Ron Rash’s lovely novel hooked me on the first page then kept me engaged straight through to the end. He accomplished this by portraying his main characters in close point of view, which made me care about them immediately. Also, his vivid descriptions of place and actions transported me to the world of this tale.

The novel is based on a true story Rash’s uncle told him about wealthy parents who vehemently disapproved of their son’s choice of a bride and went to extraordinary measures to end the relationship. The details of the true story differ from the plot of The Caretaker. However, the theme is the same: to what lengths would parents go to control the life of their adult child?

Set 1951, The Caretaker is about Jacob Hampton, the son of a prominent family who own the primary businesses in town, employ most of the folks in the area, and consequently hold great sway over the community. The Hamptons intend for Jacob to go to college, marry a high school girlfriend, then run the family business. Instead, he skips college, then elopes with Naomi, a sixteen-year-old hotel maid he’s known a short while. Right after they marry, Naomi becomes pregnant. Jacob is drafted and must ship out to Korea. Before he leaves, he asks his parents to help Naomi through her pregnancy. Not only do they refuse, but they also disinherit him.  So, Jacob asks his childhood friend Blackburn Gant to watch over his wife. Blackburn agrees, but due to his young age and inexperience is worried that he may not be up to the responsibility.

Blackburn lives with challenges of his own. His face had been disfigured during childhood, which causes most of the town to ostracize him. He lives a solitary life, maintaining the town cemetery. Townspeople treat him the same way as Naomi, with contempt and ridicule.

The book opens with young Jacob Hampton on guard duty beside a frozen river that divides American troops from the North Korean army. The North Koreans were known to send soldiers to sneak past battle lines at night and kill one American soldier at a time. Terrified and chilled to the bone, Jacob realizes the only thing worse than being alone on guard duty is the fear that he wasn’t. Trying to keep awake, Jacob reflects on his former life in western North Carolina. As he does so, he hears a sound and looks up to see a North Korean soldier charging at him with a knife. A gruesome battle ensues. The chapter ends without the reader learning the outcome.

Rash uses several characters to tell his tale. That can be a risky device, gumming up the pace and muddling the characters for readers. However, the pacing felt spot on. As Rash revealed the point of view of his characters in each chapter, he used the content to build narrative tension. The author also kept suspense high by making readers wonder not only how far the Hamptons would go to keep Jacob and Naomi apart but also how much they might get away with, using their power and prominence to shield themselves.

By staying in each character’s close point of view, Rash is careful to make the voice of each of his characters distinctive. Using this technique enables readers understand the inner workings of each person and thereby avoid viewing the story in black and white. For example, Jacob’s parents make increasingly horrible decisions. It’s tempting to think of them as monsters. However, knowing their history and hearing their thoughts helped me to understand, although not excuse, what they did and why they did it.

I especially loved the Blackburn Gant character. For me, he stood at the heart of the story, providing the moral compass. His facial deformation made him invisible to the town’s population, most of whom treated him as less than human, if they paid attention to him at all. When he turned sixteen, his own family moved to Florida, leaving him to fend for himself. Blackburn could have become a bitter, angry person, but he didn’t. Often at great expense to his own wellbeing, Blackburn treated others with compassion and loyalty.

A benefit to reading any novel is the invitation to enter another world and to learn what it is like to exist there. Via his descriptions of setting and the activities of his characters, Rash enabled me to experience the events alongside his characters. In an interview, Rash said he set the story at his grandparent’s place. I’m not surprised. The vivid details he included made me feel as if I were sitting on the hillside by the cemetery, stepping into the hardware store, or eating at the farmhouse table.

Rash made a point to describe daily tasks. He does so without impeding forward motion of the plot. His description of Blackburn digging a grave taught me how hard the work is and how tenderly Blackburn approached the task. That image will stay with me for a long time.

Ron Rash shows great respect for the people and culture of Appalachia. He avoids casting characters as stereotypes. I appreciate his careful and affectionate portrayal of the country doctor and the town minister, both of whom behave admirably. I also admire his ability to convey the Appalachian dialect in a nuanced way, via word choice and syntax. In an interview, Rash said when describing the people of North Carolina, his goal was to convey that in the deepest part of these people, they are fellow humans. His goal is for people from outside the region to see his characters as such, not as exotics or objects of disdain. His intention is to celebrate their language, food, ways of thinking, highlighting what sets them apart, but also the characteristics and values that make them like all other people.

For me, the novel ended too quickly. I wanted to linger with the main characters, to hear more about what came next for them. Perhaps my desire for the book to be longer is a testament to Rash’s good writing. Despite all the terrible events that occurred, this book felt wholesome, redemptive and soul nourishing to me.

The Caretaker is Rash’s eighth, and by his own words, probably his last novel. I hadn’t heard of the author before my friend gave me the book. Now, I look forward to exploring more of his other work.