Review Excerpts

Miami Herald - Sunday March 14, 2010
[Rash] has written a memorable, if often brutal, elegy for a vanishing way of life.

The New York Times - March 8, 2010
"Ron Rash was the seasoned author of nine books of fiction and poetry before his 10th, the stunning 2008 Serena, established him as one of the best American novelists of his day. With its stark Appalachian setting, piercing language and coolly ferocious title character, Serena was a big book filled with bleakly beautiful details. Mr. Rash's artistry was blinding enough to eclipse his craftsmanship. But the skill with which his tales are constructed is more apparent in Burning Bright... these paired down short stories make it much easier to see how expertly Mr. Rash fine-tunes his work... elegantly sophisticated work... enormously effective... another instance of Mr. Rash's tactical precision... remarkable stories... Mr. Rash certainly knows how to rivet attention..."
-- Janet Maslin

Bookpage - March 1, 2010
"[Rash's stories] flow so seamlessly into each other that the reader is tempted to devour them all in one sitting like a novel. But doing so would mean losing the power of each individual story—and that power is formidable, well worth slowing down for... tight, hauntingly melancholic studies... set against the lush, atmospheric backdrop of Appalachia that Rash has so firmly mastered... exquisitely effective... All 12 stories are worthy, a rarity in many short-story collections, and all call for a slow, careful re-read. Those readers who normally eschew short stories for lacking character development or depth will want to take a chance on Burning Bright, and those who embrace the art form already will want Rash's newest offering in their permanent collection."
-- Kristy Kiernan

Library Journal – October 15, 2009
The stories in Rash’s (Serena) aptly titled new collection burn themselves on the memory in much the same way as the photographs Walker Evans took of Southern sharecroppers in the 1930s that were later collected in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Rash’s spare narratives are set primarily in today’s Appalachia, with families decimated by poverty, drugs, and every other discernible kind of heartache. A pawnshop owner knows all the local addicts by virtue of the junk they bring in for money and becomes an unlikely hero when one of these deals uncovers a family member’s disgrace. A husband who no longer knows how to talk to his wife elicits our sympathy even after he communicates his message by slashing her tires. A neglected boy with meth-addict parents finds treasure in a plane wreck he happens upon when his wanderings lead him into Smoky Mountains National Park.
Rash, who has authored not only fiction but also three volumes of poetry, is a master craftsman who pares down language to its essential elements in these starkly beautiful stories.
-- Sue Russell, Current Science, Inc., Philadelphia