The Caretaker by Ron Rash

The Caretaker by Ron Rash
UK Publication: November 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm  
Rating: [★★★]

This ARC was provided by Canongate (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Take good care of my baby…

Synopsis from Goodreads: It’s 1951 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living. But when his best and only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Lampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well.

Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clare is an outcast in Blowing Rock, an outsider, poor and uneducated, who works as a seasonal maid in the town’s most elegant hotel. When Naomi elopes with Jacob a few months after her arrival, the marriage scandalizes the community, most of all his wealthy parents who disinherit him. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer and closer until a shattering development derails numerous lives.

A tender examination of male friendship and rivalry as well as a riveting, page-turning novel of familial devotion, The Caretaker brilliantly depicts the human capacity for delusion and destruction all too often justified as acts of love.

My Thoughts: This is a quiet, slow paced, character driven novel where the peace of the cemetery conflicts with the town and the world around.

The characters in this novel with a few exceptions (Naomi and Blackburn being 2 of them) are horrible especially the ones who believe they are doing the right thing. I have no idea how they managed to convince themselves and each other that what they are doing is anything other than completely wrong.

The book shows small town life clearly, especially the divisions between those who have money and can command others and those who have no money and have to obey for their own sakes.

The best bits of the novel are the interactions between Blackburn and basically anybody. Blackburn is a wonderful character but not too good to be true. He is a loyal friend, a hard worker and in his role as grave digger he gives the dead the dignity they deserve. Everyone needs a Blackburn in their lives, the other characters take ‘em or leave ‘em.

Who would like this? I would recommend this to those who like quiet stories with not a lot of action but a whole lot of heart.

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