SAINTS AT THE RIVER

Many of Appalachia's best authors have also been devoted environmentalists and dedicated stewards of our mountain homeland. Wendell Berry, Gurney Norman, Jesse Stuart, Billy C. Clark, and Harry Caudill come to mind immediately. A new name to add to this imposing list is Ron Rash, who holds the John Parris Chair in Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University.

Rash's second novel, "Saints at the River" is a contemporary Appalachian romance set against the backdrop of a significant environmental conflict.

The story, set in the small mountain section of South Carolina that neighbors North Georgia, begins when a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy where currents are so dangerously strong that even experienced divers cannot recover her remains.

Herb Kowalsky, the girl's father, is a wealthy banker from Minnesota who wants to hire Peter Brennon's company to build a portable dam that will divert enough water to allow divers to retrieve the body. But local environmentalists, led by Luke Miller, oppose this action because it violates federal law, specifically the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1978. More importantly, they don't think a temporary dam will protect a diver from the Tamassee's white water currents.

At public meetings, the conflict becomes more heated. Kowalsky argues that it is a job for experts. "Maybe you hillbillies don't know nearly as much about that river as you think," he declares.

"We know enough not to let a twelve-year-old girl wade out in the middle of it during spring flooding," a local man replies.

Soon the conflict attracts a national newspaper audience, and a South Carolina newspaper sends Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eight-year-old photographer, and Allan Hemphill, an award-winning journalist to cover the story.

Maggie is a Tamassee native, long since moved away, and Luke is her former boyfriend. Will Maggie go back to Luke, who appears to be Brad Pitt and Wendell Berry rolled into one determined protector of the river, or will she forge a new romance with her colleague Allan?

Will the dam hold? Will Ruth Kowalsky's body be recovered? Her mother argues that, "it's not just her body down there but her soul." The Kowalsky's Church believes that a person remains in purgatory until the body receives Last Rites.

Will Maggie heal her relationship with her dying and embittered father? Will she remain true to her profession or side with homefolks who don't want the Tamassee destroyed? All will be made clear when you read "Saints at the River," a good book to take to the beach or to brighten nights dulled by summer TV reruns. It is available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland.

The Regional Readers, a local reading club, will be discussing this book at 5:45 Tuesday evening at the Jesse Stuart Foundation. Read the book and join us if you can.

For more information, call (606) 326-1667 or visit our website: jsfbooks.com.