Serena by Ron Rash

Ron Rash's opening paragraph for his novel Serena grabs you and never lets go:
"When Pemberton returned to the North Carolina mountains after three months in Boston settling his father's estate, among those waiting on the train platform was a young woman pregnant with Pemberton's child. She was accompanied by her father, who carried beneath his shabby frock coat a bowie knife sharpened with great attentiveness earlier that morning so it would plunge as deep as possible into Pemberton's heart." So begins a tale drenched in blood.

Getting off the train with timber-baron Pemberton is his new wife, Serena.

This power couple are both filled with hubris and greed and boundless ambition. At the urging of the wife, they use every means to achieve their aims, including murder. Eventually, though, the husband finds that even his love for and fear of his wife are not enough to allow him to participate in some acts. If this scenario sounds suspiciously like Shakespeare's Macbeth, that is surely purposeful, although Rash's female protagonist does not suffer Lady Macbeth's remorse. No "Out, out damned spot" here. Serena puts Lady Macbeth to shame when it comes to amoral ruthlessness.

This all could have easily slid into melodrama and parody if not for Rash's writing abilities, which are more than considerable. He is also a poet, and that shows, but not ever self consciously or obtrusively. His events proceed inevitably toward tragic and violent conclusions, although I have to admit I was surprised at the ending. But that's good.

Just the plot and the characterization would have made this an outstanding novel, but Rash includes more. This is also a powerful and timely picture of how greed and and political corruption have led to a destruction of the environment. The Pembertons orchestrate the denuding of large tracts of North Carolina, leaving the land to resemble "the skinned hide of some huge animal," and Serena's plans are to relocate to Brazil, where, according to Pemberton, "...Mrs. Pemberton and I will cut down every tree, not just in Brazil but in the world."

The most chilling statement in this thoroughly chilling novel comes from a member of a tree cutting crew about the landscape after they cut down the final tree: "I think this is what the end of the world will be like."

I enthusiastically recommend this novel. It was a "Book of the Year" for 2008 for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Amazon. com. For me, it is one of the best of the 21st Century.