Saints at the River: A Novel [Hardcover]

Ron Rash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2004

A major new Southern voice emerges in this novel about a town divided by the aftermath of a tragic accident-and the woman caught in the middle

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. Meanwhile, the reporter who's accompanied her to cover the story turns out to have a painful past of his own, and one that might stand in the way of their romance.
Drawing on the same lyrical prose and strong sense of place that distinguished his award-winning first novel, One Foot in Eden, 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. Saints at the River confirms the arrival of one of today's most gifted storytellers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When the 12-year-old daughter of a wealthy banker drowns in South Carolina's Tamassee River, her death sets off an emotionally charged battle between the grieving parents, who want to put up a dam to recover her body, and the local environmentalists, who will risk everything to defend the pristine state of their river. Rash pens his novel in clear, unadorned prose appropriate to its ripped-from-the-headlines premise; only the lyrical opening passage, which recounts the girl's death, reflects his skill as a poet (Among the Believers; Raising the Dead). But the book is rich with nuance, mostly because Rash selects Maggie Glenn as his first-person narrator. A Tamassee native who now works as a news photographer in the state capital, Columbia, Maggie has deep ties to the town, but she's detached from the main fray. As a result, her news angles and her romantic attachments keep shifting. Maggie's rage against her father isn't sufficiently explored to carry the weight it bears in the plot, but Rash compensates for this weakness by creating detailed, highly particular characters. A professor of Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University and author of a previous Southern novel, One Foot in Eden, Rash clearly knows the people and places he writes about, and that authenticity pays off in a conclusion that packs an unexpected and powerful punch.
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From Booklist

In his second novel set in Appalachia, poet Rash blends a classic environmental struggle with a budding romance. A young girl drowns in South Carolina's Tamassee River, her body lodged in a deep eddy, making it impossible to retrieve except by damming the river upstream. Backed by the Wild and Scenic River Act, environmentalists protest loudly. Photographer Maggie Glenn, who grew up in Tamassee, is assigned by her paper to cover the story, along with reporter Allen Hemphill, a Pulitzer finalist whose work Maggie admires. Locals objecting to precedents that would allow future alterations to the pristine river are pitted against the drowned girl's parents, who make an impassioned plea for the recovery of her remains. At the same time, Maggie and Allen's relationship gradually shifts from professional to romantic, as he begins to put aside memories of the deaths of his wife and daughter. Appalachian dialects and Rash's lyrical description of this small Appalachian town create a strong sense of place, adding to his well-spoken plea against the devastation caused by damming the nation's rivers. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (August 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805074872
• ISBN-13: 978-0805074871
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ron Rash is the author of the novels One Foot in Eden and Saints at the River, as well as three collections of poetry and two of short stories. He teaches at Western Carolina State University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not just for Southern readers, July 21, 2004

By 

Simon Crowe (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saints at the River: A Novel (Hardcover)

SAINTS AT THE RIVER is the second novel by Ron Rash. The action of the plot concerns the death of a young girl in the Tamassee River, which is located in Oconee County, SC and protected by federal law. The girl's body becomes trapped in the dangerous river and the small community around the river becomes a flashpoint for a confrontation between environmentalists and the grieving parents.

Maggie, a newspaper photographer, returns to the town where she grew up to cover the story. She soon becomes entangled in old relationships with her dying father (towards whom she feels much unresolved anger) and the brooding Luke (an ex-lover and militant environmentalist). To oversimplify, this novel is sort of a "You can't go home again or can you" story. Maggie's attitude towards her family and the river evolves over the course of the novel and Rash wisely leaves her conflicting web of emotions unresolved after her photograph of the grieving father changes the course of the story.

I highly recommend this book with its economically drawn yet vivid characters and love of place. Rash's men tend to be too sensitive by half, but that's a minor distraction. Ron Rash is a name all readers of new fiction should watch for.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the way it is ...., August 24, 2004

By 

Erdajean - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saints at the River: A Novel (Hardcover)

Never a wasted word in the prose of poet Ron Rash, who sets the reader down at the heart of this deeply-connected Southern mountain community -- at the riverside, in the midst of a double tragedy and an environmental fight that no outsider is going to win. One wishes he had told us more, through his expatriate female narrator, about why she had put so many miles between her current life and this idyllic country and her own good people, but he's never going to tell too much about anything. Mr. Rash is mountain to the core,a spare and totally authentic voice, and that's just the way it is.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whose Side Would You Be On???..., August 27, 2006

By 

Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Summerville, SC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saints at the River: A Novel (Paperback)

This was a really good book. I must admit that I didn't like it as much as his first novel, 'One Foot In Eden', but it was good nonetheless. As I read this story I kept asking myself whose side I would be on, and just when I thought my mind was made up, the other side made a very good point, and a very sad one.

12 year-old Ruth Kowalsky drowned in the Tamassee River during a family outing, a river that is protected by the Wild and Scenic River Act. This means that nothing can be done to this river to change or alter it in ANY way. Mr. and Mrs. Kowalsky want to retrieve their daughter's body, but because it lies in a dangerous part of the river known as a hydraulic, divers can't simply go in and get it. A temporary dam needs to be built to get her out. And this dam violates the Scenic River Act.

Maggie, a photographer from the area who now lives in Columbia, has been sent to her hometown with reporter Allen Hemphill to cover the growing problem. The town and the parents are at odds when it comes to retrieving Ruth. The town says no, she belongs to the river now, and are not willing to break the law to get her out, while the parents just want their daughters body so they can give her a proper burial back home. Seems pretty cut and dry huh? I had no doubt who's side I was on at the beginning of this book. But by the end my opinion had changed.

Mr. Rash is an exceptional writer. He makes you feel like you're right there on that river with everyone else. He makes everyone involved feel so real, like they're distant relatives of ours. Just as I recommended his first book, I absolutely recommend this one as well. Mr. Rash is a very talented author who definitely should not be missed. I can't wait for his next novel.