The World Made Straight

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The World Made Straight" is a powerful and moving story set in the mountains of western North Carolina. The characters feel authentic, being a mix of good and bad as all real people are. Having finished my teen years in a rural environment during the same time period, I felt resonance with the situations and the people. The author does a nice job of weaving together the struggles and conflicts the main characters are experiencing with the Civil War conflicts their ancestors experienced over a hundred years earlier. The descriptions of the mountains and scenery popped off the pages, my family having spent much time camping in the mountains of North Carolina and southwest Virginia. Ron Rash's writing style is rich with metaphor and imagery, reminding me of Annie Dillard's "A Pilgrim on Tinker Creek".

My only disappointment is that i did not get this book read in time to go see the film based upon it when it was premiering locally (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2420166/). I heard about the limited showings on WUNC my local NPR station. (http://wunc.org/post/set-north-carolina-world-made-straight-premieres) I hope to be able to catch the movie when it is released more widely. This is a great story, i recommend it highly.

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