Saints at the River

“At that moment her arms and legs she did not even know were flailing ceased and she becomes part of the river.” 

Rash captures the experience of drowning in a Prologue that quickly spirals into a two-page sentence unbroken by punctuation. This writing tactic parallels the panic, confusion, and helplessness of Ruth as she stumbles and falls to her death in the river. 

“And I was a woman who spent much of her life focusing on surfaces to reveal deeper meanings.” 

Rash parallels the work of Maggie as a photographer and his work as a novelist/poet. Rash illuminates character, theme, and conflict throughout the narrative by his careful use of precise and suggestive images that reveal deeper meanings. 

“I glanced at his wedding ring and remembered a poem from my British Lit class where a woman wore a necklace engraved with the words Noli me tangere. Touch me not.” 

From the beginnings of their relationship, Maggie and Allen could both be wearing this necklace. The image is taken from “Whoso List to Hunt,” a sonnet of Petrarch’s translated by the Elizabethan poet Thomas Wyatt. Ironically, given the developing relationship between Allen and Maggie, Petrarch’s poem is about a man who has decided not to pursue a beautiful woman.