Serena

The novel “Serena” received such critical acclaim when it came out in 2008 that I had always wanted to read it. Authors such as Lee Smith called it a “flat-out masterpiece – mythic, terrifying and beautiful.” Anna Quindlen said that it’s “a new classic in the category of love gone terribly wrong.” And Pat Conroy wrote that “Serena” catapults Ron Rash “to the front ranks of the best American novelists.”

Those are some pretty strong statements, which caught my attention, including the fact that it’s being made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper among others. (The movie’s U.S. release date remains to be determined apparently, but if you’re overseas in Russia it looks to be coming out in time for Halloween — or so says IMDB.com.)

So I finally pounced on the novel “Serena,” but it’s not really meant as a fast read. I had to absorb its Appalachian story and atmosphere slowly like fine wine. It’s set in 1929 at the dawn of the Great Depression, about newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton who are determined to make a timber empire in the North Carolina mountains and wilderness. Their greed and lust for power will lead them to stop at nothing to get their way, including killing or vanquishing all those who fall out of their favor, and standing in the way of governmental plans for a national park. Together they make a formidable duo, inseparable in word and deed, resolute in their intense marriage and plans for an empire.

But the pair starts to unravel when Serena learns she will never be able to bear a child and begins to suspect that George is trying to protect an illegitimate child he fathered before he met her. The ending is a reckoning that’s both hard to believe and not hard to believe — with such nefarious characters. Still, you can’t turn away.

Ron Rash’s writing is exquisitely vivid and visual in its depiction of the mountainous landscape, the timber camp, and the characters that inhabit it. Serena is an anti-hero you wouldn’t want to cross paths with. It’s amazing that Jennifer Lawrence will go from playing Katniss in “The Hunger Games” to the cruelness of Serena in this. But both become very powerful.

I can see why the novel garnered such acclaim. Rash’s writing reminded me a bit of Charles Frazier’s — (“Cold Mountain”) because of its Appalachian landscape — mixed perhaps with a dose of Cormac McCarthy’s because of its darkness and impending violence. I would read Rash again, perhaps I will pick up his more recent novel “The Cove.” He’s definitely an immense talent, an expert on all things Appalachia, who I’ll plan to keep tabs on in the future.

Whenever the movie “Serena” comes out, you’ll need to check the wooded landscape, because according to IMDB a portion of it was filmed in the Czech Republic; so much for Appalachia! Also look for its stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, to team up once again (for their third time), in “American Hustle” due out around Christmas.