23 January 2015

Review #128: Serena by Ron Rash




My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“We want what's in this world but we also want what ain't.”

                                             ----Ron Rash, Serena

Ron Rash, the American NY Times Best Selling author, captivated with our hearts with his his award winning book, Serena, that once again revolves around a bad marriage and a greedy, lonely wife. I had to purchase this book, when I got to know that the movie adaption of Serena is releasing on October, 2015 and the best part is that two of my favorite actors are playing the lead roles- Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. And honestly after reading this books, my hopes are really running high on the movie which is directing by Susanne Bier.

Synopsis:
The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.


A Waring Note : Please do not read this book if you can not handle the ill-treatment on animals and also there is too much blood including both human and animals.

Firstly, prepare yourself to teleport to the lush and beautiful landscapes of Northern Carolina, that will not only entrance you with it's golden picturesque and woods everywhere but will also give you a very Southern feel! Moreover, it's a historical timepiece. The author captures us that time when pain and poverty struggled in almost all the homes of America- The Great American Depression, and it is really brilliant to see how the author made this couple richer amidst of all the poverty.

What a set of characters- truly enthralling! Both Serena and George had their own greed to become richer and soon they become richer enough to kill people. The timber king and queen ruled their self-made empire. What follows next is their desire to become parents and when Serena realized that she can't be a mother, she chooses the darkest path to kill George's illegitimate child. Serena's greed got the better of her and she became one of the most evil woman character in the history of literature. Although, I agree that George is no saint, he had his own issues and past mistakes to begin with, moreover, he was not easy upon Serena, thus drowning their sinking marriage completely at the bottom of the ocean.

Honestly, I'm going to write one whole paragraph about Serena. Have you ever read about such characters who are wickedly evil, pathetic sociopaths, mentally unstable, capable of murder without a thought, and on the same time, they are equally beautiful, charming and enchanting and makes you love to hate them? Please don't say, Amy from Gone Girl! Amy is nothing compared to this devastatingly beautiful woman. Serena has a charm and if you fall for that charm, I warn you, you're her next victim. She felt joy in killing. I never read about any character, who felt such powerful in killing from men to animals. So if you dare to cross her, you are dead! And when I heard that Jen Law is playing Serena, I simply can't wait to watch how Jen Law embodies the character of this ruthless, blood thirsty, inhumane woman.

With such a grand and exquisite prose, the story turns out to be a smooth ride for the readers. From the very first page, I was glued to the story. And as the story progressed, the more deeper I fell with it. There are also some mind blowing twists that will scare the shit out of you. And those twists are really hard to anticipate or guess. The author's smooth and articulate narrative style completely captured by mind. I really liked how the author even managed to develop an intimidating mood and environment with his carefully chosen words. And once again, I'm saying this the author have strikingly and vividly captured the background and the setting of the plot, not only the location, but also the time, from political rivalries to social issues, to labor movement to internal issues, everything that the author painted with his words are thoroughly compelling.

Verdict: A must read book before the movie hits the screen on the month of October. 
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Author Info:
Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Finalist and New York Times bestselling novel, Serena, in addition to three other prizewinning novels, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; three collections of poems; and four collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O.Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University. 
Visit him here

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