Bridge of Sighs

Bridge of Sighs
By Richard Russo
(1/5 stars)

(I'm going to spoil the hell out of this, so please don't chide me about spoiler space.  You've been warned!)

Richard Russo's previous novel "Empire Falls" won the Pulitzer Prize, the highest award for American fiction.  The only award "Bridge of Sighs" should receive would be for Most Boring Narrator of a Novel.

And I'm not just saying that as some random crackpot or someone who reads Tom Clancy books all the time and stumbled on this one.  I've read all of Russo's other books, including his book of short stories.  "Nobody's Fool," "Empire Falls," and "Risk Pool" were all great novels.

Which is why this is so disappointing to me.  If I can speculate (and why not, it's my review) I think after winning the Pulitzer Russo wanted to do something "serious" to prove he was a Great American Novelist like Hemingway, Updike, etc.  So he tries all this misdirection and sleight of hand by changing narrators and tenses, creating stories within the story.  The problem, though, is that when unraveled the story is perfectly ordinary, a tale so shopworn no amount of magic tricks could make it seem original.

What it all boils down to are three kids and their parents.  There's Lou C. "Lucy" Lynch, who unfortunately narrates most of the story.  Lucy is such a boring, needy, neurotic individual that if he were real I'd want to knock his teeth out.  At 60 he still acts the way he did at 6 and his greatest wish would be that he could be 6 again and living with his mommy and daddy.  How sick is that?  I mean a lot of us would like to be in our late teens or 20s again, but Lucy actually wants to be a little kid.

Since there's no fortune telling machine around to do a reverse "Big" he's lucky to find a woman to wipe his nose and clean up after him.  Her name is Sarah.  She's a painter and substitute teaches art classes at the local schools.  She lost a breast to cancer and had a miscarriage and gave birth to their son Owen.  Of course we only get the bare minimum of detail about that so we can have hundreds of pages of Lucy riding in milk trucks and painting fences like the lost episodes of "Leave It to Beaver."

Sarah also loved another man, a far more interesting man.  His name is Bobby Marconi, later Bobby Noonan.  Where Lucy was the boring nerd like Richie Cunningham (or Potsy really), Bobby was the Fonz, with a motorcycle and tough guy attitude and probably a leather jacket.  Bobby's father was an emotionally abusive jerk, continually knocking up Bobby's mother.  This produced a series of boys who are referred to collectively, except one apparently was named David.  Anyway, once he comes back from military school, Bobby joins the football team and starts dating the beauty queen.  But he really wants Lucy's girlfriend Sarah.  And she really wants him, but she settles for Lucy, which as my Amazon friend Ethan Cooper said is obviously a sign of a character defect.  What girl is really going to pick Potsy over the Fonz?

Far, far too much time is spent on the saga of Lucy's parents opening New York's first convenience store.  I scoffed at how his mom spontaneously comes up with the idea of the modern convenience store.  According to our good friends at Wikipedia they already had 7-11 down south, but to hear Russo tell it Tessa Lynch is the one who came up with the whole thing.

A story with a boring narrator like Lucy can be successful if you can do at least one of two things:

1.  Move the character to interesting locations.
2.  Surround the character with interesting people.

Russo doesn't really do either.  Early on we're told that present day Lucy and Sarah are going to Italy, which is where Bobby is living after becoming a successful painter.  So it seems obvious that Lucy and Sarah should go there and see the interesting places like Rome, Florence, and finally Venice where Bobby lives.

But no.  Instead we stay moribund in Thomaston, New York, the kind of place only Lucy Lynch could love because it's so dreadfully boring.  Most Russo novels feature a down-on-its-luck small town in New York or Maine, but this seemed like the least interesting of any of them.  Well it's like they say, it's the people who make the town.

Which is the second problem.  Other than Bobby, no one else is all that interesting.  Lou's father is appropriately called Big Lou.  That's exactly what he is:  Lou, only bigger--and just as dull.  Lou's mom is most often nagging or bossing everyone around.  Sarah's only slightly better than that.  At least at times there was Uncle Dec there for a little comic relief, otherwise it'd be one bland scene after another.

So we have a dull location with equally dull people.  That leaves very little reason for any reader to keep trudging through the maze Russo sets up.  A smart reader would give up by 300 pages.  An inordinately stubborn reader would plow through to the end, hoping for something to make it worthwhile, only to be sorely disappointed.

This was obviously a misfire for Russo.  The only good thing is that his next novel, "That Old Cape Magic" was much better.  It far more succinctly dealt with the same issues of kids and their parents and a woman loving two different men.  So maybe Russo learned from his mistakes.  I hope so.

Now for my own amusement and to recap what I just said, here are the notes I wrote in the comments of Ethan Cooper's review:

BJ Fraser says:
I had to roll my eyes this afternoon when I got up to the part where his mom invents the convenience store. You really expect me to believe that, Richard Russo? He could have at least had her read or hear about it somewhere else first. As it is I doubt a bookkeeper in upstate New York came up with 7-11...but I'll have to go look it up in Wikipedia.

BJ Fraser says:
I've slogged my way through to nearly page 300 now. Except for the locked in the trunk part and the fight outside the movie theater there's really been nothing interesting as far as Lucy goes. The Noonan parts are better.

BJ Fraser says:
And to follow up to one of my comments, 7-11 began in 1927 in Texas and by the time Lucy's mom comes up with her convenience store, 7-11 already had a bunch of locations open from 7 to 11. The better way to do this would have been to have someone come back from a trip to Texas and mention something offhand to Lucy's mom instead of her seemingly on the spot coming up with the idea.

BJ Fraser says:
Lucy's stories really are tedious. His parents argue about money: whose don't? Even billionaire parents probably argue about buying a solid gold 747 from time to time.

When I did my Bildungsroman, I realized after going over the first draft I needed to get through the childhood stuff fairly quickly and move him to more interesting locales. But he has a Pulitzer and I don't, so what do I know?

BJ Fraser says:
I'm on the last 100 pages now. It all boils down to Lucy and Noonan both love Sarah. As if that hasn't been done a million times before. It's just a bunch of sleight of hand with the weird structure to make it seem like it's something different.

BJ Fraser says:
There is a little bit from Sarah's perspective back in high school/college. (Apparently we're never going to get to that period from between college to when they're 60.)

I'm thinking that Noonan runs away after high school (either because of guilt or dodging Vietnam or both) leaving Sarah to go with the boring guy or nothing at all. Many people probably would have chosen nothing.

I'm probably going to annoy people by putting in spoilers whenever I do finish.

BJ Fraser says:
You don't think The Boring NonAdventures of Lucy Lynch would be a great series? At least it would be good for those suffering from insomnia

BJ Fraser says:
Actually that sounds like a good idea for a series of Saturday Night Live skits. In one episode a quart of milk at Ikey Lubin's is nearing the expiration date. Shots of Lucy sweating and staring at the milk as the clock ticks with dramatic music in the background. Then just as Lucy is about to take the milk out, someone comes along and buys it. In the next thrilling episode, Lucy has only 4 pennies left in the cash register!

BJ Fraser says:
BTW, last year I used the Bridge of Sighs in a story. I wonder if Russo was aware of the tradition I found out from Wikipedia, which I assume is true:

Ahead I see there are already a pair of gondolas approaching the enclosed bridge between the old prisons and the interrogation rooms of the Doge's Palace. This bridge is called the Ponte dei Sospiri or later as the "Bridge of Sighs." I probably could have walked the interior of the bridge if any authorities in Venice had ever caught me scrambling around the city and peeping into people's windows.

"What are we doing here?" I ask Alejandro.

"It's a local superstition that if you kiss beneath the bridge at sunset, your love with last forever," he says.

"Did you kiss Aggie here?"

"No, but I want to kiss you here."

The gondolier finds some space for us to park beneath the bridge.

Though I know I shouldn't, I turn around to face Alejandro. As the sun sets, we each lean forward to kiss. It's a chaster kiss than we usually share, due to the presence of the gondolier and other lovers nearby.

BJ Fraser says:
And while I'm going on and on, perhaps the most unforgivable sin is not having Lucy and Sarah go to Italy as they'd been planning. Is there any question that Venice would make for a much more interesting setting than Thomaston, New York? You've got the art, the architecture, the history, and the canals in Venice. What's Thomaston got? A dirty river and a bunch of houses and businesses going to seed. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

BJ Fraser says:
Turns out you were right about Sarah. What happens is that her mom dies and then she collapses into Lucy's arms and that's how they wind up together.

But there was a little drama when Lucy found a love letter Sarah wrote to Bobby after a recent masectomy. They had a slight argument and then she went off to her mom's old neighborhood in Long Island. Of course she'll come back though. Maybe she'll run into Bobby in New York, though I doubt it.

BTW, what I find hilarious is that in the Acknowledgments he thanks his editor for "saving" this novel; I can't even imagine how terrible it was before the editor got to it.

Nobody's Fool

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo



I first read "Nobody's Fool" about 3 1/2 years ago and at the time I only gave it four stars because I was disappointed with the ending. After rereading the novel, I'm willing now to give it that extra star it deserves. This is a tremendous, tremendous book, even if there isn't really any conflict resolution at the end.

Upon second reading, I was reminded a lot of when I read Anne Tyler's Pulitzer-winning "Breathing Lessons." Both books have the same in-depth storytelling that makes the characters and the world around them seem so fully realized it's easy to believe you could find the town of Bath in upstate New York and run into Donald Sullivan, his cronies, and his nemeses.

And like "Breathing Lessons," the plot of "Nobody's Fool" sounds pretty thin for a 550-page book and not all that enticing. Donald "Sully" Sullivan is a rascally laborer (mostly working under the table) with a bum knee only getting worse, a best friend who smells worse than the garbage he sometimes hauls with his cousins, a lover married to someone else, an an ex-wife who thinks he's Satan incarnate, and a son he never thought much about. Over the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays his luck seems to go from bad to worse as his estranged son returns after being let go from the college where he teaches, Sully's claim for full disability is denied (again), and he punches a police officer, landing him in jail. There's more to that, but it's hard to describe without going on and on about the background of the story because everything that happens seems to extend organically from Sully's bullheaded personality. The only "plot twist" involves the possible building of a theme park and the local savings and loan, but this doesn't contribute a lot to the overall story except to compound the bad luck facing Sully and just about everyone else in Bath.

The writing in this book is just about top-notch and as I said earlier, the setting and characters are about as vivid as anything I've ever read. There aren't the contrivances you find in most other books, including Russo's Pulitzer-winning "Empire Falls," which I feel is a lesser novel than "Nobody's Fool." The two share a lot of the same DNA, along with Russo's "Mohawk" and "The Risk Pool" but I think "Nobody's Fool" is where Russo was really on top of his game.

The only problem as I mentioned earlier and in my original review is there is seemingly no resolution at the end. The novel just sort of coasts to a stop. Everyone's lives--including Sully's--seem to have taken a turn but we don't really know if it was for better or worse. It's disappointing especially because characters like Sully and Miss Peoples are so likable despite their faults that you really want to know what happens to them; you really don't want this book to end. And generally speaking, that's a great problem to have, which is why I'm giving back the star I took away before.

The caution here is that if you're someone who likes reading plot-driven books, this isn't for you. This is a slow, kind of sleepy narrative that appeals to only the more patient readers out there who can appreciate the completeness and reality of the world Russo creates.

By the way, the 1994 movie version of this starring Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, and Bruce Willis is also excellent. That might be better for those who don't want to plow through all 550 pages here.

That is all.

The Whore's Child

The Whore's Child: Stories by Richard Russo

1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

December 8, 2003

Richard Russo can be a great writer, as "Empire Falls" proved. His best work comes in dealing with the plight of trapped citizens of small, fading industrial towns as in "Empire Falls", "Nobody's Fool", and "The Risk Pool". "The Whore's Child" then, does little to showcase his true talent. Most of the stories follow middle-aged professors experiencing mid-life regrets, a la Russo's novel "Straight Man". One story, "The Farther You Go" is later used (or copied from depending on the date of publication) almost exactly in "Straight Man", right down to the narrator's first name.

For anyone who really enjoyed "Straight Man", this collection of stories is great. Those who have little interest in aged professors with no REAL problems whining are better advised to stay away from this book. I definitely fall into the latter category.

In terms of the stories, I thought the title piece would have made a better novella or novel than a short story. The problem is that the tale of the nun is told second-hand when allowing the reader to actually read her story would better allow us to experience the story and to be moved by it as her classmates and professor were. The constraints of the short story do not allow me to get involved with Sister Ursula, so that I never really care about her.

"The Farther You Go", "Buoyancy", and "Poison" all follow along the similar line of an older married guy in a stale marriage on an island in Maine. "Monhegan Light" differs slightly in that the middle-aged guy is widowed and a cinematographer instead of a professor. None have the humor and power of Russo's better novels. "Joyride" is the story of a mother and son's doomed flight across the country that is more true to form. "The Mysteries of Linwood Hart" is the story that best captures the spirit of "Empire Falls"--it's a serious of episodes of 10-year-old Linwood Hart as he begins to truly understand the world. It is by far the best of the collection in my humble opinion.

Most of Russo's writing is good as usual, but one sentence from "Joyride" is one of the worst I have ever seen in print. It reads: "My throat constricted with the knowledge of who I was and what." Try reading that aloud; the "and what" makes no sense at the end of a sentence. "What" at the end almost implies a question, not a statement. At the very least, to end with "what" sounds incomplete, like there should be more there. The better sentence would have been "who and what I was". I can't believe an editor didn't correct that sentence; it's positively awful.

Anyway, except for "Linwood Hart" and "Joyride" (which has its moments), this collection of short stories holds little interest for those not experiencing a mid-life crisis. This attempt to cash in on the success of "Empire Falls" has convinced me that Russo needs to stick with his day job.

Mohawk

Mohawk by Richard Russo

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

November 26, 2003

Some writers manage near-perfection on the first try, other take some practice--Russo is in the latter category and it shows in "Mohawk". The novel is not put together well at all; there are too many characters and too much going on in the story. It's a big disappointment after reading "Nobody's Fool" and "Empire Falls", but "Mohawk" is really where Russo started.

There's no one story; every person in the town of Mohawk, New York has some sort of story. They all sort of interconnect, though I never thought the overall plot went much farther than to demonstrate the complexity of a small town. It would take too much time to go through and detail every sidebar story in the novel.

That is the problem in a nutshell--too much stuff going on. Some of the characters like Dallas Younger and his sister-in-law are just extraneous and don't serve much purpose. Everyone from the diner owner to the bookie gets their life story detailed and in the end that's what makes it hard to discern any actual story; "Mohawk" is really a series of character sketches. The problem is that with so many characters, it's hard to pick out one or two to really care about.

When I said earlier this story isn't put together well, I mean it really isn't put together well. Sometimes a chapter will have a couple paragraphs in the present, then flashback and not come back to the present until the next chapter. Other times there's a flashback for an entire chapter that really doesn't have anything to do with what was going on in the rest of the book. Then some chapters are only a page or two. The dialogue is strong in some parts, but clunky in others. A lot of events are skimmed over--one character dies with little explanation, while another has some kind of illness that I think she recovered from, but the detail was sketchy. There's also a needlessly high body count near the end of the book.

My honest opinion is that this book is a mess and Russo would have done better to keep it hidden away to never see the light of day. If you're a Russo fan it's interesting to make comparisons between characters like Dallas Younger and the fathers in "Empire Falls" and "The Risk Pool" as well as Sully in "Nobody's Fool" or Randall Younger and the sons in "Risk Pool" and "Nobody's Fool" and the daughter in "Empire Falls". If you've never read Russo before, I would recommend any of those books and to just skip this one.

Straight Man

Straight Man: A Novel by Richard Russo

8 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

November 23, 2002

I've read three of Russo's books: Risk Pool, Empire Falls, and Straight Man. Straight Man is the weakest of the three in my opinion. I think it's because William Henry "Hank" Devereaux, Jr. is a jerk and I spent the whole book waiting for him to get his comeuppance. I suppose he got a little comeuppance, but not as much as I would have liked.

The story is the familiar whine of a middle-aged man going through a crisis and "finding himself" over one week. Not an overly interesting story, but the wacky characters and situations make it worth reading. What I found strange is that Hank's father figures so much in his thinking, but really only appears in 3 scenes (only 1 of which is in present day). After all the hype about William Henry Devereaux, Sr., I expected to actually have him around more. And I would have thrown the book against the wall had William of Occam or Occam's Razor been mentioned one more time (much, much overused!).

Straight Man suffers the same problem as Empire Falls, where it seems Russo feels the need to tack on a happy ending in the Epilogue. The Epilogue in Straight Man was of the irritating type where the author starts telling readers all this stuff that happened afterwards, sort of like in historical movies where at the end they flash on the screen what happened to each character after whatever event. It's an irritating way to close the story, I'd rather just leave it open-ended.

Straight Man is an all right book, but Russo has better. I'd also recommend two other books. If you want to read more about a middle-aged man finding himself I'd recommend "Independence Day" by Richard Ford. And for wacky university faculty hijinks I'd recommend "Wonder Boys" by Michael Chabon. Both, I think, do a better job than Straight Man and are worth reading. Enjoy!

The Risk Pool

The Risk Pool by Richard Russo

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

August 18, 2002

If you have a healthy relationship with your parents, then you'll probably think The Risk Pool is the most unrealistic book ever written. However, if your family more resembles the Simpsons than the Cleavers, you'll be able to sympathize with Ned Hall's strained relations with his parents.

Basically Ned's mom cracks up after her relationship with Ned's dad Sam falls apart and a failed affair with a Catholic priest. The result is that even after she gets out of the mental asylum, Ned has to feed her a steady stream of overly-optimistic lies to keep her from falling apart. Sam, on the other hand, is not really a bad guy, but he's no saint either. He gambles, drinks too much, gets into fights, but he's not dangerous. Ned goes from an altar boy when living with his mother to a petty thief while living with his father after his mom's nervous breakdown. Ultimately, Ned leaves home and ends up in NYC as a book editor, trying to not become like his father.

Much like "Empire Falls", Russo's Pulitzer-winning novel that came out over a decade after "Risk Pool", there is a set of well-imagined, very fleshed-out characters which makes a poorly-defined story extremely entertaining. Russo leaves the reader to make their own conclusions about the purpose of the story, which is kind of annoying if you aren't up to the task.

While not the best-written book, The Risk Pool is a funny, engrossing novel that will keep you reading and leave you wanting more at the end. I highly recommend it.

Empire Falls

Empire Falls by Richard Russo
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
June 8, 2002




This book was almost one of the finest I'd read, almost five stars...almost. Had I not read the last fifty pages or so, it probably would have been, but like many books, the ending fell short. It seemed rushed, contrived, and with a touch of deux ex machina that left me feeling cheated.

If you are reading this before reading the book, I won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say that the "bad guys" get their comeuppance and in almost Shakespearean fashion there's quite a body count at the end. As well, the end failed to resolve much of the characters's conflicts.

Other than the ending, the rest of the book was great. I enjoyed the characters and Russo's writing style was very smooth. This was the kind of book that was hard to put down, and even after the last page, it stuck with me. I enjoyed it a lot, but the end was disappointing. Still, it is recommended reading.