The World Made Straight: A Novel
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.51 (949 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0805078665 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-03-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Now Leonard lives with his dogs and his sometime girlfriend in a run-down trailer outside town, deals a few drugs, and studies journals from the Civil War. Before long, Travis has moved out of his parents' home to live with Leonard Shuler, a one-time schoolteacher who lost his job and custody of his daughter years ago, when he was framed by a vindictive student. Travis becomes his student, of sorts, and the fate of these two outsiders becomes increasingly entwined as the community's terrible past and corrupt present bear down on each of them from every direction, leading to a violent reckoning--not only with Carlton, but with the legacy of the Civil War massacre that, even after a century, continues to divide an Appalachian community. After hours of passing in and out of consciousness, Travis is discovered by Carlton Toomey, the wise and vicious farmer who set the trap to protect his plants, and Travis's confro
"A major voice in American letters" according to R. Cooper. Few writers can expose the complexities in an array of characters like Ron Rash. Just when you think you know who're the bad guys and who're the good guys, Rash shows us that below the surface we all struggle with soical pressures, we all try desperately to overcome our fears and inadequacies, and none of us can hold on to the truth long enough to look it fully in the face.Rash is indeed a Southern writer, but don't look for stereotypes here. He has studied his people w. Amazon Customer said Required Reading. Rash is in a class by himself. He takes the bad and the ugly of humanity and salvages the good.When the "good" is guestionable, he lets the reader decide.. "Five Stars" according to smith. Ron Rash is so aware of his characters, and makes you involved beginning to end of the book!
He steals a few plants to sell to Leonard Shuler, a divorced and disgraced former high school teacher, who is living in a trailer and selling drugs. . Meanwhile, the Toomeys, who do business with Leonard, are not finished exacting their pound of flesh, this time from Leonard. All rights reserved. Rash's vivid prose depicts his characters' dependence on drugs, alcohol and hell-raising with sympathy, rendering their shared sense of futility and economic entrapment without sentimentality or easy answers. The Civil War sections are less successful, but they convey the past's hold on the present and ground Rash's Appalachian wanderers in a shared vision of American immobility. There, Travis and Leonard study the Civil War ledgers and journals of a Dr. Candler, and learn of the county's seismic upheaval during the Shelton Laurel Massacre and its aftermath. Travis has a violent run-in with the father-and-son Toomeys, wh