The World Made Straight
(RON RASH)
Seventeen-year-old Travis Shelton lives in the mountains of western North
Carolina, and when Ron Rash''s superb tale of redemption and healing begins,
young Travis knows little of his family''s or his region''s history. Haunted by
shades . . . as if created by the mountains'' light-starved ridges and coves,
the Shelton
family''s dark heritage from the Civil War is the reason the rural county in
which they have lived for nearly 200 years is known as Bloody Madison.
Indifferent about the past, Travis finds that the present becomes
complicated when he has an encounter with Carlton Toomey. One of the most
enigmatic men in Madison
County, Toomey impresses
everyone as a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction. Beyond
the apparent paradox, though, Toomey is purely and viciously dangerous. When
Travis ignores the menace, he has a near-fatal encounter with Toomey that
results in an estrangement from his family but creates a hesitant friendship
with the solitary scofflaw Leonard Shuler. Secretly haunted by his own past,
Schuler, in his role as reluctant mentor and friend, will lead Travis to
question all that he believes to have been true about his obligations to his
family''s history and to his own future.
In The World Made Straight, Rash?like his Southern Gothic ancestors
William Faulkner and Flannery O''Connor?offers readers a powerful story about
families and individuals troubled by subtle evils, persistent violence,
malignant fear and the relentless encroachment of the past upon the present. At
the same time, however, this highly recommended novel, vividly enriched by
clear, concise prose, also becomes a beautifully rendered palimpsest of memory
in which the brooding presence of buried regional and family history is finally
overcome by the cathartic power of truth and sacrifice.
Resumos Relacionados
- Slaves In The Family
- Panhandle Dreams
- Uma Escolha Por Amor
- The Way We Never Were
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
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