Years ago, I read Ron Rash’s novel The Risen, about the complicated relationship between two brothers and a young woman who comes to their small Appalachian town, driving a wedge between them that survives into adulthood. I was taken by the quietness of Rash’s writing, and the deceptive simplicity of his story. I’ve always wanted to pick up another Rash book, so this spring I bought The Caretaker, his newest novel, on one of my many research trips to independent bookstores.
The title character is Blackburn Gant, a lonely cemetery caretaker whose face and body was left deformed after a childhood case of polio. He is asked by his best (and only) friend, Jacob, to watch after his young, pregnant wife Naomi when he is sent off to the Korean War in 1951. With Jacob away at war, Blackburn and Naomi – also an outcast due to Jacob’s disapproving family and the stain of scandal – grow to depend on each other as the baby’s birth approaches. When Jacob is seriously wounded in Korea, Blackburn and Naomi’s lives thousands of miles away are forever changed in unexpected ways.
Like The Risen, The Caretaker is a quiet, straightforward novel about simple human emotions: love, loyalty, loneliness and the lengths that parents (and other caretakers) will go to protect their children. From the start, I was invested in this story, and got increasingly more so as Rash crafted a suspenseful plot with some key crossroads for these three characters. I was turning pages until the end, as Blackburn’s dedication is tested by his own elusive chance at happiness. To say any more would detract from the pleasure of reading this utterly engrossing and satisfying book.
I listened to The Caretaker on audio. Narration by James Patrick Cronin was perfect. Great accents, perfect performances of each character, even the minor ones. I highly recommend the audio for this one!
The Caretaker was the 22nd book of 2024.