The Caretaker: A Novel
ONE OF THE NEW YORKER'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Told against the backdrop of the Korean War as a small Appalachian town sends its sons to battle, The Caretaker by award-winning author Ron Rash ("One of the great American authors at work today" —The New York Times) is a breathtaking love story and a searing examination of the acts we seek to justify in the name of duty, family, honor, and love.
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 It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living.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 Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well.
Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clarke 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 eloped with Jacob a few months after her arrival, the marriage scandalized the community, most of all his wealthy parents who disinherited 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.
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 It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living.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 Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well.
Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clarke 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 eloped with Jacob a few months after her arrival, the marriage scandalized the community, most of all his wealthy parents who disinherited 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.
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Community Reviews
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What’s it about?
This story takes place in rural North Carolina in 1951. Blackburn Gant was disfigured by polio as a child. He has had a lonely existence except for his deep friendship with Jacob Hampton. Jacob’s family is small town royalty, but Jacob has always been kind to Blackburn. Jacob falls in love with a woman named Naomi that his parents don’t approve of. When Jacob is suddenly drafted into the Korean War he asks Blackburn to watch out for Naomi.
What did it make me think about?
How hard it is to do the right thing.
Should I read it?
I have had so many people rave to me about Ron Rash but it took a friend giving me this book to try this author. What a fool I am! This novel is beautifully written, with strong characters, and great pacing. What a different story than I expected. I am so glad I read this one! Very highly recommended.
Quote-
“But as Naomi lay in the dark, she wanted to tell Annie Mae about an ordinary day. Or what had seemed so, because now she knew it hadn’t been ordinary at all. Maybe that was the saddest thing about life, that you couldn’t understand, not really, how good something was while living inside of it. How many such moments swept past, lost forever.”
What’s it about?
This story takes place in rural North Carolina in 1951. Blackburn Gant was disfigured by polio as a child. He has had a lonely existence except for his deep friendship with Jacob Hampton. Jacob’s family is small town royalty, but Jacob has always been kind to Blackburn. Jacob falls in love with a woman named Naomi that his parents don’t approve of. When Jacob is suddenly drafted into the Korean War he asks Blackburn to watch out for Naomi.
What did it make me think about?
How hard it is to do the right thing.
Should I read it?
I have had so many people rave to me about Ron Rash but it took a friend giving me this book to try this author. What a fool I am! This novel is beautifully written, with strong characters, and great pacing. What a different story than I expected. I am so glad I read this one! Very highly recommended.
Quote-
“But as Naomi lay in the dark, she wanted to tell Annie Mae about an ordinary day. Or what had seemed so, because now she knew it hadn’t been ordinary at all. Maybe that was the saddest thing about life, that you couldn’t understand, not really, how good something was while living inside of it. How many such moments swept past, lost forever.”
Infuriating and touching. Those parents! Honestly! A little dragged out in the middle for me. Suitably flawed and human characters.
This story is about Blackburn, the caretaker of the local cemetery. I had to keep reminding myself of that because it was easy to become immersed in the lives around him. The language is simple but the story is deep and rich. A study about connection, grief, and most of all true friendship. Book #86 in 2024
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