Russo's slyly funny and moving novel follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New Yorkand in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years.
Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a longestranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps.
With its sly and uproarious humor and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool is storytelling at its most generous.
Another good Russo study of a dying town in the N, E. corner of America and the cranky, yet more or less likable, people who live there, Even though the book was writtenyears ago, it feels timeless, Don't we all know a Sullyayear old wisecracking guy with a bad knee who gets involved in everything without taking actual responsibility And his retired school teacher/landlady whose son has dollar signs in his eyes dreaming of the day he can sell her house for a nice profit Middleclass people stuck in the past, or stuck in loveless marriages Of course.
And Russo's detailed characterizations allow us to know these people so well, yet maybe we wouldn't want to know a few of them, Actually, I grew to dislike many of them and then loved them again by the end, Some of the humor here was at the expense of others, And not very respectful of women, or really anyone else, but maybe that was the point, Russo is simply a master at his craft, “Throughout his life a case study underachiever, Sully people still remarked was nobodys fool, a phrase that Sully no doubt appreciated without ever sensing its
literal application that at sixty, he was divorced from his own wife, carrying on halfheartedly with another mans, estranged from his son, devoid of selfknowledge, badly crippled and virtually unemployable all of which he stubbornly confused with independence.
”
Meet enigmatic Donald “Sully” Sullivan, lifelong resident of the small, dying upstate New York town of Bath who limps through life renting the upstairs apartment in his former eighth grade teachers home, working parttime as a construction worker and amateur gambler, and taking all his meals at Hatties or The Horse.
Most of his shortcomings can be blamed on his deceased father local drunk and bully “Big Jim” Sullivan but Sully is not a man to foster regret or lay blame.
He sticks by his own mistakes: “As always, to Sully, the deepest of lifes mysteries were the mysteries of his own behavior, ” With his unique blend of loyalty, affection and perseverance, Sully is an endearing contemporary hero of sorts, He made me laugh out loud with his irreverent sarcasm and had me shaking my head in disbelief at his “stupid streaks, ” I cheered his unwavering path of least resistance and thanked God I wasnt married to him,
But Sully is just one of the many unforgettable characters in this book, I adoredyearold former schoolteacher and widow Beryl Peoples, a woman who openly admits her only child, Clive Jr, is NOT the “star of her firmament, ” Sullys work partner and close friend, Rub Squeers, is one of the most poignant characters Ive ever met in a book dimwitted, emotionally raw, and loyal beyond measure.
The remaining cast of characters is small but also impeccably sketched, So, if you prefer people over plot, this is your book, It is very long well overpages and took me almost a month to read, but it lends itself well to quiet unrushed reading, Ill leave you now with one of my favorite Sullyisms one of many:
“There was a certain degree of aggravation beyond which Sully would not go, and today hed reached it.
There were days when the world set up more than its usual phalanx of obstacles, and when Sully sensed this principle in action he hung it up.
” Occasionally Sully makes sound decisions My third read by Richard Russo, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls, did not disappoint, Sully is, divorced, out of work, has a bum leg , and lives in histh grade teachers attic, This story about the bordering on foul mouthed, hard drinking, and slightly womanizing curmudgeon who is set among a quirky cast of characters living in a down and out town in upstate New York is told with a sharp wit and surprisingly enough is pretty darn hearttouching as well.
Full of good intentions that fizzle and aspirations never achieved he's an imperfect character that still manages to teach us a lesson or two, I read this book in preparation for Russo's new release , a long awaited first bookbook called Everybody's Fool which is due out Mayin which the tale continues.
Sign me up !!Richard Russo is an extraordinary storyteller, I loved Nobody's Fool just a shade less than Empire Falls, although I liked Sully more than Miles, I think Empire Falls was a little more subtle, but Nobody's Fool still has some amazing writing, I enjoyed North Bath and its nemesis Schuyler Springs, NY nearly as much as Empire Falls, ME, There were a lot of similarities between the two books, the rundown New England towns, and the characters what holds everything together is Russo's incredible prose.
Nobody's Fool takes place in upstate New York from just before Thanksgiving inand ends after New Years Day, It focuses on theyear old protagonist, Donald "Sully" Sullivan and his relationships: the wonderfully teasing one with his landlady Beryl Peoples histh grade English teacher, his lover Ruth, his exwife Vera, his "best friend" Rub, his son Peter and his grandson Will.
Each of the characters is beautifully and masterfully drawn, Sully is just ending his studies at a neighboring community college while recuperating from a fall of a ladder which severely injured his knee, He lives upstairs in Beryl's house with his few possessions: "he'd always felt owning things was overrated, All you were doing was alleviating the disappointment of not owning them, " P.
He is a practical joker and sort of the town clown known to have spurts of good luck like when he burned down a house because of leaving a burning cigarette in a couch, but gettingfrom the owner who was glad to be rid of the property for the insurance money and his "stupid streaks", one of which lasts for most of this novel.
"He pretended ignorance as convincingly as laziness, and his pretense of laziness was indistinguishable from the real thing, P.Money was not Sully's strong point: "When Sully needed it most, money had a way of liquefying, then evaporating, and finally leaving just a filmy residue of vague memory.
" P
He is an adorable, compelling character who is effortlessly able to bring out both the best and the worst in those around him,
The book is similar in feel to the Rabbit series of John Updike, but Russo has his own unique voice and writes fantastic dialog.
I highly recommend Nobody's Fool for those who Empire Falls and even more highly recommend Everybody's Fool, the sequel that Russo published in, Wonder when he will publish something else DNF at,hours of listening, halfway through, I hoped I would like this better than I did, I enjoyed some of the writing and the narration is spoton, However, I could do without some of the unnecessary details that prolonged some subjects and increased my discomfort, As I type this, I am thinking especially of the dog that had a parasite, Some things are just very hard to unimagine! It was at this point that I decided to take a break, I've long said that I don't do well with "hilarious" novels, or the kind that states somewhere on a blurb on the cover of the book that it's the "funniest thing ever".
I feel these books are trying to make me laugh and that's exhausting, "Whoops, was I supposed to laugh at that Let me go back and see if it's funny, . . Nope, still barely made me crack a smiler, " Books that feature characters that were written with the sole purpose of getting laughs, mean kind of laughs, at a character's expense, Yeah, I don't do real well with those, I'm too sensitive or something because the idea of laughing at someone so clearly pathetic kind of makes my stomach hurt to think about.
Yes, even literary characters, and probably more so, because I make such deep connections with characters in books,
I'm a sensitive nerd,
Then along comes Nobody's Fool, I don't believe it says anywhere on the cover that's it's "riproaringly funny", or if it's there I ignored it, This book is not riproaringly funny or even hilarious, It's not without humor, though, That seems to be Russo's genius, This is another novel about smalltown living with smalltown characters dealing with smalltown situations, Russo doesn't want us to laugh at them, per se, but they sometimes find themselves in entertaining and/or humorous situations, Their reactions are realistic. They make dumb decisions and sometimes say dumb things and are often mean to each other, This isn't exclusive to small towns, This is reality,
This weekend we had a close friend visit from out of town, He's actually my boyfriend's friend, but I've stolen him to be my own as well because he's good people, He's in a shitty place right now and that's primarily what we talked about this weekend he's a real person with real shit and he makes real stupid decisions just like other real people do.
In a world that often is superficial and vain, it's refreshing to be around someone who isn't just putting on an act for his benefit or for the benefit of others.
He doesn't come from a small town like Sully in Nobody's Fool, but the end result is the same and is universal to anyone no matter their demographic: There's always a desire for something more.
Ever felt "I didn't sign up for this" or "This is not my beautiful wife" Welcome to Russo's world, I saw Russo's world unfold for real in my living room this weekend,
Some of Russo's characters are pathetic, but they're not the punchline to every joke, Sully's best friend, Rub, is the closest to the punchline, but even that relationship has a degree of reality that is more touching than pathetic, at least in how the relationship
progresses throughout the novel.
These characters have real conversations, something that tends to be lost in a lot of literature I feel most literary conversations try too hard to fit some sort of dialogue quota, and it often feels stilted or forced, no matter how good it is.
This is my first Russo experience, but something tells me this is just how he writes his characters real people with real conversations in real situations.
Another problem I sometimes have while reading is in books that have more than one serious storyline, occasionally I find myself being more interested in one than another.
Like in that whole Game of Thrones stuff, I'm totally invested in Arya's story but couldn't give a shit about most of the other characters, In Nobody's Fool there are several different storylines, and they're all rather decent, I wasn't more invested in Sully's story than I was in his son's story, I wanted to know even more about his grandson Will, but if that's my only complaint, so be it, I have to tip my hat at the writer who will keep my attention all the way through his or her book, That's not an easy task, so kudos, Mr, Russo. I think I just fell in love,
In other words: Sign me up for more, .