San Francisco Chronicle – May 13, 2007
“At first glance, Ron Rash's double-wide world of snapping serpents, wounded women, expired expectations and Pentecostal penance appears firmly set in the "scraggly-assed pine trees" and red-dirt landscape of the South. Yet the culture represented in Chemistry resembles that of any number of rural American settings. Rash's stories are expertly told with a poet's eye for language. A few hours with Rash will remind readers that this nation, despite its seeming prosperity and endless opportunity, still has places off the grid -- and not just in the South -- where it is simply enough to hang on for another day.” – Stephen J. Lyons

Publishers Weekly – January 22, 2007
“Haunting... An award-winning Southern novelist, short story writer, and poet, Rash returns to short fiction with 13 snapshots of contemporary Appalachia. The setups are imaginative, and Rash gets the feelings right.”