On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

Begin your discussion of Above the Waterfall, the latest novel by Ron Rash, here.

Some books translate especially well to audio versions, but I would suggest reading this in hard copy instead. One of the two main characters writes poetry as journal entries. Ron Rash has used journal entries before to give us insights into his characters, and typically listening to the words is no different then reading them visually.

This is different. The words of the poems are scattered across the book pages with lots of white space playing a role in their visual placement. There are even little sinuous scribbles that represent creeks and streams.

Beyond that, the pilgrims introduce words that are not to be found in a dictionary anywhere. Granted, I am not a poetry reader, but he uses gorgeous alliterations to make up word-sounds. There is probably a name for this device, and all I know is that I read the journal entries over and over again. With an audiobook, you do not have the geography of pages, and turning back to reread is extremely difficult.

Because the book is half poetry, do not be expecting as much thrilled or action as his other novels contain. I loved this book, but not for the usual reasons.

PS. There are no pilgrims in the story!!! Siri is typing for me and apparently she has Thanksgiving on her mind!!!

I agree LeAnne. Josh says I like O Henry moments in books. I like shock! Nothing shocking but still a "goodread". Rash has earned the right to write something less shocking with his poetry mixed in. You see this all the time with musicians. They get a couple of hit albums out that are successful and it allows them to be more experimental. I think Rash was being more experimental.

Becky's lyrical journal entries make me want to lie down in the woods and just listen and feel. The contrast with the sheriff's deputies preparing for the meth bust make me despair of humankind.

Katherine, the microwave scene is incredibly taut. Tough stuff.

LeAnne wrote: "PS. There are no pilgrims in the story!!! Siri is typing for me and apparently she has Thanksgiving on her mind!!!"

Despite its lack of pilgrims, I'm still looking forward to reading this.

Question: have any of you read this on an e-reader? I usually do, but want to make sure I get the proper visual layout of the poems that LeAnne describes. I will buy a hard copy if I need to.

And as usual with Rash I just loved his descriptions of everything.

Also, in the jacket flap blurb, I was taken with the phrase "Echoing the lapsarian beauty of William Faulkner..." I had to look up lapsarian - pertaining to the fall of man from innocence, especially the role of women in that fall. That sure gave me something to think about as I read.

Katherine, nice point! When he described those tranquil, leafy coves strewn with needles and meth paraphernalia, it felt precisely like innocence was lost. He makes me feel, not just see scenes.

Hey y'all, it's not even November yet. No spoilers please!

Darn. You already know about the dern Pilgrims, too. Sorry! :)

That's right. I'll get over the pilgrims, just don't give away the scene where they introduce meth to the native peoples. Kai thanx bye.

Doug, I read this as a download from the library, and the poetry was wafting all over the pages in some parts. I'd have to compare it to a hard copy to know if it's the same, but I don't know if it would read any differently if not.
Laura, good point about Rash earning the right to be experimental. The poetry and journal entries threw me off, juxtaposed as they were with the sheriff and his duties, but maybe that's what Rash intended. All types of people up there in those mountains, good and bad, sensitive and hard-nosed.

Thanks for the info Diane. I decided on the hard copy & it's due to arrive tomorrow. Looking forward to it. I usually like alternating storylines and am curious about the poetry..

You know, of all his books of poetry, short stories, and novels, this is the one he said he did for his children. I read an interview excerpt somewhere where he felt that this represented his most hopeful and optimistic view of the world. Perhaps because he is both a poet and a story teller, this work defines him - if words are ever able to do so - best.

I still like the novels Serena, Eden, and Straight better than this - but Im just a total lay-down for his writing. And I guess that means I like poetry - who knew??!!

Leanne, I've never been big on poetry, but I love Ron Rash's poems. I hear you.

I may pick up a used copy of one of his poetry collections. Will report back on that, Tina! Do you have recommendations?

Leanne - At the Ron Rash reading I went to they pulled out one of his poetry books called WAKING published in 2011. I love it ! I too love his poetry and can't wait for his anthology of poetry to be released here soon !

In my Above the Waterfall book he signed : Dawn - Keep seeking the Wonder - Ron Rash

I was so incredibly in awe of this man . I love his writing so very much . His writing rolls off your tongue just as smoothly as his poetry in some descriptions . This book is just not like his other books as he said when he introduced it . He said he wanted it to be different and a good difference it is to me . It does show the changes in people when aging and the simplicity and innocence you lose as you age . Children have and carry that wonder around with them as they learn and live . If adults could just keep things more simple and stay closer to nature as is natural and appreciate the wonder in the world , then things may not be as bad as they are now . Things move too fast . People want too much. If you could just stand above it all and watch for awhile you could really see objectively what problems we need to overcome to get back onto the right path in our lives again .

Seek the wonder of the world and its people not greed. Love thy neighbor . See how nature works together . Watch and learn from your children !

~ Dawn

LeAnne wrote: "Some books translate especially well to audio versions, but I would suggest reading this in hard copy instead. One of the two main characters writes poetry as journal entries. Ron Rash has used jou..."

Shame on me. I did listen to the audio version of this. It had two narrators, one who read Becky's poetic sections and another who read the Les's side of the story. Fortunately I also have an ARC that I was able to refer to if things got confusing.

Dawn, what beautiful sentiments you've expressed here! Glad to find another friend who feels Rash's words like I do.

Tom, how was the audio for Becky's part? It was so pretty scattered across the page!

LeAnne wrote: "Dawn, what beautiful sentiments you've expressed here! Glad to find another friend who feels Rash's words like I do.

Tom, how was the audio for Becky's part? It was so pretty scattered across the..."

I thought it was pretty good. It was obvious that it was paced differently but I couldn't tell that it was supposed to sound like

...s
...............n
.....a
........k
.............e
 doc..............tor

LeAnne wrote: "I may pick up a used copy of one of his poetry collections. Will report back on that, Tina! Do you have recommendations?"

Try Eureka Mill. Most of the poems I've read by him were in a Ron Rash Reader I won in a giveaway.

This is my first experience reading Rash and I'm enjoying it. I like the alternating visions of Les and Becky and Becky's poetic view of the world. I'll be back as I read more.

Tina, just added it - thanks!!

Sue, you should read Serena by Ron Rash - beautiful, sociopathic main character juxtaposed against lyrical mountain setting and then slash and burn landscape. Majesty and devastation side by side - and a creeeeepy story line :)

LeAnne, I will be reading more of Rash. I'm half way through this book now and like it more and more. Rash is a prose master. And he so obviously loves his part of the world. Personally, I'm glad this is a less violent book as I am enjoying the power of the words. But I will eventually read Serena.
And I will check out his poetry too.

Sue wrote: "LeAnne, I will be reading more of Rash. I'm half way through this book now and like it more and more. Rash is a prose master. And he so obviously loves his part of the world. Personally, I'm glad t..."

I'm only a quarter in, but I'm enjoying it too. I've read two of his previous novels (Serena and The world Made Straight), but this feels as different from them as they were from each other. Other than the prose maybe, but it's even more lush and experimental here. Stylistically, it feels totally different.

Totally agree with experimental part and he deserves that right as a writer with so many published works.

Laura wrote: "Totally agree with experimental part and he deserves that right as a writer with so many published works."

It's arty as hell, much artier than the earlier novels I've read, yet still accessible. The more I read, the more I like it. I think I might actually be falling in love with it.

The last book festival (fall 2014) we went to, Rash had the book completely done and pulled it from his publisher. He said it was "trash", don't quote me on that being a direct quote. I would like to know what changed.

Laura wrote: "The last book festival (fall 2014) we went to, Rash had the book completely done and pulled it from his publisher.
This is pretty interesting. Last October, I hosted a night-time scavenger hunt out in my wooded backyard based on Serena. While setting up clues based on moonshine, horehound candy, panther in my woods, etc, I also reached out to Ron Rash to set up an author chat. He was up for it in spades, and in thanks, I mailed him a box w some VERY nice red wine, a can of New Orleans coffee decorated with a "Paris Green" label, one of my husband's old socks filled with marbles, black licorice, and some raw, lowgrade gemstones.

He was tickled to receive the care package, and we started corresponding a bit. I usually will send my author-chat guys a little list of details about the ladies in the club - can you imagine talking to a room of people you can not see and know nothing about? I mentioned that another gal and I both had boys with autism and also that one of our members was a handler for cadaver dogs.

We dressed in costumes for the scavenger hunt, and when we dialed him up, I told him so. And said, "Now that you are on the phone with a room full of adoring females, all in strange attire, we have one important first question."

"Ron?" I asked huskily, "what are you wearing?"

LOL!! We died laughint and he ended up staying on the phone with us for ages. He also took it upon himself to announce which gal was on which team, and hilariously included the little tidbits I'd emailed to him. "Lynn, since you are the only natural blonde in the group, you will be the leader for the Serena Team.." He was hilarious!

Long, long story short, he was in the process - during our meeting - of adding Becky to the story line. Did you notice the line in the beginning, where he describes that because she spoke so little, the other rangers initially thought she was autistic? And because she did not WANT to communicate with others, sometimes she wished she really did have autism. We think he may have been influenced by my friend, Karin, and me with what we said about autism to him.

He also ended up contacting me a couple weeks afterward and asked if he could call my buddy, Denise, with the cadaver dogs. He had decided to add something about those type dogs into the book and wondered if she could help him with info. If you'll recall, when he mentions a law enforcement guy who ends up quitting, Les says that he knows a lady who handles cadaver dogs. She tells him that after a certain amount of years, they have to retire the dogs as they get too depressed around so much death.

Anyway, maybe the autism thing and dogs have ZERO to do with the time we spent in correspondence and chatting by phone. But part of the reason I liked Becky so much was that I felt like a couple of her molecules may have come from the women who breathed heavily on the phone with him, asking what he had on. <3

LeAnne
That is amazing! I think you all could have definitely influenced him. Thank you for sharing that. That's really remarkable!!!! I found the cadaver dogs to be an interesting part of the story.

Laura wrote: "LeAnne
That is amazing! I think you all could have definitely influenced him. Thank you for sharing that. That's really remarkable!!!! I found the cadaver dogs to be an interesting part of the story."
The timing of it was just incredibly cool - he told us that night that he was creating a new character and rewriting the book. I had told him that my friend Karin is fluent in ASL (American Sigh Language) because of her son, and she was my boy's teacher when he was in preschool. Autism was our link, and she is the one who recruited me to book club.

Anyway, it really impressed me that he did the research with Denise about the cadaver dogs just for one or two measly sentences in the book. I just read a book where the author mentioned a parasitic twin that was of the opposite gender of the host twin. Hello - it is a biological impossibility for one egg to split into two genders - totally blew my respect. Writers who research the little details impress me.

Very interesting Leanne! I was halfway into the ebook when it expired and returned to the library. So, I wait in line again to finish it. Too soon to cast a vote on this one.

Thanks, Leanne, that was a great treat sharing your book club chat with Ron Rash. I am also really impressed when an author takes the time and effort to get things right. One false note can ruin an entire book for me. I'm not surprised that he takes the trouble though, he seems to care a lot about his readers.

That's a bummer Tina!

Ugh, Tina! Its happened to me too.

Diane, yes, he does seem to genuinely feel warmth for his readers. Im sure many writers feel this way, but he was SO sweet w us. I never expected him to use 15 silly little descriptions assigning those teams, but as the ladies had no idea Id shared details about them, they were really touched by him. "Edy, I know you're a professional chef as well as an excellent mother to three kids. Id say you should be on the Rachel team. She would like you."

What kind of famous author does that? Love him.

I love your story, LeAnne. It only adds to my respect for Mr Rash.

I've finished the book now and it was a wonderful experience--such complex characters combined with the writing. I found myself being stopped by short sentences that just were so beautiful or which captured a moment in nature so perfectly.

Morning, folks. I'm enjoying following the discussion on Rash's latest novel. This is definitely a change in style from his previous works and it works! I've also finished the novel in a whirlwind read. The review is in the works. It's also nice to see those interested in Rash's poetry. And it IS very evident in Above the Waterfall.

As Laura said, the publication of this novel was delayed. It was originally set for release in March of this year. Rash did scrap it. And what we have before is is a complete re-write. I dearly would like to have seen what Rash called trash, because I don't think he's capable of writing anything of that ilk.

Ron Rash's reputation as a writer continues to grow. The first volume of literary criticism of his works has appeared. It is Understanding Ron Rash by John Lang published by the University of South Carolina Press. This is available as an e-book and in print.

The big news is The Ron Rash Reader also published by the University of South Carolina Press. This contains sixty of Rash's writings, including previously unpublished material, non-fiction, poetry, short stories, and novel extracts. It is edited by Randall Wilhelm. The hardback carries a hefty price. $54.95. It is available in paperback for $24.95. Wilhelm has provided extensive literary criticism in this new novel.

Perhaps bigger news is this. HOWEVER, I'm seeking confirmation. My favorite Indie Seller, Jake Reiss, owner of the Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, Alabama, has told me that Ron Rash will soon be visiting in Homewood again with a book of his COLLECTED POETRY. No date has been set. I just hope that Jake is correct and is not referring to the Ron Rash Reader. I'll keep y'all updated as I get further information.

That is all...

Tonight's movie will be "The World Made Straight." *AHEM*

Mike, thanks for the scoop! Watch for the dogs in "World Made Straight" tonight - they're actual Plotts!

The further I got into Above the Waterfall the more I loved it. It was more poetic than two other two novels by Ron Rash that I read. In addition to being a good story with lovely writing, it was a reminder that we should stop, open our eyes, and really observe the beautiful natural world around us.

The main characters were complicated, traumatized but basically good people. The mystery took a back seat to the characters' stories of guilt and redemption.

LeAnne, your story about Ron Rash is a real hoot!

Connie, I like your perspective on this latest book. And am still smiling to know Ron Rash has one of my husband's old black socks, filled with marbles. I told him that if he were Dobby, the house elf, it might set him free.

Connie wrote: "The mystery took a back seat to the characters' stories of guilt and redemption."

Definitely, Connie. When the mystery was revealed, I had a moment where I felt a bit let down and though maybe this was going to end up just being a 3 star novel for me. I thought "really, is that all?" But it went back to being a 4 or 5 star read for me again when I finished it this morning and Rash's bigger themes of guilt, redemption and restitution were resolved so beautifully at the end.

I think it's important to approach this book on its own merit, and not expect it to be another "Serena".

LeAnne - Thank you so much for sharing your AMAZING experience with Ron Rash and your Book Club members ! I think you are my new idol ! YOU ROCK !!!! I want to follow you around a book festival all day or tour one for a week with you ! You are ferociously fearless !

When I went to the book signing for Above The Waterfall , I sat on the front row and I know the stars in my eyes were blinding all who were around me ! I dwelled on his every word . At one point he mentioned a vocabulary word that he thought others may not know " murmuration " ! It is a word reminder of one of my favorite poets and a theme he used in his first two poetry books memorializing the Civil Rights
Martyrs on the Memorial in Montgomery Alabama ! His name was Jake Adam York . I Met him in one of my last summer school classes in graduate school . The memory was warm for me because I was at such a great place in my life then . I was in graduate school and so full of hope . His poetry left our class with hope just as I wrote my essay for the class about his visit : He Signed My Book " In Hope " !
I knew the word murmuration had a double meaning : the pattern of flight of a large group of black starlings flushed together and a murmur spreading as in a sound or rumor spreading like fire !

Now knowing my emotional status of the thought of hope being brought back into my future again when I heard that word's connection plus how star struck I was with Ron Rash , you will understand my terrible faux pas. I actually said my thoughts out loud and he heard me and asked me about my interruption ! I said , the word meaning loudly and then the dual meaning and learned it from poet Jake Adam York ! His reply was classic , " Yes , I think I have heard of him . Isn't he dead ? " HA! The owner , Richard Howorth said no and to continue . I felt like I was just punished by the teacher in a classroom ! HA!

Later , during question time , I tried to redeem myself by asking a good question . I wanted to know if he was ever going to publish a collection of all of his poetry . So I raised my hand and stuttered until Richard said , " Is there a question in there somewhere ? " Thank goodness , after that a man asked my question for me !

The next book signing I went to , I had to redeem myself with Richard and he ended up laughing at me , but I was a mess . I love Ron Rash ! I have never been so nervous . I just don't get out much . I stay in my world of books and photographs and writings and everyday routines caring for my Mama and Daddy and lately with Daddy's Cancer diagnosis upgraded I have really lost touch with people . I had forgotten how much I needed my Goodreads friends and people in general . You think you do not need or have time for yourself . But , as my Daddy said to me recently , you must take care of yourself or you cannot care for anyone else.

So I learned so very much from Ron Rash as a person and as a writer . He is uniquely special . LeAnne , you are too for having the self confidence and supportive friendships and family structure to allow you to be " YOU" ! You have become the you that God has meant for you to be by making the right choices and nurturing yourself by surrounding yourself with the right people .

I was once on this hopeful path and life happened and I have allowed myself to turn away and lose all supportive friendships and family help in seeing I chose people in my life that I nurtured but they were not the type of people that gave back in the same way .

I have learned a crucial life lesson : surround yourself with the type of people you would like to seriously help influence and encourage you in positive ways. It may be only one person or two but make sure they are the right people in your life . Don't do all the work in a relationship . Find others that give back just as you too .

Thank you LeAnne for your Inspiration !
Dawn