Everybody’s Fool
Richard Russo
Allen & Unwin, £8.99
Review by Alastair Mabbott
IN the real world, it’s been nearly 25 years since the publication of Richard Russo’s Nobody’s Fool, but in the town of North Bath, NY, only a decade has passed. Russo has returned to his beleaguered fictional community at some point in the 1980s, by which time the fiasco of the aborted Ultimate Escape Fun Park has become emblematic of North Bath’s failure to make something of itself.
North Bath is a town down on its luck, fated forever to be overshadowed by its wealthier neighbour, Schuyler Springs, which boasts fine dining, a racetrack and a writers’ retreat. Whenever North Bath has tried to emulate Schuyler Springs’ upward trajectory, the town has fallen dismally short of the target – largely due to bad luck, but also the shifty, cost-cutting measures of entrepreneurs like Carl Roebuck, “who most people were surprised to learn WAS an entrepreneur, having known him all their lives as a con man and an asshole.”
The protagonist of Nobody’s Fool, David “Sully” Sullivan (played by Paul Newman in the film version) is now 70 years old. Still a crabby, independent rogue, he’s inherited some money, but that stroke of fortune has been balanced out by the news from his cardiologist that he only has a year or two to live, at best. Even so, Sully still has enough life in him to imbue all his scenes with a rough-hewn vitality.
The difference between Everybody’s Fool and its predecessor is that Sully is no longer the centre of attention. Russo has broadened his scope to take in more of the town, mainly the hapless police chief Douglas Raymer. Raymer is still in shock a year after his wife accidentally got herself killed while leaving him for another man and, against all advice, he’s still trying to find out the identity of her mystery lover. The only clue he has is the remote control to a garage door, and Raymer is convinced that once he finds the door it opens, he’ll have located his quarry.
Along the way Russo throws in numerous set-pieces, a series of bizarre incidents that could only happen in a town as eccentric as North Bath, including, but not limited to, grave robbing, a venomous snake on the loose and even a stray bolt of lightning. If the book is a little unfocused, it doesn’t really matter. Dawdling around in a townful of colourful characters like these never feels like time wasted.
Most importantly, it’s consistently very funny. Russo, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls in 2001, finds plenty of humour in this downtrodden part of America, but not at the expense of compassion, or he could never rip into the place with such laugh-out-loud results. Ultimately, the humour is gentle and stops well short of mocking its working class characters, but Russo’s tone is smart and edgy enough to satisfy those who like their jokes to have a bit of bite too. It’s a long-awaited sequel, but definitely worth it.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here