Richard Russo's strength is definitely in his novels, not short stories. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this book. He just needs that time and space to develop his rich plots and characters in the way we've come to love. I think the first two stories are the best in this book: "The Whore's Chil...
Although Empire Falls is slightly overloaded with plot twists (but not as plot-heavy as Dickens, after all), it's the most enjoyable novel I've read so far this year.All the characters are distinctly depicted, including the secondary ones. For example, it's clear that all three generations of Mintys...
Richard Russo is a god! Okay, well, maybe only a demigod, but he's a literary deity for sure. He's the only author I know of who can write a story where nothing much of anything happens and yet it's so enjoyable to read. He's created his own genre---"dying small towns in northeastern U.S." He cre...
This has got to be one of the quirkiest novels I've ever read.Funniest sentence in the whole book:"It's not an easy thing to be left holding a piece of fruit during introductions."Other great lines:"I'm not a _____________, but I can play that role.""He was a small man. Left-handed. He walked with a...
Russo delicately weaves together the stories of the residents of a small town in Maine struggling through economic downtimes. Russo's characters are complex, his prose is warm and his plot is intriguing without being too convoluted or self-important. One of the best books I have ever read, I couldn'...
Nothing about different cultures, and this was why I originally chose to read the book! This book is primarily about human relationships, what different individuals are looking for in life and how that changes or doesn't change as we get older. So this book is OK, maybe it should even be given three...
This is one of those stories that grows on you more and more as you get deeper into the lives and motivations of the characters. The primary narrator, Louis Lynch, decides at the age of 60 to write the story of his childhood in upstate New York as the only child of a hopelessly optimistic father an...
This is one of Russo's earlier novels. It's a little slow moving and less interesting than more recent works. I know I did enjoy it, though I can't recall too much of the plot now. I read it after reading Empire Falls, and as I recall, the two books had a lot of similarity as far as place and plot...
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