Everybody's Fool
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Richard Russo's new novel takes place in the decaying American town of North Bath over the course of a very busy weekend, ten years after the events of Nobody's Fool. Donald 'Sully' Sullivan is trying to ignore his cardiologist's estimate that he has only a year or two left. Ruth, his long-time lover, is still married to Zach and running Hattie's lunch counter, though she's increasingly distracted by her former son-in-law, fresh out of prison and intent on making trouble. Police chief Doug Raymer is obsessing over the identity of the man his wife might have been about to run off with before she died in a freak accident, while local wiseguy Carl Roebuck might finally be running out of luck.
Add a funeral, an escaped cobra, a collapsed building and a lot of beer to the equation and you have a novel which is a pure pleasure to read - genuinely funny, enormously heartfelt and imbued with the warmth and wisdom that are Richard Russo's stock in trade.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When Doug Raymer, chief of police of the forlornly depressed town of North Bath, Maine, falls into an open grave during a funeral service, it is only the first of many farcical and grisly incidents in Russo's shaggy dog story of revenge and redemption. Among the comical set pieces that propel the narrative are a poisonous snakebite, a falling brick wall, and a stigmatalike hand injury. North Bath, as readers of Nobody's Fool will remember, is the home of Sully Sullivan, the hero of the previous book and also a character here. Self-conscious, self-deprecating, and convinced he's everybody's fool, Raymer is obsessed with finding the man his late wife was about to run off with when she fell down the stairs and died. He's convinced that the garage door opener he found in her car will lead him to her lover's home. Meanwhile, he pursues an old feud with Sully; engages in repartee with his clever assistant and her twin brother; and tries to arrest a sociopath whose preferred means of communication are his fists. The remaining circle of ne'er-do-wells, ex-cons, daily drunks, deadbeats, and thieves behave badly enough to keep readers chuckling. The give-and-take of rude but funny dialogue is Russo's trademark, as is his empathy for down-and-outers on the verge of financial calamity. He takes a few false steps, such as giving Raymer a little voice in his head named Dougie, but clever plot twists end the novel on lighthearted note. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
Customer Reviews
Could have fooled me
4.5 stars
Author
American novelist and screenwriter. Won the Pulitzer in 2001 for his novel 'Empire Falls,' and subsequently adapted it for the small screen. He's written a number of screenplays, most notably the 'Twilight' film, which must have netted him a motzah.
Summary
Both these books are set in a fictional town called North Bath in rural New York. In 'Nobody's Fool,' it's Thanksgiving time when we meet almost 60-year-old Donald "Sully" Sullivan, a World War II veteran and perpetual ne'er-do-well jack of all
trades who got by doing various unskilled work until a recent knee injury put him on a less than generous compensation package. This requires him to retrain but all the vocational courses he applies for are full, so he ends up doing introductory psychology, which he hates. At the same time, Sully's pursuing legal action for a better settlement with the assistance of an alcoholic lawyer even less inspiring than his client. Meanwhile our boy, who is estranged from his wife, has been conducting an on-again-off-again affair with Ruth, a cafe proprietor, much to her husband's chagrin. Add to that a string of Runyonesque characters epitomising the aphorism "With friends like these, who needs enemies." Other notables include Sully's elderly landlady, her venal bank manager son, and an extremely dodgy builder who can't keep it in his pants.
The action in 'Everybody's Fool' takes place 10 years later over a Memorial Day weekend. Now 70, Sully has finally come into money, but his failing health limits his ability to enjoy it. We meet Police Chief Raymer whose wife died in an accident 12 months previous. She was having an affair at the time and he knows it. The only evidence he has is a garage door opener, but he's determined to solve the mystery of who was her lover. Roy Purdy, a known wife beater, returns to town after a long hiatus and threatens Sully's ex-GF Ruth. Our boy steps in and a string of unlikely events unfold. Among other things, there's a crumbling building, a dissolving graveyard, and an illicit trade in dangerous snakes. Meanwhile, Raymer struggles to keep on top of his law enforcement responsibilities while pursuing a romance with his female offsider Charice.
Bottom line
'Nobody's Fool' is witty, wry, funny (smile to yourself rather than laugh out loud) as it examines the length and breadth of human foibles on a small scale. It runs to 550 pages, but the writing style is superb: a mixture of Evelyn Waugh, Garrison Keillor and John Irving with occasional dollops of Wodehouse. The second book is like the first, only more so. Best described as a romp, the novel blends mystery, suspense and absurdist comedy in a race to the conclusion.