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Three’s Company

Chances Are... by Richard Russo

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Something I read about Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury has always stuck with me. Faulkner said the novel began with an image in his head that he couldn’t get rid of. I don’t know for sure if that’s what happened with Richard Russo and Chances Are…, but if it did, I have a pretty good idea what that image was. On December 1, 1969 the U.S. conducted a draft lottery for the faltering and unpopular Vietnam War. The draft went by birthdate, the earlier […]

Shoulder Shrug – The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life

The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life by Richard Russo

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Richard Russo is one of my favorite authors, so when I saw this on the “HOT PICKS” shelf at my library I was intrigued. It was fun to get some insight into his life, inspiration and musings, but I won’t be recommending this as much as I recommend his fiction. I enjoyed the stories on writing and life, in particular where he shared the graduation speech he gave to the graduating class of 2004 of Colby College. As that is also my graduation year that […]

Not giving a shit, she decided, is like the defrost option on a car’s heater that miraculously unfogs the windshield, allowing you to see where you’re headed.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

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I started reading this book in 2003 or so when it first came out and it felt like a big huge book that became too much to take on at the time. I realize now that the story is much smaller, and part of that bigness probably comes from the kind of expansive and misleading opening section, and the fact that I was looking through a long view of my future life and not seeing a lot of familiarity with the first few chapters. I […]

Airport fiction, a great read, and a new favorite.

Die Trying, What the Hell Did I Just Read, A Man Called Ove by Lee Child, David Wong, Fredrik Backman

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69. Die Trying by Lee Child (3 stars) I’m not entirely sure why I keep returning to these kinds of books. I don’t know what “kind” of book it is, other than “airport fiction”. You know the kind; the mass market vaguely defined fiction that goes down easy without leaving much of an aftertaste. Easily digested and forgettable, these books cover the literary landscape without leaving any kind of quantifiable mark. They exist to sell books, and they sell books because they exist. I don’t […]

Fools in the Northeast: Round 2

Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo

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Richard Russo is a masterful storyteller. I always enjoy falling into one of his novels, filled with a rich cast of characters. He manages to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary, as he examines common people in small town Americana. This book is a sequel to “Nobody’s Fool” that I read back in 2011. I took a look at that review to see what I had to say about it, as a precursor to this novel. “Russo is one of my favorite authors because […]



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