“The Caretaker” by Ron Rash

“The Caretaker” is a very readable story based in North Carolina in the early 1950s when the Korean War was forcing the youth of America to be called up for military service.

This happens to Jacob Hampton soon after he has met Naomi and against his parents wishes, married her. She is not what his wealthy parents envisaged for their only son and their only surviving child. They disinherit him and ostracise his wife who is pregnant even when he is forced to enlist. They had wanted him to marry Veronica, the daughter of another local businessman. Naomi, a cleaner and an outsider was certainly not in their plans for their son.

Jacob has a lifelong friend, Blackburn Gant, who is facially deformed after childhood polio but is a strong and able young man who works alone looking after the local cemetery; a job that suits his solitary nature. Blackburn was bullied at school and then his parents, after making sure he had a secure job, left for Florida; so he is a loner, Jacob his only true friend, even being childhood blood-brothers. A strong bond binds then together and it is to Blackburn that Jacob turns to help support Naomi in his absence as his parents refuse. A task Blackburn fulfills with commitment and dedication.

Jacob’s time in Korea is recounted so we experience his military service and what befalls him ahead of his eventual return to the States.

The theme of the book is a life shattering unfolding deception which has dramatic implications on Naomi’s life, Annie Mae, her baby girl, Blackburn and Jacob himself.

The setting in North Carolina, Blowing Rock, is the centre of the story though Blackburn does make excursions to Tennessee, after Naomi moved back there to live with her widowed father, a proud hardworking farmer. He is one of several other minor characters who enrich the storyline.

This novel is well written, Ron Rash is a much respected American author who shows his skills as we read through how the deception unfolds. To say more would spoil the outcome.