The Ash Family
The Ash Family
The Ash Family is a 352 page novel that speaks of solipsistic loneliness within a makeshift family unit on the outskirts of society.[666666]
Overview
The Ash Family is the first novel written by North Carolina native Molly Dektar. The book follows young 19 year old Berie, who is eventually renamed Harmony, and her experience being recruited for a communal, environmentalist camp that blurs the line between utopia and cult. The prose is scenic and often fixates on nature, even through a heavy cloud of recurring cynicism. [2]
The novel is packed with heavy-handed symbolism such as the family patriarch being named Dice. Or how Berie, who is plagued by instability and a lack of purpose, is given the name Harmony on the commune. Very few characters are fleshed out in the book, which seems to be very much centered on Harmony. [3]
It is ironic that young Harmony is curious about the farm because she wants to escape the rules and chaos that govern modern human living, but the farm is riddled with its own pseudo-religious disciplinary system. [3]