It all started with an image of a trout, according to Ron Rash, author of “Above the Waterfall.”
“All my novels start with a single image, and the image for this novel was of a trout that had obviously been poisoned in a creek, that had been washed up on a creek bank,” said Rash.
Rash’s initial imagery turned out to be one of the most important parts of the novel: a basis for the plot’s mystery.
The story centers on a sheriff, Les, and Becky, a park ranger, both of whom have experienced traumatic losses, but share a love for their community nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. These two characters exchange points of view throughout the book, creating an image of Appalachia that seems to change from dark to light. Rash’s prose is filled with regional dialect, as the author himself is from the Appalachian Mountains. Throughout “Above the Waterfall,” Les’s gruff mountain-man demeanor contrasts Becky, an eloquent naturalist.
However, Rash said he had been working on the book for several years before he made the decision to include both character’s voices.
“I knew something was wrong. It just wasn’t working. So, I finally realized I needed not only the sheriff’s voice, but also I needed Becky the park ranger’s voice as well,” Rash said. “It also gave me a chance to create a voice that was very poetic, and I thought that was kind of a nice juxtaposition with the less-is-more prosy voice, the more matter-of-fact voice.”
While Becky watches nature intently, taking children on tours to the creek and keeping up with the happenings at the national park, Les works with the police, often making meth busts, a dangerous and emotionally tolling job. Throughout the novel, poetry becomes a story-telling method just as much as Rash’s prose is. According to Rash, this was what was most compelling about Becky’s character: her use of poetry to communicate her feelings about nature.
“I wanted this book to be, a lot of it, about the need for wonder, and I think Becky shows us all how to do that,” Rash said. “I wanted to set up a book where two people who dealt with traumatic moments and guilt from those moments, how they might try to live in the world.”
Les and Becky are tested when the owner of a resort accuses Gerald Blackwelder, an elderly friend of Becky’s and a somewhat infamous member of the community, of poaching the spotted trout in their popular catch-and-release stream. After the initial accusation, dead trout are discovered lining the edges of the creek, poisoned. The resort owner is convinced Blackwelder poured kerosene into the creek. Les is faced with finding the perpetrator, while Becky implores the police not to assume Blackwelder is guilty.
The book takes place in the Appalachian country, where communities are small, but the land is large and full of hiding spots.
“I want place to be a character in my books,” Rash, who grew up in South Carolina, said. “I want to make that world that they are in as vivid as possible to the reader.”
“Above the Waterfall” offers a dramatic and engaging depiction of life in the mountains, and the tension doesn’t seem to loosen until the last page.
Rash will be at Square Books this Friday, Sep. 18, at 5 p.m. This will not be his first time at Square Books; he visited last year with his book of short stories, “Something Rich and Strange.”
“I always love to come to Oxford,” Rash said. “Oxford’s my favorite stop on book tours.”
