The Risen

In 1969 in a small town in North Carolina, brothers Eugene and Bill Matney encounter Ligeia, a seventeen-year-old “flower child.” She will have a major impact on their lives. In 2015, younger brother Eugene is looking back on that fateful summer. Ligeia had been sent by her parents to her strict uncle and aunt to keep her in line. She had gotten involved in drugs in her hometown in Florida. She forms relationships with both brothers, and manipulates them into doing her favors, especially Eugene. He is smitten so he falls for her schemes. We learn about their sibling rivalry and their grandfather’s controlling ways. It is both a mystery and a coming-of-age story. It is a story of guilt and regret. It is nicely written, and the show more setting is vivid. I enjoyed the first three-quarters, but felt the ending went astray. show less

Ron Rash proves once again he is a master of southern fiction (as if there was any doubt) in his latest book "The Risen."

When erosion reveals human bones alongside Panther Creek in a small North Carolina town, brothers Eugene and Bill relive the fateful summer of 1969 when they met the wild and mysterious Ligeia.

While the novel is fueled with questions of "who dunnit?" and "what the heck happened?" its true strength is in its character study of two very different brothers, their tyrannical grandfather, and an untethered free spirit. Rash forces his readers to consider whether reprehensible acts are ever justifiable, and what, if anything, someone can do to earn redemption. He relies on his readers to draw conclusions and says just show more enough, without fully closing the circle -- which can make for an even stronger impact.

Highly recommended. 4 stars

Thank you to Ecco publishing and Edelweiss for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

This is, yet again, another gripping Ron Rash novel. Upon reflection, what stays with me most is that the premise of The Risen is tight and simple. Two brothers, in a small North Carolina town, are swimming in a creek in the summer of 1969 and meet a seventeen year old girl, an outsider who impacts their lives. But Ron Rash gives us a thorough psychological treatise, through the character of younger brother Eugene, on the desperation behind falling in love for the first time and the complexities of younger brother syndrome during one’s coming of age. Place is a character in this story, described in Rash’s keen vernacular, and it is the unsolved past that pulls us through this story. The reader lives in two time frames as the story show more unfolds, which gives us the experience of cause and effect. On the one hand, The Risen floats on the wings of the fruits of summer, on the other its tension builds through the guilt of a broken man. The Risen is a page-turning mystery with a twist, written in such a way that you can feel the guilt that haunts the two main characters’ involvement. It speaks of the repercussions of one false move that shadows lifetimes, and though the mystery may have been solved at the end, it suggests that nobody gets away with anything for long. show less

The Risen is another Ron Rash novel that the prose just sings off the page. Rash never fails to disappoint me in his use of descriptive verse. He so easily transports me to the stage of his characters. It was as if I was sitting on that river bank soaking my toes in the icy waters of the mountain stream known as Panther Creek. The story itself is rather quiet and ambles along at a nice pace and then before you know it you have reached the end. Then I exhale in a long sigh because it is always bittersweet to come to the end of a story well told.

The book is both a coming of age story and a murder mystery wrapped up in one neat package. The story revolves around two brothers, Eugene and Bill Matney, 16 and 20 respectively, and one pivotal show more summer in 1969. Bill is home from Wake Forest for the summer and he and Eugene have gone fishing after church, as they do every Sunday, when they meet Ligiea. Ligiea, 17 herself, has been exiled by her parents to her Uncle’s in rural Western North Carolina in an attempt to remove her from the drugs and counterculture of the 60s she has been involved in at Daytona Beach.
For these young boys/men, she is a temptress. She is worldly to their innocence and Eugene is captivated by her. With her, he experiences alcohol, drugs and sex for the first time. Bill, is much less progressive, while at first he joins in, later, after his girlfriend visits, he under goes a metamorphosis. A sibling rivalry of sorts ensues and the brothers drift apart.

Years later, Eugene is an alcoholic and his brother is a prominent surgeon in Asheville and though the physical distance between them is short, in reality, they are worlds apart. Then the unimaginable happens, a body is found near the spot where they fished that summer in 1969. The remains are identified as Ligiea’s. The police start asking questions. She can’t be dead, Eugene knows Ligiea was on a bus bound for Florida.

I have had this book on my desk for over a month. I kept putting it off for others that were more pressing. Now I want to read it again. Great Stuff! show less

This is another excellent novel by Ron Rash with highly developed characters. It centers around two brothers who live with their widowed mother and her controlling, manipulative father-in-law, the small town's doctor and autocrat.

The brothers, Eugene and Bill, are four years apart in age, with Bill excelling in academics and sports to his grandfather's delight. Eugene's strengths lie in the appreciation of literature and his own writing. They share a fear and dislike for their grandfather and a love for their gentle, dominated mother.

When Eugene is 16 and Bill is 20, they happen upon a girl named Ligeia, who is living with her right-wing aunt and uncle after being banished by her parents for embracing the counterculture movement of the show more late 1960s, drugs and sex. Unfortunately, both boys fall under her spell; however, Bill's is short-lived as he goes on to medical school and a successful career as a surgeon. Eugene's infatuation extends to stealing drugs from his grandfather's medical practice for Ligeia.

Fast forward nearly 50 years, and Eugene is a raging alcoholic who has lost everything that meant anything to him.
When a skeleton is found and identified as Ligeia, both brothers are under scrutiny.

I love the setting of Asheville and the references to Thomas Wolfe and his wonderful book, Look Homeward Angel. Ron Rash is a gifted writer, making the characters, the place and the "Age of Aquarius" come to life. show less

The Matney boys, Bill and Eugene, first see Ligeia skinny dipping in their favorite trout fishing stream. She appears to the wistful Eugene to be as enigmatic as a mermaid and every bit as alluring. The counterculture comes vividly to life for the boys with the appearance of the self-styled Ligeia, a wild flower child from Florida sent to her fundamentalist uncle’s mountain home in hopes that the remote locale will tame her rebel ways. Soon she develops relationships with both boys, and before long has them pilfering their grandfather’s medicine cabinet to procure her next high.

Fastfoward forty six years later, Ligeia’s corpse is recovered from a creek, raising questions about whether the brothers were somehow responsible. show more Eugene, who has since made a complete wreck of his life, seems a likely culprit to local authorities. Eugene knows he didn’t do it, but he’s not so sure about Bill who said he had dropped her off at the bus station.

Narrated by failed writer Eugene, an alcoholic with a painful past, it's a profound exploration of one family and the forces that shaped and propelled them throughout their lives. It is also a murder mystery that ends with some unexpected twists. I've recently discovered Ron Rash's novels and believe they are all poignant and beautifully written.I



TBR 1370 show less

A more gently told and currently (1970) set tale than most by Rash, one of my favorite writers (especially for "Serena" and his short stories). He is the truthteller and poet of the Appalachians and of western North Carolina. Here he invokes Thomas Wolfe, a writer whom he states must be read by the young, and I agree, having loved "Look Homeward Angel" in my teens but now, not much. This is a story of two brothers and the rivalry that seems to be most common between same gender, close in age. It also introduces the outside world in the form of a hippie girl, a "mermaid" they find in their swimming hole, who seduces both Bill and Eugene, with disastrous results. There's also a small mystery left unresolved, and the harsh tyrant usually show more found in Rash's fiction, the boys' grandfather. "Grandfather, he was a monster, wasn't he?" show less