The Caretaker by Ron Rash

 

Yet another relatively skinny novel, yet another stunningly dense narrative. Impressively well-constructed and well-told, a story about a family that is so unwilling to live with their son's choices that they're willing to set their relationship with him on fire. Well, to be fair, their actions had a fuse of indefinite length, but the outcomes of the parents' choices were inevitable almost the instant their plans started taking narrative shape. A less violent novel than I would have expected, just the two instances of real violence, one an act of war and the other years' worth of enough paying off in a billiards hall. The prose hums like a live wire, the dialogue carries weight like a locomotive. Really a superb novel.