“This Darksome Burn” by Nick Ripatrazone

For a blog post that I wrote earlier this month, I had the chance to speak with author and current contributor to Shenandoah, Nick Ripatrazone.  A professor living in New Jersey with his wife and 5-month-old identical twin girls, Ripatrazone gave me the inside scoop on his newly released novella This Darksome Burn and the process that surrounded the writing of this work in particular.  You can read more on that here.  Having now had the opportunity to read the novella myself, I feel that I can give Snopes readers a little more insight into This Darksome Burn and the features that make it stand out from anything else you’ll find on the shelves of your local bookstore.

TDBcoverSet in the rural Oregon wilderness, the novella centers around the lives of the three members of the McGovern family: Luke; his daughter, Aurea; and his son, Ford.  From the outset of the story, it is apparent that the family has been through hardship.  The mother is conspicuously absent, and the McGovern family farm seems far from prospering as it did in past generations.  However, the opening chapters work to assert the age-old idiom “when it rains, it pours”; in the first five pages alone, Luke loses the last of his family’s horses and returns home to discover that his daughter has been raped by her ex-boyfriend Baxter.  This tragic event throws the family into turmoil as Aurea attempts to make sense of what has happened to her while her father simply seeks revenge.  Stuck in the middle, Ford tries to reconcile his family’s troubles, becoming fixated on finding the lost horse as a way to assuage their pain.  This Darksome Burn raises questions about family, relationships, the nature of life and how much control we as humans have over it.

Even more significant than that of Baxter or the watchful eye of the local police, the environment is an ever-present threat in the lives of the McGovern family.  Attempting to survive in the shadow of Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains, the characters battle harsh weather, the rural landscape, and a variety of wildlife throughout the course of the novella.  These elements of nature are characters in their own right, especially the stream that curves through the woods surrounding the McGovern property.  This small, seemingly insignificant body of water is referred to by multiple characters, and it is described by all with apprehension and a sense of foreboding.  Nothing good occurs from interacting with this particular element of nature, a rule that the McGovern family seems to learn the hard way.

Nick_RipatrazoneWhen I initially compiled the interview material for use in my first blog post about This Darksome Burn, I was a little thrown off by Ripatrazone’s assertion that film had played a significant role in his writing process.  However, after reading the novella and experiencing the short, scene-like chapters, I completely understand how these “snapshots” of life work to create the story’s unique style.  Each chapter generally centers around one main subject and uses vivid description and extremely focused language to fully immerse the reader in the scene.  The chapters vary in length and when they occur (some jump months ahead while others simply describe the next action), but they all give a “zoomed in” view of the significant events in the story.  I would even liken reading This Darksome Burn to watching a film put together by an immensely skilled director, one who, with painstaking detail, captures exactly what he wants the viewer to see in each shot through his lens.

I would recommend Nick Ripatrazone’s This Darksome Burn to any reader who appreciates being fully immersed in fiction.  While I have admittedly not read a plethora of novellas, this example of the genre kept me engaged throughout its entirety with its innovative “snapshot” chapters and the raw emotion exhibited by the characters.  Of perhaps even greater value, it forced me to think about difficult aspects of the human condition while leaving me with more questions than answers by the end.

Check out Nick Ripatrazone’s new novella This Darksome Burn, which is available from Queen’s Ferry Press.


A Conversation with Nick Ripatrazone

This Darksome BurnNick Ripatrazone, a contributor for the current issue of Shenandoah, has immersed himself in many aspects of the literary world, writing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, serving as a founding editor of The Susquehanna Review, and teaching English courses at both secondary and undergraduate levels.  His flash fiction piece, “The Cribbing Collar,” received honorable mention in this year’s Bevel Summers Contest.  Recently, we asked Nick to share some information regarding his newly published novella, This Darksome Burn.  Named a “great new read” by High Country News, here is what the author had to say about his latest published work.

Tell us a little about This Darksome Burn.

The novella is set in the shadow of Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains, and is focused on the splintered McGovern family. Aurea is raped by her ex-boyfriend, and though her overbearing father, Luke, gains revenge, the act does little to soothe her pain. Luke soon can’t control his vengeance, causing grief to those he is supposed to love and protect.

What made you decide to write this story in the form of a novella?

I love novellas–in fact, I recently wrote an appreciation of the form for The Millions, and although this book went through a few different forms (experimental play, novel manuscript, shooting script, and, finally a novella), its final form felt the most true. I think readers who like novellas appreciate that they are short enough to digest in a day or afternoon, but long enough to be revisited and make new discoveries.

Can you give us some insight into your writing process?

I have 5 ½ month identical twin daughters, so I write in short but focused bursts, and often late at night (and on through to midnight and the early morning hours during the weekend). The forms of the novella and short fiction are perfect for me, since I can keep them churning in the back of my mind during the day (I teach public-school English, then go for an afternoon run) but they can be refined and finished in a manageable amount of time. And I’m the type of writer who relishes revision. I’m old enough to know that drafts deserve to be torn apart, and this book is the product of cross-outs, margin notes, and the guidance of my editor/publisher, Erin Knowles McKnight.

How is this novella different from your previously published work?

My first two books of creative work were poetry (Oblations was prose poetry, This Is Not About Birds was more traditional, lineated poetry–both from Gold Wake Press), so it’s been nice to see early reviewers and readers appreciate this novella’s language. I’ve published a lot of fiction (and have another novella, as well as a short story collection, coming out next year), but poetry has taught me to write word-to-word rather than paragraph-to-paragraph. I credit the brevity of that form for helping me revise this book.

What unique aspects of your writing can readers expect to find in This Darksome Burn?

As a fan of slow-burn horror films (everything from The Shining to the more recent The House of the Devil), I definitely take a filmic approach to fiction. The book’s short chapters are meant to be snapshots rather than exhaustive narratives. It’s a book that shifts between literary and horror genres, but I lean more toward the psychological horror of “The Pedersen Kid” by William Gass than gore. This is a book about people losing their hearts and minds against the backdrop of near-constant snow.

Check out Nick Ripatrazone’s new novella This Darksome Burn, which is available from Queen’s Ferry Press.


Chuck Reviews Cormac M. Never Wrote

Here’s a link to an amusing blog which specializes in imaginary restaurant reviews by Cormac McCarthy (who was born in New Jersey, and christened “Charles.” . . or Chuck).

http://yelpingwithcormac.tumblr.com/


recent-meR. T. Smith has edited Shenandoah since 1995 and serves as Writer-in-Residence at Washington & Lee. His forthcoming books are Doves in Flight: 13 Fictions and Summoning Shades: New Poems, both due in 2017.