Serena
As far as Shakespearean villains go, it鈥檚 hard to top Lady Macbeth. Ambitious, ruthless, and totally memorable 鈥� and then she unexpectedly fizzles out in Act 5. With all due admiration for Shakespeare, I never thought she seemed the type to be driven suicidal by guilt.
Author Ron Rash is apparently also skeptical about Lady M鈥檚 capacity for remorse. In his new novel, Serena, he looks at what might have happened if Lady Macbeth never went mad. Warning: Results may be harmful to the environment (not to say fatal to most of the characters in the book).
Set in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina during the Great Depression, 鈥淪erena鈥� opens when lumber baron George Pemberton brings his new wife, Serena, back to town.
Waiting at the train station are Rachel Harmon, the teenage girl Pemberton impregnated before he left, and her drunk, knife-wielding father. Rather than be appalled at her husband鈥檚 negligence or terrified for his safety, Serena coolly urges Pemberton to fight. After he kills the older man, she hands Harmon鈥檚 knife to Rachel and suggests she sell it, since it鈥檚 the only thing Rachel will ever get from the Pembertons.
That little matter taken care of, the Pembertons get to work clear-cutting their logging claim. There鈥檚 a certain amount of urgency, since the Secretary of the Interior is viewing the mountains with an eye to creating a national park, and the Pembertons are determined to fight this affront to unbridled capitalism by any means necessary.
The Pembertons are Ayn Rand characters taken to sociopathic extremes. Physically imposing, brave, and intelligent, Serena hunts rattlesnakes with a Berkute eagle from Mongolia (fear was slowing the men down) and can estimate better than a logging foreman how many board feet are in an ash tree. She has no use for faith, nostalgia, or charity.
鈥淢y experience has been that altruism is invariably a means to conceal one鈥檚 personal failures,鈥� she tells Interior Secretary Albright, when discussing the local environmentalist spearheading the national park movement. (He, as it happens, drinks too much and abandoned his family.)
Serena recognizes only the present and demands the same of her husband. As a teenager, Serena survived the illness that wiped out the rest of her family.
When one of Pemberton鈥檚 business partners says he鈥檇 like to hear more about the father who taught her the logging business, she seems baffled. 鈥� 鈥榃hy?鈥� Serena said, as if puzzled. 鈥楬e鈥檚 dead now and of no use to any of us.鈥� 鈥�
Also of no use, in Serena鈥檚 estimation, is Pemberton鈥檚 business partner Buchanan, who is inclined to offer workers a dime a day raise and who isn鈥檛 opposed to being bought out by the government. Serena urges Pemberton to take care of the matter in the most expeditious manner possible.
Then an event occurs that causes Serena to turn her implacable attention back to Rachel and her baby and the bodies really start piling up.
鈥淪erena鈥� manages to be terrifying without ever turning graphic, as Rash matter-of-factly lays out his characters鈥� course. Most of the murders occur off the page and are reported back to the logging camp, but are no less chilling for that.
Rash supplies plenty of grim wit, courtesy of his Greek chorus, a group of loggers led by one Snipes, who are trying to survive a job that was dangerous enough before their boss got married. In addition to falling trees, logjams, axes and saws, and record cold, there are the rattlers and a panther that is rumored to be stalking the mountains.
No one鈥檚 ever seen it, but, Snipes points out, there are all kinds of things people can鈥檛 see that are there. 鈥淲ell, They鈥檚 love, that鈥檚 one. And courage. You can鈥檛 see neither of them, but they鈥檙e real. And air of course. That鈥檚 one of your most important examples. You wouldn鈥檛 be alive a minute if there wasn鈥檛 air, but nobody鈥檚 ever seen a single speck of it.鈥� 鈥�
鈥� 鈥楢nd chiggers,鈥� Stewart said helpfully. 鈥榊ou鈥檒l never see one but you get into a mess of them and you鈥檒l be itching for a week.鈥� 鈥�
The bestseller lists are filled with stories of sociopaths on the loose and few of them qualify for greatness. Despite the darkness of the plot, Rash fills 鈥淪erena鈥� with a deep humanity and some downright terrific writing. His themes of greed and the destruction wrought by unfettered capitalism couldn鈥檛 be more timely.
But it鈥檚 his patient crafting of life during a bygone era that will delight readers. His evocation of the harsh conditions, where the only way to survive was to destroy the beauty surrounding you, is powerful, and his dialogue is a delight.
Buchanan, who, before his unfortunate hunting accident, liked to write down colorful mountain sayings, would be scribbling nonstop.
Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor.
