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Nov 13, 2008

Sarahfina rated it:

First the bad news: Russo, as one of the Great Male Narcissists (a term coined by D.F. Wallace who did not include Russo in his assessment)has probably been accused of both racism and misogyny and these allegations do have some merit.

I have read all of Richard Russo's books and I have greatly enjoyed them all. But I am troubled by the fact that often, if a female character isn't chasing you with a rolling pin, she's got your dick in her mouth. Crazed harridans and insatiable sluts ma More...

5 comments like (28 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2007

Dorian rated it:

Flashback to 1999: setting off on a 30-hour train ride between Halifax and London, ON, I pick up Russo's new novel Straight Man, on the recommendation of a bookseller friend. Enthralled all the way through the Maritimes and Quebec--laughing aloud in that half-empty compartment.

Once in London, I pick up The Risk Pool and Nobody's Fool, two of Russo's earlier books. And love them, esp. Nobody's Fool, which must surely be Russo's best work. A few years later, in Ithaca, NY, I eagerly p More...

4 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2008

Steve rated it:

With over 500 pages, and multidimensional profiles covering school days through to later years, a great writer like Russo can give you plenty to chew on. What I appreciated most was the rich contrast in character attitudes. Is it better to be an optimist offering the benefit of the doubt even if naively, or a pessimist giving the detriment of the doubt even if unfairly?

Two of the main characters were artists. This gave Russo the chance to use their works to help interpret the stor More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Mike rated it:

I've been a fan of Russo's from way back, having particularly dug _The Risk Pool_. On the one hand I've always had a homeboy's appreciation for the way he captures upstate NY's rusted-town class divisions and social dynamics. (The guy has a brilliant ear for the very funny meanness between friends & family I recall all too well from high school and every other Thanksgiving.) But, that other hand, he also always surprised me--his characters would reveal in some small, throwaway line a complexi More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it:

There is a stone bridge in Venice, Italy they call the Bridge of Sighs. it connects the Doge's Palace in St. Mark's Square, where there are interrogation rooms, to an adjacent prison. Crossing this bridge, the convicts - at least the ones without money or influence - came to understand that all hope was lost. According to legend, their despairing sighs could be heard echoing in the neighboring canals.

Strangely enough, I never felt that "all hope was lost" while reading this More...

9 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Kim rated it:

When I finished reading Richard Russo's wonderful novel Empire Falls (for which he won the Pulitzer), I wondered - how will this novelist do this again? Turns out, he just keeps getting better. One thing I've always admired about Russo is his ability to write about small towns in a way that honors the provincial nature of small town life while exploring all of its intricacies and nuances, its complexity and heartache - the way a person can live a wide life in the smallest of ponds. Perhaps th More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Josh rated it:

I was a little apprehensive about this book after reading the press it received. I knew I would enjoy it, but I seeing that involved a middle-aged man reflecting on his life in a dying New England town, I feared a retread of Empire Falls.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Many of the elements you would expect from Russo are there, the quiet politics of small towns, the relationship between parents and children and even the tainted river are all present. But Russo expands on these and b More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2007

Gunjan rated it:

what is it about these apparently ordinary people that would make anyone persist in believing them to be extraordinary? and they are. that's really the meat and bones of the story. i urge you to read it if you have the time, interest, and patience.

some favorite passages/quotes:

"The middle, she said, was the real America, the America that mattered, the America that was worth fighting wars to defend. There was just the one problem with being in the fluid middle. You c More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2008

RandomAnthony rated it:

This might be my longest review ever. Here we go, in bullet points...

1. I like Russo's work a lot, esp. Straight Man, Nobody's Fool, and Risk Pool. Nobody writes about rundown small towns better than Russo. In the three books already mentioned Russo doesn't overshoot his purpose; he's funny and psychologically incisive without becoming ponderous, although he can be rightfully accused of painting a rosier picture than his settings warrant. Bridge of Sighs, also set in a small town, More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 19, 2008

Beth rated it:

Russo's story is set in a small, decaying town. His main characters include decent, ineffective men who are trapped there, and smarter women who see the town for what it is, but are equally trapped. He's worked this territory before, and in my opinion, better in other books. An editor could have tightened up the prose and made this an outstanding story.

Even so, the story still drew me in, and sometimes I couldn't put it down. Two boyhood friends are now 60 years old. The narrat More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2008

D'Anne rated it:

I really love Richard Russo and really enjoyed this book but felt it went on a little too long at the end -- like a good friend who you love to spend time with but who stays maybe a day longer than he should because as much as you love him you've got work to do. And yet, you can hardly be too upset because this friend says things like:"[T]here is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them, are phantoms. The More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2008

Jason rated it:

(My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

As regular readers know, artistic criticism is something fairly new to me (or at least regular artistic criticism is), with the entire thing being as much of a learning process for me as it often is for you; and of all the new things I am learning about the subject these days, one of the most surprising is of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 13, 2008

Samilja rated it:

As usual, Russo sticks to the proverbial ribs. That is, for me anyway, his stories stay with me. I find myself thinking about the characters long after I've finished the book in question & 'Bridge' is no exception.

Russo's greatest strength is an ability to create detailed, unique and real characters and there are many here. Spanning decades, various stories unfold, featuring a complex crossover of characters and episodes. It's a treat indeed to glimpse one incident from the perspect More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2007

marg rated it:

Hmm. Well, Empire Falls this was not - it lacked the freshness and colorful characters and small town charm, though Russo tried valiantly to capture that in this book - it just felt flat to me somehow, like he knew that he was supposed to be incorporating that but it just wasn't working.
The book was readable and at times engrossing, I can't say I wouldn't recommend it, but I had some issues with it. For one thing, Russo would have some insightful turns of phrase and then make sure to exp More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2007

Megan rated it:

I am a huge fan of Richard Russo, so I wanted to love this one. Although, as usual, Russo paints a vivid picture of small town life, somehow the story never grabbed me. Centered on Lou "Lucy" Lynch, a typical Russo lovable loser, we hear the story of his life in a class-conscious upstate New York town. We also get snippets of the life of his best friend, a painter in Venice who escaped the small town. But the story, while solidly told, is never particularly moving. Nothing much hap More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2008

Dollie rated it:

I am not sure if it was because I had grown up in the area where this book takes place or if it was just a very good novel but after 528 pages, I still wanted more. I could have followed these lives and the following generations for a long time. I grew up in Troy NY and I noticed Richard Russo grew up in Gloversville, NY so I gather that is why it all felt so authentic. The town was fictional but I sure did recognize it as well as the characters. I have never read Mr. Russo's books before bu More...

13 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Paula rated it:

Russo is such a pleasure to read. While I don't think this is his best work, it is very good. I loved the picture of post war America. The father especiallly rang true; a simple man who cannot deal with the changes he faces. I thought the wife and her decisions and reactions were right on , but I couldn't quite accept the younger generation. I am sorry but names elude me. The painter as a child made sense, but I couldn't quite accept his transformation into a painter. Maybe a writer. The hero se More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 10, 2009

Bobbi rated it:

This book was a LONG one, but I really enjoyed it. The story is about a man recalling his childhood growing up in the small upstate NY town of Thomaston. I could relate to the whole "small ethnic town" thing and really took to each one of the characters who were developed extremely well in my opinion. It's complexity actually makes it difficult to write a review because so much happens that I don't know where to begin!

Lou (nickname Lucy) Lynch is a quiet, insecure boy who t More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2010

Jason rated it:

brilliant...
absolutely brilliant...
russo is very nearly the most important american novelist currently working...

this book is all about the vertiginous...
the deep disorientation and confusion that results from exposure to two very different points of view...
this concept is explored in so many compelling ways through the juxtaposition of black and white, hope to despair, love to hate...
the idea is made that much more complex by the notion of equivocation. More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2008

Nancy (Hrdcovers) rated it:

BRIDGE OF IMPRISONMENT

Is this what Richard Russo is trying to tell us in picking out the title of this book? Are you also someone who tries to analyze the title of each book you read as I do? Built in the 16th century in Venice, The Bridge of Sighs is the last thing a prisoner walks over before reaching his cell. The idea behind the name is that the last view a convict sees before imprisonment is a beautiful Venetian canal which must cause him to sigh at its beauty, never to be seen More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2008

Geoff rated it:

Again, I wish we could have 1/2 star reviews. I'd rate a 3 1/2.

Russo explores the relationships of three (sort of four) families in an upper NY textile town. The story takes place as the factory is shutting down, industrial waste is causing widespread cancer, and working class families are focused on upward mobility in the post-war economy. This poor economy/American Dream dichotomy is indicative of the multi-faceted outlooks of the protagonists and their families who play supportin More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2008

ScottK rated it:

Hmmmmm did I like this book? Yes I did,overall. I love the way Russo captures the small town world and the lives of those who live there. His Characters were wonderful. I loved Love Love the Mother, Tessa.If we had half points it would be a 3.5 . The reason being, It sucked me in at the beginning but somewhere near the middle my enthusiasm lagged a bit. I wanted to keep reading because I knew that if I did I would be rewarded in the end. I was,not only by the fact that I finished it, but also be More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 12, 2008

Jeremy rated it:

This is Russo's best book.

He does a couple things in this book that are impressive on both a technical and human level.

That Russo can lovingly create deep and human characters has been established in all of his novels. What's truly amazing about Bridge of Sighs is the amount of depth he gives to nearly every character in the book. At the beginning of the novel we see the story from the perspective of only a couple characters. During this time, many of the characters se More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2007

Sallyann rated it:

I find Russo sooooooo disappointing - his books start out great and I love the voices in the first half, and then they turn into trite tales that have been rehashed over and over... And I don't mean of the universal kind! (I end up going back to him every couple of years because he does have a really captiviating first chapter.... and I have forgotten my disappointment in the last book...)

I really liked Lou/Lucy's voice in the early part of this book, but I felt like Russo really los More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

Debbie rated it:

I loved Straight Man and Empire Falls, yet, while this one still has Russo's deep faith in humanity and excellent story telling voice, it was not quite as good for me. One reason is a problem with editing in the book business. Gone are the Gordon Lishes who are able to clean up manuscripts like Raymond Carver's and change a story from OK to brilliant. You get the feeling that no one touches 'name' writers at all. They just give them a pen and print the result.

I think if someone coul More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

Alison rated it:

My dad gave me Empire Falls, and after whipping through that, he passed along Bridge of Sighs. While Russo is better known for Empire Falls, I liked Bridge of Sighs better. It was a little slow to start, but I got sucked in pretty easily after the first chapter or so. It's about a small town in upstate NY and the interactions of two boys as they grow up and apart and their relationship with a girl. Because the setting is similar to that of Empire Falls, I went in to this expecting a similar s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 13, 2009

Jane rated it:

This is classic Richard Russo. Set in a small town in New York, the story gives us Lou C. (Lucy) Lynch, growing up, falling in love, and basically experiencing the ups and downs of life. I found Lou C. and his father a bit annoying. They grew on me as I got to know them, although I still wanted to knock some sense into both of them at times. I always like Russo's stories and this one entertained me quite nicely.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Karen rated it:

The Bridge of Sighs is one long-ass bridge. I suppose once you win a Pulitzer Prize, you don't have to submit to pesky things like editing. In this case, though, it would have been beneficial. The book was too long, and weirdly repetitive. I still dig Russo's writing, for the most part, and the way he can describe all the unspoken things that go on within people's relationships. That's amazing. But I was done with the book about 200 pages before he was. I finished, but only because I had some fo More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 19, 2011

Scott rated it:

This is a very melancholy book, the first novel following the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Empire Falls by the talented Russo. Probably a bit overlong in my opinion. The story involves 3 friends, 2 boys and a girl, and their families growing up in a small upstate New York town. They are now much older (about 60) with 2 of them married and living in the same hometown and the other living in Venice, Italy. The book weaves back and forth from past to present, tying their lives and fates togethe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 25, 2008

Michael rated it:

Ah, for the days when editors edited! This ambitious, daring, and sometimes interesting work certainly could have used some editorial help. Far too long and repetitive and failing in its ending, the work explores the very basic issues of free will versus determinism, relations between the sexes, the nature of friendship, and both the inaccuracy and persistence of memory. I kept faith with the author until the narrative collapsed under the weight of the expectations he had raised. I gave it t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)