{"id":645,"date":"2012-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T22:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=645"},"modified":"2024-12-31T16:48:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T03:48:34","slug":"the-cove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/03\/10\/the-cove\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cove"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Ron Rash<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>Text<\/em> <em>Publishing<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, March 10th 2012 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ron Rash belongs to a tradition of American writers from Steinbeck to Springsteen who excel in chronicling the stories of the forgotten poor, those whose lives are a constant struggle for survival against nature and circumstance. His latest offering, <em>The Cove<\/em>, is set in rural North Carolina during the final year of WWI, and beautifully captures the narrow-mindedness and suspicion that characterises both the place and time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Lauren Shelton\u2019s entire life has been spent in the shadow of the cliffs that surround her and her brother\u2019s farm, a valley thought to be cursed and a place that has dealt her family nothing but bad fortune. Born with a port wine stain upon her shoulders, the local townspeople shun her as a witch, and she is convinced she is destined to spend her life alone, trapped in the darkness of the valley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Then she finds an injured stranger on their land, a man who has no voice but speaks through the music of his flute. Her brother Hank takes him on as a farmhand, and for the first time Laurel\u2019s finds her world coloured by beauty and joy. For a few moments she allows herself to believe that she can escape the shadows, but the confluence of the war and the stranger\u2019s history render this a fragile happiness, one that puts them all at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Although it can only end badly (the story opens with the discovery of human remains in an abandoned well), <em>The Cove<\/em> is not unremittingly bleak. Rash writes with brutal honesty about the difficulty of a life spent in constant battle with the land and the seasons, the petty cruelties we inflict upon each other and the injustices of a seemingly indifferent fate. But he also celebrates goodness of people, the small kindnesses that sustain us, and the moments of pleasure in the natural world; the flash of colour from a bird\u2019s wings, the fragrance of a flower, or warmth of sun-baked stone, and his novels leave long-lasting echoes in the imagination. <em>The Cove<\/em> left me both sad and angry for Laurel\u2019s sake, and thankful for the luxury in which I myself dwell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ron Rash<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review March 10th 2012 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[153,370,421,18,117],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-153","tag-fiction","tag-historical","tag-odt","tag-ron-rash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}