Introduction : portrait of an American writer -- Eureka Mill, or trailing family trajectories -- Finding one's voice in Among the Believers" -- Raising the dead : the threat of oblivion -- Amy's men, or wounded masculinity in One foot in Eden -- Antagonistic representations in Saints at the River -- Figures of violence in The world Made Straight : the efficacy of indirectness -- Lady Macbeth in the Smoky Mountains : Shakespearean traces in Serena -- Elemental poetry : Waking, or "the wind's harsh sibilance" -- "Nothing but shadow land" : landscapes and mindscapes in The Cove -- Something rich and strange : short story writing in the new South -- "The world's understory," or renewing wonder in Above the Waterfall.
Summary:
"This is the e-mail autoreply that, until recently, one got within minutes when trying to get in touch with Professor Rash at Western Carolina University--a bouncing message that apparently experienced little change over time. Over the past fifteen years or so, Ron Rash has, indeed, mostly been either writing or editing a book, or touring both the United States and the world--obviously not his favorite aspect of his job as a writer, as implied by the comparison with comatose Edgar Allan Poe. He obviously enjoys cultivating the myth of his being a mountain man who is more familiar with the company of bats, frogs, or bears, for that matter, than with modern technology. What this sketchy self-portrait also reveals is that the writer has a particularly keen ear for sounds; it seems he cannot help producing assonance and alliteration (erase, displace, replace, deface): when receiving this message, there is no doubt one was being bounced back, but at least it was in music"-- Provided by publisher.
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