Everybody's Fool
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3.0 • 2 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.
