Serena - Ron Rash

The North Carolina mountains are the setting for an epic battle of greed, commerce and self-interest on a level of Paul Thomas Anderson’s recent film ‘There Will Be Blood’, only in the case of Ron Rash’s novel it’s timber rather than oil that is the natural resource in question. Essentially though it’s land that lies at the heart of the issue, whether to exploit it for its natural resources or give it up to the government authorities who claim they want to convert it into national park, and it’s in the struggle that develops for the ownership of this valuable natural resource that, for better or worse, the spirit of American free-enterprise is defined – boundless ambition, naked greed and a high cost paid for in blood.

Interestingly, while the men are certainly the main players in the titanic struggle that erupts here between big business and government, it’s the women behind the scenes who call the shots, driven by their own personal agendas. Pemberton, the owner of the timber empire, is certainly cold and ruthless, but it’s his dealings with two women that determine the direction in which he channels his efforts. Rash sets this up brilliantly in the opening chapter of the book, setting the scene and the tone for what is to follow. On the one hand there is Rachel, a young 16 year-old woman working in a serving capacity for Pemberton, pregnant with his child, cast aside in favour of a whirlwind marriage to a unique and remarkable woman from Boston society. When Serena places the knife into the hand of her new husband to settle the matter with Rachel’s outraged father at the train station, it a defining moment in how matters are to be settled henceforth.

Serena is an extraordinary character, not particularly likeable, but the perfect embodiment of all the characteristics that are essential to succeed in the climate of the Depression-hit 1920s America – an innate sense of self-preservation maintained through a cold, unflinching certainty and ruthless efficiency. Ron Rash takes a big risk in making his main character thoroughly detestable from a female perspective (though perhaps intentionally dangerously appealing from a male perspective) – which a lot of readers are not going to like – but the novel is well-balanced and achieves a period authenticity for the dialogue and behaviours across all the social and political classes, the author expressively drawing from the harshness of the locations and even from the wildlife into establishing and defining characterisation. A fine piece of writing.