John Lang’s book, Understanding Ron Rash, was published in August 2014. John writes:

“Ron Rash is an author from the Appalachian South who has increasingly received international attention.  A movie version of his novel Serena (2008), starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, has been released in France and England and is scheduled for release in the U.S. in early 2015.  Over Labor Day weekend 2014, Ron and I appeared together at a session at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia to celebrate my book’s publication and to promote his work.

I continue to enjoy retirement after nearly 30 years teaching American literature at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va. In February 2014 my wife Esther and I celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, Lucia Lily, whose parents are both Lutheran ministers.”

In Understanding Ron Rash, the first book-length study of Ron Rash’s fiction and poetry, John Lang explores the nature and scope of Rash’s achievements, introducing readers to the major themes and stylistic features of his work as well as the literary and cultural influences that shaped it.  After a brief survey of Rash’s life and career, Lang traces Rash’s development through his 14 books of poetry and fiction published through 2013.

Beginning with Rash’s first three collections of short fiction, Lang analyzes the author’s literacy style and techniques as well as his richly detailed settings and characters drawn from the mountain South, primarily western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina.  Then, in an assessment of Rash’s four volumes of poetry, Lang investigates their thematic and linguistic grounding in Appalachia and emphasizes their universal appeal, lyrical grace, and narrative efficiency.  Moving to the early novels One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight, Lang traces Rash’s evolving narrative skills, intricate plotting, and the means by which he creates historical and philosophical resonance.  Then Lang examines how vivid characters, striking use of dramatic techniques, and wide range of allusions combine in Rash’s best-known book, which is also his most accomplished novel to date, Serena.

After a study of Rash’s most recent novel, The Cove, Lang returns to Rash’s latest work in short fiction: his Frank O’Connor Award-winning “Burning Bright” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, both of which demonstrate his wide-ranging subject matter and characters as well as his incisive portraits of both contemporary Appalachian life and the region’s history. An extensive bibliography of primary and secondary materials by and about Rash concludes the book.