The World Made Straight: A Novel
by Ron Rash
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ron RashEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-04-04
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Book Reviews of The World Made Straight: A Novel
Book Review: the crookedness of the world made straight
Summary: 4 Stars
The World Made Straight is an expansion of the short story "Speckled Trout" in the author's short story collection Chemistry. Another short story in that book. Pemberton's Bride, has just been expanded and released as a powerful and harrowing novel Serena. The short story centered on Travis Shelton, who discovers a marijuana patch owned by the Toomey family. Travis steals a few plants and sells them to Leonard Shuler, an ex-teacher who now makes his living dealing drugs. Travis gets a little too greedy, and on one of his return visits to steal more marijuana plants is caught by the 300-lb Carlton Toomey in a bear trap. The short story ends in an ambiguous manner--but the expectation is that Toomey will probably kill Travis. On the expansion into the novel, Travis is not, however killed, Leonard Shuler assumes a major role, and Carlton Toomey and his son Hubert are darkly looming presences.
The short story was tight, powerful, and dark. The expansion into a full-length novel fails to sustain the sense of power. Serena, by contrast, fully maintains the brooding dark depths of the short story Pemberton's Bride. Travis, disowned by his father, moves into Leonard's house trailer that Leonard shares with Dena, who is not exactly Leonard's girlfriend. Dena is a maddeningly unsatisfying element of the novel--she shares Leonard's bed, but is heavily into drugs and "dates" other men. Leonard doesn't seem to like her very much. She makes it more difficult to relate to Leonard. Much of the novel is devoted to Leonard showing Travis a Civil War battlefield and helping him get his GED. Leonard likes classical music and reading--the book's title comes from Handel's Messiah. There's a violent ending to go with the dark beginning, but in between there simply isn't the power that could have been there. It might have been better for the author to stick more with the drug dealing, the marijuana growing, etc.
So I would give the short story Speckled Trout a solid 5 stars, and I'd give The World Made Straight that same 5 stars for the beginning (which is the short story) and the ending, and in-between I'd give it 3 stars. By contrast, Serena rates 5 stars throughout the novel.
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