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    Serena
    Serena
    Serena
    Audiobook11 hours

    Serena

    Written by Ron Rash

    Narrated by Phil Gigante

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton arrive in North Carolina to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any worker, overseeing crews, hunting rattlesnakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness.

    Together Serena and George ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of their favor. But when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out on her own to kill the son George had without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking finale.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 7, 2008
    ISBN9781423373698
    Serena
    Author

    Ron Rash

    Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall, in addition to four prizewinning novels, including The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; four collections of poems; and six collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.

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    Reviews for Serena

    3.5/5

    607 ratings68 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I thought it was good, a bit slow in some places, but the only thing that bothered me was that the two main characters seemed to have pasts that were alluded to, but never given. I don’t mind main characters that I’m going to root against.
    • 3/5
      Although this book isn't exactly what I was expecting, it did not disappoint. The characters are developed very well and their actions are quite predictable once you get to know them. So much so, that it is hard to put the book down when you realize something is about to happen to someone you may or may not like. Unfortunately, there is little in between, the characters are polarizing and good and bad are clear cut. The only character growth is that the bad get badder and the good get righteous. I would have liked a little more historical background on the formation of Smokey Mountains National Park and more detail about the minor characters role in its creation. There isn't much description of the environmental costs of the lumber industry and the promised emphasis on the burgeoning environmental movement is negligible. However the book's title is Serena and there is no doubt that this book is about her and her voracious appetite for power.
    • 3/5
      Serena was an unusually strong women in the 1930's depression. From the beginning when she walked off the train to be confronted by her new husband's pregnant mistress and her father, to the end of the book, she proved to be as strong, greedy and as ruthless as any man. It was interesting to learn a little more about the logging business in Appalachia during that time and the beginning of our national parks. Interesting book, but was disturbing at times.
    • 4/5
      A portrait of a strong, heartless, evil woman. Beautiful, brilliant, and charismatic with more internal strength and fortitude than any man. It seems she has met her equal in the strong wealthy lumber baron from Boston. She charms him and reels him in, despite multiple warnings from others, and then becomes his partner in life as well as in business. Soon she is basically running the whole show with, ultimately, disastrous results with regards to her partner.

      The story is well written with well developed characters. There is a very satisfying ending as her evil comes full circle and everyone gets their just due.

      A fine performance by the narrator!
    • 5/5
      Serena by Ron Rash; (4 1/2*)Ron Rash has beautifully written a wonderfully compelling tale of greed, murder and destruction. Set in a 1920s Smoky Mountain logging camp during the Great Depression, he tells the story of ruthless lumber baron, George Pemberton and his brutally ambitious bride, Serena. The book opens as the newlyweds arrive at the Waynesville, North Carolina train station. They are met by Pemberton's pregnant former lover and her vengeful father. Their encounter ends violently, with Serena providing a glimpse of her violent and cruel nature. Greedy for more land and wealth they will do anything, including murder, to expand their vast lumber empire. Aggressively competing for the land is the U.S. government, eager to preserve it as a national park. As the story unfolds Serena grows even more vicious, encouraging her husband on to violent actions. Rash has brilliantly woven and co-mingled real life historical figures and events with his intriguing fictional characters. His beautiful writing brings this spellbinding story to life. I was truly captivated by the vivid descriptions of the land, the era and the overall feeling of the times. Interesting Appalachian folklore and insights into the local culture enhanced the storyline. The hardships and dangers of a logging camp and its brutal impact on the environment are explicitly described. I found the complex debate over land use to be very thought provoking. (this is still being debated in my corner of the world; the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.) I loved this shocking but engrossing slice of life, a gripping story of timber barons who will stop at nothing to gain more land and wealth. I was mesmerized by both the story and the quality of writing. A most excellent story of greed, corruption, murder and mayhem.
    • 3/5
      A historical fiction based in the early 1920's. A man and his wife by land to cut down the timber. She has her eyes set on buying in Brazil and will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She miscarries late in her pregnancy and decides she wants to kill her husbands illigitamate child and his mother. When she finds her husband has set out to protect them, she becomes ruthless.
    • 3/5
      This review may contain spoilers.1929 and George Pemberton returns to his timber company with his new wife. Her name is Serena. Serena is an extraordinary woman. She can drink, ride and shoot as good as any man. They have everything they want except for one thing, Serena can't have children. Serena being who she is won't let nothing stop her or get in her way and she will do anything to get waht she wants, even commit murder. Rachel is a sixteen year old girl and she has something that Serena wants and that is a child by Pemberton.Serena starts off as a very likeable person until her true colours start to show. Pemberton is very weak and will do whatever Serena wants because of his obsession with her. Rachel is a strong women but in a different way to Serena. Rachel has to be strong to survive and then she is on the run for her and her son's life.Now this has the makings of a good thriller, but it doesn't quite deliver. There are a lot of parts within the book where nothing much really happens. Saying that it is a compelling book as I felt I had to read it to find out what was going to happen. Serena is a good femme fatal and I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her.
    • 3/5
      Can I just say how happy I am to be done with this book? I think it took me forever and a day to read it. It's not that it's a particularly bad book, but it was not to my tastes and frankly I was bored for most of it. The events alluded to in the synopsis don't really happen until the last quarter of the book and the child and his mother play a very small role in it. The rest is largely the day to day happenings of the logging camp.

      I enjoyed the loggers' uneducated observations about their bosses, but was less enamored with those bosses themselves. They were such intensely dislikable people (as they were meant to be). He was simply a snobbish product of his time. She, however, was a homicidal psychopath.

      All in all, probably a fine read for someone more inclined to enjoy the genre. I read it because my book club chose it this month. It's unlikely I would have picked it up otherwise.
    • 1/5
      Ron Rash is an exquisite writer. The ONLY problem I had with this was the darkness prevailing throughout the book. Whatever light tried to shine on the story was killed. Again, Rash is an excellent writer. This type of story not what I care to read. I prefer his short stories.
    • 4/5
      Ron Rash can write. His prose is almost above reproach and Serena is a kick-tushie protagonist. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      After hearing the author, at the SC Book Fair, say how much he enjoyed making western North Carolina a character in the story, and how much he enjoyed creating the most evil woman in Serena, I had high expect ions. He did not disappoint! So fun to read about the towns and mountains I've seen, the NC mountain culture and the era. Can't wait to see his characters in the movie--hope Hollywood does his writing justice!
    • 4/5

      If you do not like ruthless, greedy and vengeful characters, you will not like the story of timber magnates Serena and George Pemberton as they are the epitome of evil to everyone and everything they touch. Set in 1929 North Carolina, they proceed to strip the land with disregard to the environment, treatment of animals or anyone who gets in their way.

      Serena, so brilliantly named for the icy cool exterior that hides the smolder within, stands alongside Lady Macbeth in her evilness. My strongest criticism of this novel is that Rash never gives us a cause to feel for Serena—he hints only at some disaster that befell Serena as a younger woman in Colorado—so we have no idea how this exceptionally learned woman achieved her schooling or her scales. She becomes more evil as the story continues, treading a very fine line between compelling character and bad caricature.

      But. Oh....! I was so caught up in, & delighted by this novel; by Rash’s sumptuous writing and his wickedly good storytelling, I would have followed him anywhere. It was sheer delight to unwrap the layers of his narrative, like a birthday present. Rachel’s gentleness and the gut-churning tension of her plight contrasts brilliantly with Serena’s rape and pillage of the Appalachian forests and her quest for absolute power. George Pemberton embodies man’s weaknesses of the flesh and heart. He tips the scales as his loyalties shift this way and that, his moral compass swinging wildly from True North.

      Rash is a writer of this lonely place, his gorgeous language conveying the lore, loveliness, and dangers of Appalachia like a song. But his characters are so real...! Serena has an enormous cast, shifting, changing, fighting, dying, but each character is so clearly defined and richly-drawn that there is no mistaking their vitality or purpose to the plot. And the plot itself is irresistible. Rash creates a primal parable of greed and power, weaving in themes of environmentalism, poverty and political will, that borders on melodrama, but with such precise skill that, maybe like me, your senses are elevated to the rafters and beyond. It’s a damn good book.

      The movie, though, is somewhat the same, though quite a bit was changed. I have no idea why. I just knew that when I saw Jennifer Lawrence's stellar performance with Bradley Cooper, that tons was left out, long before I'd read the book. There is a plethora of subtext that most people just didn't get, I guess, when seeing the movie, and that makes me sad. I understood, and wanted more. This novel is like the 2nd cousin of the movie; solid, strong, definitively more handsome, and a lot more intelligent. 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      Wow! This book is incredible! It can be a little hard to read due to the fact that it's about a logging company in the 20's. There are quite a bit of thrilling and suspenseful parts that kept me intrigued. Serena is quite the villain and you find out just how far she is willing to go to get what she wants.
    • 4/5
      This was a gripping story once I got into it, and I could really envision Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper as the main characters.

      At first, I was put off by the way Pemberton and Serena spoke, the language read as very stilted, and almost romance novel like. However, the more I became used to their voices, the more I began to think Rash had really done his due diligence because the formality of their speech during this time frame was appropriate. He was exceptionally good at the colloquial speech of other characters and it was there I began to think the differences were intentional.

      Another small nit, that again, (just my opinion) had the overtone of a romance novel, dealt with the workers in the lumber camp, and anyone for that matter, who encountered Serena, and how they perceived her. She couldn't make a mistake, she was revered, worshipped, she was the best at this, the best at that, tamed an eagle, made the best deals, and on and on. She wasn't human, no flaws, was robotic, and cold - but -maybe this was also intentional on Rash's part. She used people until they no longer served a purpose.

      I found the ending not unsurprising, but I have to say, it definitely had me flipping the pages as fast as I could go.
    • 3/5
      Did Serena ever really love Pemberton? A resounding capital N-O !!!
      She was a greedy, obsessive woman who cut down everything and everyone in her way. In the end a sixteen year-old Rachel, thwarted her murderous plot and eventually finds a way to slay the “dragon” lady.
      It seems hard to “like” a sometimes violent book such as this but I think it reflected the harsh cruelty of life in the Depression era, the timber industry and the felled mountains and ruined rivers before the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . Also it was in tune with current environmental movements to save Mother Earth from our self-destructive ways.
    • 4/5
      In this the second novel I've read by this author we return to the woods of North Carolina in 1929 where George Pemberton, the wealthy heir of Boston Lumber, meets the beguiling Serena, also an experienced businesswomen whose family owned a lumber company in Colorado. They are beautiful, healthy, and immediately attracted the each other. Their idyllic courtship, marriage and honeymoon train ride back to his logging camp in Carolina is quickly spoiled by a train station conflict. It seems one of the girls at the camp was left pregnant and her father means to confront Pemberton. A brief knife fight leaves a dead father, a now orphaned pregnant girl, and a cold hearted Serena who is not at all upset with her new husband but rather lets this new woman know she is to expect nothing from them ever again. She takes the handsome ivory handled knife from the dead father and returns to his daughter saying, "That money will help when the child is born,” Serena says coolly. “It’s all you’ll ever get from my husband and me." And that's the first chapter. Serena goes on to impress the men in the camp with her knowledge of the logging business, her acumen with a rifle, even her ability to train an eagle to kill rattlesnakes. But it's the men in the camp that first seem to hint there's something amiss about this woman. Their suspicions are confirmed as everyone who crosses the Pembertons winds up dead. While the empire grows, we also are given glimpses of Rachel and Jacob as she struggles to survive raising her son, the son whose father never acknowledged him. Other colorful characters pepper the action, including an old fashioned, can't be bought sherif, a naturalist who is arguing for a national park, and a one armed henchman who does Serena's bidding. The author dies a nice job describing the beauty of the mountains and has done the research to render this setting accurately. Having just read East of Eden, Serena picked up where Kate left off as being one of the most disturbing characters in literature. I would be interested in seeing Jennifer Lawrence playing her part in the movie.From the Guardian:The story opens in 1929, as the Great Depression overwhelms a nation. As a novel about the greed that has brought a country to its knees, it critiques the present as well as the past.
    • 2/5
      A story of the brutal, greedy, and relentlessness of profiteers and the logging industry. Basically, just greed.
    • 5/5
      i picked up this book because every time I read a review of The Cove, or any other Ron Rash books, readers mentioned this book, and how amazing it was. I did not stop to read the back cover or anything about the book, just opened it up and started reading. I am so glad I came to it that way - no plot give-aways, no pre-conceptions.

      The characters in this novel are so well written and memorable. The settings, the descriptions of place, you are there, you see what the characters see, smell, taste. hear. The writing is so good. The story is engrossing, disturbing and unforgettable. The movie is being made - read the book first!!
    • 3/5
      The reviews I had read prior to my reading this novel were very polarized. Many loved it, many hated it. The impression it left me lies somewhere in the middle.

      Ron Rash's prose is beautiful. It is realistic and earthy, but not raw or unpolished and it helps you visualize the harsh Appalachian landscape, full of lore and superstitions, which is slowly falling prey to the needs of the developing, modern world. The heart of the novel is Serena, a deeply flawed, mysterious heroine that bends eagles and men alike to her will. Pemberton, her husband, has some sins of the past to atone for. The relationship between the married, young couple is the element that attracts the reader's attention, in my opinion. And there lies the fault of the novel.

      When the two main characters are absent, Serena simply seizes to exist. Every other character is boring, their conversations are provincial and deeply sexist. Of course, this last remark may be somehow unjust, considering the time and setting of the novel. We have men who feel threatened by a powerful woman. In addition, the animal violence was too much.The mad preacher is infuriatingly annoying, and Rachel is a snooze-fest, her only function lies to additional melodrama. She is weak, she only thinks and never acts, a character I simply didn't care about. As a result, much skimming and skipping pages took place in a novel that is not particularly long.

      I could see the end coming from a distance when Pemberton expressed the will to aid Rachel and his illegitimate son so I wasn't that surprised. Was it a just ending? Not particularly, but it was a realistic one. Furthermore, I was disappointed with the fact that we never get to know the reason Serena was such a cruel, ruthless, deranged person. Pemberton was much more developed, Serena sometimes came across as one-dimensional. In that sense, she was more a Medea than a Lady Macbeth, because there is not an ounce of remorse in her. Somehow, in retrospect, I think that the end left some considerable loose ends.

      I will definitely read more works by Ron Rush, but my high expectations for Serena were not fulfilled.
    • 5/5
      I was told this book was hauntingly good and it was. So much so that I haven't been able to really create coherent thoughts to make up a sufficient review. I will say that I am now a Ron Rash fan and I'm mad I didn't pick this one up sooner.
    • 2/5
      Serena: a Novel. Ron Rash. 2008. This is an interesting historical novel about the lumber business during the depression in North Carolina and the class between the lumber people and the politicians who want to develop a National Park System. I learn more than I’ll ever want to know about cutting timber. Serena is the mysterious wife of Pemberton, the major owner of the business. She comes with him from Boston and immediately takes over. She is attractive, strong, and completely amoral. She is one of the meanest characters I’ve ever read about, to the point that I have trouble willing suspending my disbelief! But this is a fascinating book if you like to read about the depression era south. Lots of violence and some steamy sex scenes
    • 5/5
      Whoa. Shit. Wow. Intense, dark, atmospheric story of life in a lumber camp in North Carolina's Appalachia. A fabulous female character, though totally opaque and therefore both intriguing and terrifying. Can't decide if the opacity makes the book better or worse, but this one will haunt.
    • 3/5
      This is a very well written book. It is nothing like I thought it would be and then I found out the characters are real people in history it unnerved me even more. Serena is a ruthless person that you do not want to cross. It comes out more and more as the story goes along and to think she and Pemberton her husband aren't even 30 yet. I won't go into details of the story. I will just say that Serena will make you mad and so will her husband and you will want to reach in and hurt them. But I think that was the way it was back in the 1920s. It is a good book.
    • 2/5
      It had potential. In my opinion, this book flopped just as bad as the movie. Although, I do have to admit this is one of those few times that I actually enjoyed the movie more than the book. The characters and plot were awesome, but all the unnecessary detail about the wood logging itself lost my interest. The ending however is pretty epic.
    • 5/5
      There is a wonderful Shakespearean quality to this novel. But don’t let that scare you away, it is very readable and painted vivid pictures of the Great Smoky Mountains in my head… I plan on seeking out every book written by Mr. Rash and devouring them.

      George Pemberton, young scion of a wealthy Boston family, is running a lumber company in Appalachia in 1929. He is a Hemingway-type protagonist: he wants to work hard, play hard, make a fortune, and shoot a mountain lion. When he brings home his new bride, Serena, at first he does not realize that he has indeed bagged his mountain lion in the form of this blonde heiress to a Colorado lumber empire. Serena is lithe, graceful, beautiful, intelligent, and completely ruthless and remorseless about getting what she wants. The body count begins on the first page, and Serena continues to dispatch everyone who stands in her way. The lumber workers provide delightful Greek chorus interludes, in which they speculate on who is going to be the die next, and add a bit of (dark) comic relief. (My favorite paraphrased: He should have known people such as them couldn’t be killed with fire, you have to drive a stake through their hearts) Serena galloping around on her white Arabian horse with her rattlesnake-killing Berkut eagle provides enough foreboding symbolism to make any Roman quake in his sandals.
    • 4/5
      This is as close to a five as I have read in a long time. Great characters, great writing, interesting and unique story.
    • 4/5
      I don't know exactly what I was expecting when I read this book -- maybe a North Country or Coal Miner's Daughter brand of feminine heroism in hill country.

      But Serena is an antiheroine, as you'll discover pretty shortly after she makes her appearance. She's smart, attractive, devious, and bloodthirsty. If she has a redeeming quality, it's a fierce and intelligent ambition, but then there's a fine line between ambition and cruelty (or maybe the former fuels the latter).

      In short, she's a fascinating character, but the real protagonist is her husband, whom she calls by his last name (and hers): Pemberton. He's a big, tough guy, unafraid of hard work and fights to the death, and seems like he and Serena might actually be a perfect (terrifying) pair.

      But there's trouble in the gangstas' paradise -- can he really live up to Serena's standards of ruthlessness, or will he disappoint her by showing a sliver of compassion at exactly the wrong moment?

      Ron Rash does an excellent job of leaving that question dangling in front of the reader for nearly the whole book. At every turn, I wanted to know how Pemberton was going to react, and that kept me metaphorically on the edge of my seat. Well worth a read if you enjoy complex characters, or are interested in the backgrounded-yet-highlighted tension between loggers and the nascent development of national parks.
    • 4/5
      Maybe I'm partial because of the setting (Western North Carolina), but I really enjoyed this story. The author brings the characters and locales to life, and I enjoyed learning more about the history and speech patterns of the area. I will definitely be checking out Rash's other books.
    • 5/5
      Audiobook performed by Phil Gigante.

      In 1929 George Pemberton brings his new wife, Serena, back from Boston to North Carolina, where they plan to make their fortune in timber. George has worked in the lumber camp before, but Serena is new to the mountains. She soon proves herself to be the savy, determined business partner George needs.

      Wow … Lady MacBeth has nothing on Serena. I can’t remember when I loved reading a book about a character I disliked so much. Serena is fascinating. From the cool demeanor when confronted with George’s past love life, to her taming an eagle, to turning a wounded man into her faithful servant, to orchestrating the elimination of those who get in her way, she is a woman who demands the reader’s attention. While I was sometimes horrified by her behavior, I could not help but marvel at her strength, and wonder if ANYONE would step forward to stop her.

      The other characters are equally well-drawn. George is an ambitious man who had brought home the perfect companion and business partner; Serena will make him the man he wants to be. But he slowly realizes that he may have overlooked a fatal flaw. Rachel, the young woman in George’s past, proves herself to be strong and resourceful. Sheriff McDowell is a man of integrity, intelligent and steadfast; he will NOT be bought by the Pembertons, no matter the cost to him personally or professionally. Galloway is the perfect faithful sidekick to Serena; he keeps her hands (mostly) clean, while doing her dirty work.

      I liked how Rash incorporated the history of the era. The push to set aside land for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the difficulties brought about by the Great Depression, and the move West by many people who had lost everything. These elements gave the novel a great sense of time and place.

      Phil Gigante does a wonderful job performing the audio book. His pacing is good, and he gives each character a unique voice.
    • 4/5
      Haunting story of timber barons in early 20th-century North Carolina. On a trip to Boston George Pemberton is enchanted by and marries young orphan Serena. She is lovely and strong, but soon her strength in consolidating their holdings and their personal life moves into uncomfortable. She earns the respect of the loggers with her timber knowledge, but when she brings an eagle into camp and becomes more solemn and remote, What are the borders between strength and psychopath?As a lover of the North Carolina mountains, I don't think this story will slip from my mind any time soon -- but it was a bit stilted. I cannot wholeheartedly recommend.