts that resolves in believable,emotionally powerful ways. It also has the great benefit of being short.
March 20, 2013
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 Columbia), and it didn't even bother me that he mentioned Clemson so much [Go, Gamecocks!]. A recent discovery for me, I have enjoyed both books of Rash's that I have tried, and I plan to read some more, and recommend him to northerners, carpetbaggers, and southerners alike.
December 26, 2021
“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 God.”
This was my first introduction to the work of Ron Rash, and it did not disappoint.
When a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River in South Carolina, its sets up a fight and struggle between those on the side of recovering the girl’s body and those who believe that a rescue attempt may damage the river. The small town is put into a whirlwind of conflict and bitter struggle.
In less capable hands, I think that this story could have been over sensationalized, over-the-top, or less effective, but Rash presents this story in such a quietly powerful and unintrusive way that you feel for both sides. We see all through the lens of the main character Maggie Glenn, a photographer who has come back to the town she grew up in to help cover the story. Alongside her perspective, we are presented the concerns for both the parents of the girl who drowned as well as environmentalists who want to protect the river.
There are lovely descriptions and depictions of the Tamassee River and the surroundings and nature itself. The Tamassee in certain ways becomes a character in the novel as well, as it becomes the focal point through which many people hold so many views.
I also felt as though the characters were well drawn and realistic. Rash allows us to get to know not only the book’s central character, Maggie, but the important secondary characters (Luke, Allen) as well. There is a conflict between Maggie and her father--old wounds from the past that need to be dealt with--that serves to be a secondary conflict within the novel.
Overall, Saints at the River is a quietly powerful book, one that is very reflective. I look forward to reading more of Ron Rash in the future.
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.”
This was my first introduction to the work of Ron Rash, and it did not disappoint.
When a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River in South Carolina, its sets up a fight and struggle between those on the side of recovering the girl’s body and those who believe that a rescue attempt may damage the river. The small town is put into a whirlwind of conflict and bitter struggle.
In less capable hands, I think that this story could have been over sensationalized, over-the-top, or less effective, but Rash presents this story in such a quietly powerful and unintrusive way that you feel for both sides. We see all through the lens of the main character Maggie Glenn, a photographer who has come back to the town she grew up in to help cover the story. Alongside her perspective, we are presented the concerns for both the parents of the girl who drowned as well as environmentalists who want to protect the river.
There are lovely descriptions and depictions of the Tamassee River and the surroundings and nature itself. The Tamassee in certain ways becomes a character in the novel as well, as it becomes the focal point through which many people hold so many views.
I also felt as though the characters were well drawn and realistic. Rash allows us to get to know not only the book’s central character, Maggie, but the important secondary characters (Luke, Allen) as well. There is a conflict between Maggie and her father--old wounds from the past that need to be dealt with--that serves to be a secondary conflict within the novel.
Overall, Saints at the River is a quietly powerful book, one that is very reflective. I look forward to reading more of Ron Rash in the future.
July 30, 2017
Ron Rash gives us another special novel, set in more modern times (2002) in Tamassee, South Carolina. It is the classic mix of tragedy, tree huggers, the press and small town opinionitis.
The river is the star of this tale. The Tamassee River has National Wild and Scenic River status. According to Wickipedia, "National Wild and Scenic designation essentially vetoes the licensing of new hydropower projects on or directly affecting the river. It also provides very strong protection against bank and channel alterations that adversely affect river values, protects riverfront public lands from oil, gas and mineral development, and creates a federal reserved water right to protect flow-dependent values." Because her flow is uninterrupted by man made obstacles and there is a lot of fast, moving water, the river Tamassee has formed several hydraulics, places where the rocks, rushing water and time have formed pockets of cyclonic power. In the old days, you could break the suction of a hydraulic by tossing in a stick of dynamite. That is not an option now, with the status of the river.
Ruth Kowalsky, 12 years old, drowns in the river in front of her family, and her body is washed down stream to the Wolf Cliff Falls and caught up behind a strong hydraulic below the falls. Her parents, Ellen who dove the pool below the falls several times trying to rescue her daughter, and Herb (a non-swimmer), just want their daughter's body, so they can take her home. The Search and Rescue folks can't get through the hydraulic to retrieve the body without endangering their own lives. For weeks the battle goes on between tree huggers who oppose any channel alterations and are represented by Luke Miller and his followers who know the river and her powers intimately, and the folks who are backing the family and their desire to retrieve there daughters' remains. Add in an out of state manufacturer of portable dams who thinks he can tame the river. As time passes, many politicians and notables get involved on both sides, including several state politicians. The press is represented early on by Allen Hemphill, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent with heavy personal baggage, and Maggie Glenn, a Tamassee local, as photographer. Both work for for The Messenger in Columbia, SC. And of course national press and some TV come on board by week five. A local church is also heavily represented, more neutral in flavor.
This is a heart wringing novel. The arguments for both sides are logical. You cannot help but place yourself in the hearts of the parents, the Search and Rescue workers, and even see the sense of the ecologists. It is a book you will find hard to put down. I will want to read this again in a few months to find the more subtle flavors Ron Rash gives us.
The river is the star of this tale. The Tamassee River has National Wild and Scenic River status. According to Wickipedia, "National Wild and Scenic designation essentially vetoes the licensing of new hydropower projects on or directly affecting the river. It also provides very strong protection against bank and channel alterations that adversely affect river values, protects riverfront public lands from oil, gas and mineral development, and creates a federal reserved water right to protect flow-dependent values." Because her flow is uninterrupted by man made obstacles and there is a lot of fast, moving water, the river Tamassee has formed several hydraulics, places where the rocks, rushing water and time have formed pockets of cyclonic power. In the old days, you could break the suction of a hydraulic by tossing in a stick of dynamite. That is not an option now, with the status of the river.
Ruth Kowalsky, 12 years old, drowns in the river in front of her family, and her body is washed down stream to the Wolf Cliff Falls and caught up behind a strong hydraulic below the falls. Her parents, Ellen who dove the pool below the falls several times trying to rescue her daughter, and Herb (a non-swimmer), just want their daughter's body, so they can take her home. The Search and Rescue folks can't get through the hydraulic to retrieve the body without endangering their own lives. For weeks the battle goes on between tree huggers who oppose any channel alterations and are represented by Luke Miller and his followers who know the river and her powers intimately, and the folks who are backing the family and their desire to retrieve there daughters' remains. Add in an out of state manufacturer of portable dams who thinks he can tame the river. As time passes, many politicians and notables get involved on both sides, including several state politicians. The press is represented early on by Allen Hemphill, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent with heavy personal baggage, and Maggie Glenn, a Tamassee local, as photographer. Both work for for The Messenger in Columbia, SC. And of course national press and some TV come on board by week five. A local church is also heavily represented, more neutral in flavor.
This is a heart wringing novel. The arguments for both sides are logical. You cannot help but place yourself in the hearts of the parents, the Search and Rescue workers, and even see the sense of the ecologists. It is a book you will find hard to put down. I will want to read this again in a few months to find the more subtle flavors Ron Rash gives us.
September 12, 2010
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 she was supposed to feel vulnerable, the way Rash wrote about her seemed to break the scene and not allow me to connect with Maggie. She seemed cold in those moment and unattached, emotions I think of a guy portraying in those moments. Writing as the opposite sex is a challenge and really teaches you to be in tune with how that gender handles different things and situations. Saints at the River, a novel about a little girl drowning in the river where her body is stuck between rocks and the townspeople are debating whether to remove her body and disrupt nature or leave her alone,taught me how writing as the opposite sex can be challenging and, if not done correctly, can make the reader detach from the story and question the characters authenticity.
February 8, 2013
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.
With all that said it was an easy read, finished it in 2 days. Overall, I give this one a C.
With all that said it was an easy read, finished it in 2 days. Overall, I give this one a C.
September 11, 2017
This book really struck me more than I thought . Although I am from the south , not from this particular region . I have spent a lot of time around rivers as my husband is into kayaking so many of the things in the book are things I already knew . This is my first novel by Rash and I was not disappointed . I actually purchased this book from a bookstore in Sylva,NC from where the author supports and was an instructor at the nearby college. Great read!
June 4, 2017
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 4
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 4
Overall rating: 4
Notes
Favorite quotes: "I'm a lot less sure about most things than I once was."
Writing: 4
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 4
Overall rating: 4
Notes
Favorite quotes: "I'm a lot less sure about most things than I once was."
November 8, 2020
Beautifully written story.
Ron Rash is an important Southern voice. His descriptions of landscapes are rich and vivid and his stories full of complex characters and relationships.
Ron Rash is an important Southern voice. His descriptions of landscapes are rich and vivid and his stories full of complex characters and relationships.
April 26, 2020
Ron Rash has more writing talent on one page than many writers carry through an entire novel. This story was poignant and realistic, carefully crafted to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.
August 12, 2011
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 moderately compelling compared to Serena which was superb cover to cover. Rash clearly has a deep connection with the region (West Virginia) and even delves into some of the prejudices many of his readers will have regarding this area. That was an interesting and unique concept to me, and I liked how he approached this topic/idea, but he didn’t let it dominate the story or message of the book. He just planted a small seed and I respected and enjoyed that. Overall, this is a good book and should be considered if the story calls your name. It is a quick read for most (except of course me, the slowest reader on the face of the planet).
September 29, 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! So much so that I read it in 3 days.
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 dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eight-year-old newspaper photographer who grew up in the town and has been sent to document the incident. Since leaving home almost ten years ago, Maggie has done her best to avoid her father, but now, as the town's conflict opens old wounds, she finds herself revisiting the past she's fought so hard to leave behind.
(less)
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 dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eight-year-old newspaper photographer who grew up in the town and has been sent to document the incident. Since leaving home almost ten years ago, Maggie has done her best to avoid her father, but now, as the town's conflict opens old wounds, she finds herself revisiting the past she's fought so hard to leave behind.
(less)
January 15, 2016
Always a happy day when you discover a great writer who is new to you. Looking forward to reading many more of Ron Rash's novels and short stories!
December 17, 2019
It was during Easter break when twelve-year-old Ruth Kowalsky lost her life to the Tamassee River. One minute Ruth’s wading to the river’s middle to place one foot on the South Carolina side and the other on the Georgia side and the next minute she’s pulled downstream—her submerged body forever trapped in a deep eddy. Soon, Ruth’s drowning becomes both a local tragedy and the center of an environmental debate with long-reaching political ties. Caught in the middle is photographer Maggie Glenn who returns to her Oconee County hometown to cover this story for her newspaper. Maggie must not only choose between grieving out-of-towners and her beloved river, but she must also confront events from her past that has driven a deep chasm between her and her estranged father.
Ron Rash provides a compelling story and serves up the question, “Should human life take precedence over environmental sanctity?” When I came upon this book, I found myself a bit skeptical of the story’s premise. How can you build a meaningful and suspenseful story around environmental activists waging war on grieving parents without making either side look unfeeling or unsympathetic? But I had unfairly underestimated Mr. Rash who takes great care in presenting both sides of this debate and does so with passion, honesty, and neutrality. He gives equal time to both positions and allows his reader to make up his or her own mind without fear of judgement or reprisal…unlike our protagonist, Maggie, who must bear and witness the full brunt of her choice. Although the reader doesn’t get a chance to know young Ruth Kowalsky, her tragic death serves as a catalyst to understanding the motivations of her father, Herb, as well as the actions of Maggie’s own father during her childhood. Both men are alike in their desperate search for redemption and closure.
Although I didn’t quite connect with Maggie and had little interest in her unfortunate and turbulent backstory, I was drawn to the Kowalsky’s plight and to the small South Carolina town caught in the middle of a bitter legal battle to protect its most precious natural resource. "Saints at the River" is a cautionary tale of political influence, government overreach, and the delicate balance between life and the law. Although there are many interesting characters in this book, the central figure is undoubtedly the Tamassee River. It is a power onto itself and its water courses through this story like blood through veins. It is to be admired, respected, protected, and—most importantly—never underestimated as history professor Douglas Brinkley once wrote, “Thus did nature triumph over man’s attempt to conquer it. Nature always wins.”
Ron Rash provides a compelling story and serves up the question, “Should human life take precedence over environmental sanctity?” When I came upon this book, I found myself a bit skeptical of the story’s premise. How can you build a meaningful and suspenseful story around environmental activists waging war on grieving parents without making either side look unfeeling or unsympathetic? But I had unfairly underestimated Mr. Rash who takes great care in presenting both sides of this debate and does so with passion, honesty, and neutrality. He gives equal time to both positions and allows his reader to make up his or her own mind without fear of judgement or reprisal…unlike our protagonist, Maggie, who must bear and witness the full brunt of her choice. Although the reader doesn’t get a chance to know young Ruth Kowalsky, her tragic death serves as a catalyst to understanding the motivations of her father, Herb, as well as the actions of Maggie’s own father during her childhood. Both men are alike in their desperate search for redemption and closure.
Although I didn’t quite connect with Maggie and had little interest in her unfortunate and turbulent backstory, I was drawn to the Kowalsky’s plight and to the small South Carolina town caught in the middle of a bitter legal battle to protect its most precious natural resource. "Saints at the River" is a cautionary tale of political influence, government overreach, and the delicate balance between life and the law. Although there are many interesting characters in this book, the central figure is undoubtedly the Tamassee River. It is a power onto itself and its water courses through this story like blood through veins. It is to be admired, respected, protected, and—most importantly—never underestimated as history professor Douglas Brinkley once wrote, “Thus did nature triumph over man’s attempt to conquer it. Nature always wins.”
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