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Mohawk

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 2,494 ratings · 154 reviews

Originally published in 1986 in the Vintage Contemporaries paperback series—and reissued now in hardcover alongside his masterful new novel, Empire Falls—Richard Russo’s Mohawk remains today as it was described then: A first novel with all the assurance of a mature writer at the peak of form and ambition, Mohawk is set in upstate New York and chronicles over a dozen lives...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published May 8th 2001 by Knopf (first published 1986)

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Dec 15, 2008 Julie Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: escape-fiction

Straight Man is one of my favorite novels of all time, so when I saw that Russo had also written a novel set in a small town in central New York, I had to buy it immediately. I've finally maneuvered free-time for reading into my schedule---what a pleasure it was! Seeing that I live right next to "Mohawk, New York," the town in which the novel is set, I felt even more connected to the characters as names of all of the surrounding areas of my life kept coming up (Even though there isn't a Mohawk C...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Richard Thurman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I fell in love with the works of Richard Russo when I read his Pulitzer Prize winning "Empire Falls". Since then, I've read most of what he has written; and to varying degrees loved it all. My favorites, in addition to Empire, are "Nobody's Fool", and a book I recently read called "Mohawk". Mohawk is the first book Russo ever wrote. If you know Russo at all, you know that his books read like a bluesy Bruce Springsteen song. They tend to be about a small blue collar town where the town's main emp...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Randy Ehrler rated it 5 of 5 stars

At the Dead – End of Life

Life has two principle truths: you are either growing or you are dying. Period. This applies to peoples, places and things: animal, vegetable and mineral.

Mohawk is a town that is dying. It is filled with people who are struggling mightily with this reality. Trying desperately to reverse the course of their town or, at the very least, avoid the same course for their own lives. In the midst of decay, of buildings, businesses, roads, schools, churches and population – how...more At the Dead – End of Life

Life has two principle truths: you are either growing or you are dying. Period. This applies to peoples, places and things: animal, vegetable and mineral.

Mohawk is a town that is dying. It is filled with people who are struggling mightily with this reality. Trying desperately to reverse the course of their town or, at the very least, avoid the same course for their own lives. In the midst of decay, of buildings, businesses, roads, schools, churches and population – how does one resist the pull toward the same?

Life is full of change – it is virtually the only true guarantee in life. Everything changes, constantly – this occurs at an ever-faster rate year by year. Failure to embrace change, to see it as an opportunity for growth, is to get trapped in its wake. The stories and characters in Mohawk reveal individuals who are caught in this wake – terrified of being sucked under buy equally terrified of letting go of the known.

This is a common feeling – especially at mid-life. This is when we start to complain about how things “used” to be, what a better world it was 30 years ago, how screwed up everything is today and how the world is going to “hell in a hand basket.” It is not. Read newspaper, magazine and literary accounts of any time period in our past and you will find passionate proclamations of the “downfall of society.” Every current generation has a segment that laments what is current and feels great nostalgia for what was in their past.

This relates to technology, cars, work, school – everything. Constant change is our new reality. People have not changed. We can choose to embrace the changes and focus on what does remain the same or focus only on the “things” that have changed. One perspective represents growth (life) and the other represents death (decay).

Mohawk is a heartfelt, endearing, moving and blunt portrayal of life surrounded by decay. The lesson to be learned is that we always have a choice. Characters throughout the story dream of leaving (escaping) Mohawk, they believe that a better life exists on the other side of the city limits. The tricky nature of Decay is that it is as much mental as it is physical. It really resides within and it will follow you wherever you go. It is a paradigm through which one views the world – we see expansion or contraction, life or death, - you can change your life when you change your view.

Peace & God Bless!
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Jun 29, 2012 Ajay R rated it 3 of 5 stars

Harry who runs the 'Mohawk Grill' restaurant has a calender which is out of date by a year.This is because "... whoever gave the calendar the year before didn't give him a new one this year. The months are the same and Harry doesn't mind being a few days off". This in a nutshell symbolizes the characters in Richard Russo's debut novel 'Mohawk', a slice of small town America. In fact this mentality is symptomatic of many characters in Russo's works, a mindset where people are just waiting for som...more Harry who runs the 'Mohawk Grill' restaurant has a calender which is out of date by a year.This is because "... whoever gave the calendar the year before didn't give him a new one this year. The months are the same and Harry doesn't mind being a few days off". This in a nutshell symbolizes the characters in Richard Russo's debut novel 'Mohawk', a slice of small town America. In fact this mentality is symptomatic of many characters in Russo's works, a mindset where people are just waiting for something to happen instead of initiating it. They may dislike the life in their town, feel suffocated by it, but they would rather suffer silently or crib about it rather than doing something about it.

Mohawk a fictional town is decaying, it's not yet a ghost town (like the one's in Juan Rulfo's works) but it will soon get there. The tannery industry that provided jobs to the townsmen is dying out and with it the entire town economy and indeed the town itself. The basic theme of the novel is one which is explored in his later works too, but in this debut work Russo has tried a more sprawling canvas. If he has concentrated on a few characters in his later works, here he has tried to cram in many characters, attempting to give each one them their own individuality. There is 'Anne' a divorced mother who is living with her parents in what can only politely be termed as a claustrophobic atmosphere. Oh, she is and has been in love with her cousin's husband 'Dan' for many years now, who also reciprocates it. It is a largely unconsummated affair (with rare sexual trysts). 'Dallas Younger' Anne's ex-husband is going through life as in a pot induced daze, bumping into the myriad issues that life brings up from time to time, not knowing why such things keep happening to him. For instance, when he goes to the laundry he most often misplaces his shirts and comes back with shirts of another person, the result being that he is mostly wearing another' shirts. There is also 'Randall' their son, 'Wild Bill' a mentally challenged young man, Anne's sick father, her cribbing mother.

With such a motley crew of characters one would expect the novel of very engaging and indeed it starts off in such a manner, but sadly soon degenerates into a show-off, manipulative one. Now, all art is in some way manipulative in that the artist tries to make the reader/viewer/listener get into a mindset that he has planned. The issue arises when it becomes too obvious and the flow of the novel seems to be forced. That's what happens here and you can sense Russo trying very hard to impress us. In an attempt to define his characters clearly he overdoes it, the result being that most characters are almost saying to you "look at me, I am not a fictional character, I am a blood and flesh one, so I am a great character". After sometime you get tired of all the (un)subtle hints dropped in passing about the characters which are probably meant to add layers to them. Like Russo tries so hard to impress upon us the gravity of the hidden affair between Anne and Dan, their frustration at being apart even though they love each other, but it doesn't impact us much. To digress a bit, a similar theme of is handled much better by Russo himself in his
'Bridge Of Sighs', where he gives us so many subtle layers which are open to our interpretation. What we feel here though is that Anne and Dan better stop cribbing, grow up and get on with their lives. Actually this is a cruel feeling given what they have gone through, but Russo is to be blamed for making us unsympathetic towards these characters which surely deserve our sympathy. There is also a supposedly mysterious sub-plot involving Anne's father which promises much but doesn't result in anything other than a convoluted trigger to the events that happen before the end. Oh yes, I should also mention the events that happen on a stormy night before the end. Of course there is no rule that a character shouldn't have his/her epiphanies or that things shouldn't come to a head on a stormy night, but when you see multiple strands coming to head on single night, it just seems to be convenient way for the author to tie up every thing.

Ironically, the novel is saved from being a disaster by the very characters on which Russo doesn't spend too much time, a clear indication that the adages 'less is more' and 'don't tell but show' do work. There are a lot of small moments which lift the novel from the morass of forced sentimentality it is mired in. There is a mention in passing (a couple of paragraphs) about Dallas's younger brother 'Dan' who passed away of cancer when he was just 30 and his daughter was one. When he came to know about his terminal illness, Dan got a big loan and bought purchases for nearly 20 years for his daughter. Consider this, a young father in the prime of his life suddenly comes to know that he has very little time to live. What else can we expect in such a situation. That's why buys presents for all the birthdays, Christmases, thanksgiving on which he would not be present. This in itself could be developed into an excellent short story. There is also the moment at the end where Dallas meets his brother's wife 'Lorraine' at the hospital. What happens then is one of the truly goosebumps raising moments that I have read in recent years. I am not one given to easy sentimentality and what Dallas does could be seen as selfish/idiotic/crazy and also as a manifestation of the hidden human spirit at the same time. It's an ambiguous moment, but one which affects us in a way that the other forced moments in the novel do not.
I have mentioned Dallas multiple times now and it is for a reason. He is the character with whom we empathize the most. He is a cad, compulsive drinker, gambler, a person who tries to do the correct thing but most often ends up totally screwing it up, even if he didn't want too. Like he could start for a lunch with his ex-wife and son, but end up in a gambling den or he could remember his niece's birthday in the middle of the night and go to wish her.He is like a kid in many ways, looking wide eyed at the things that happened, not understanding how they happened and that he actually had a part to play in them. But with all this, he comes across as the most honestly crafted character in the entire novel. Russo doesn't try to impose him on his and due to that he is the one we can relate to most. The things that Russo keeps in shadows are ultimately the one that capture our attention. His friendship with Benny is one such. Friends from youth, Benny now owns a automobile workshop where Dallas works. It's difficult to pin down what works between the two. Both of them have been in a terrible fight when young, but never seem to bring it up now. Benny puts with Dallas carousing around without coming to work. Of course Dallas is skilled worker and Benny also likes to join Dallas in raising hell in the bars and gambling dens. But is that the only reason why he puts up with Dallas? The refreshing thing is that there is no declaration of undying friendship or any such thing. It's just 2 guys who are very comfortable with each other, enjoying each other's company and friendship. I would personally love to know more about Dallas and his life. And of course, as in his other works Russo captures perfectly the rhythms of small town life, the bar where people gather to gossip as much as to eat, the aspirations of the characters, their stoic acceptance of their lot in life etc.

Those these things salvage the novel to a great extent ultimately it remains only a fair enough read, a novel which suffers from the author's over enthusiasm in impressing his readers, maybe due to the fact that it was his first novel. Whatever the reason, it is definitively not a patch on his later works. Read it if you have read his other works and want to complete his oeuvre. Others read the other novels/short stories. This one can wait.(less)

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Sep 15, 2012 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am completely blown away by how much I loved this book, and I love all of his books! My favorites are his new ones – Straight Man, Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs – and I have found that I move backwards though his works it is easy to see his themes developing from the beginning, but I didn’t think the stories were as masterfully woven. I thought Nobody’s Fool and Risk Pool were good, stuffed full of Russo’s worldview, but they were trying too hard to be funny, or quirky, or something… both buil...more I am completely blown away by how much I loved this book, and I love all of his books! My favorites are his new ones – Straight Man, Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs – and I have found that I move backwards though his works it is easy to see his themes developing from the beginning, but I didn’t think the stories were as masterfully woven. I thought Nobody’s Fool and Risk Pool were good, stuffed full of Russo’s worldview, but they were trying too hard to be funny, or quirky, or something… both built around aging hooligans, refusing to compromise, walking disasters but lovable fools all the while. Mohawk reminds me a lot of Empire Falls, more than anything. It doesn’t really seem that there is ONE main character. It is a portrait, an overview of a town, and gives a wide variety of principles their equal time and focus in weaving everything together.

If you are familiar with his other work, you’ll definitely notice the familiarity of his source material. Another small down decaying, more crazy old people with exasperated 40 year old sons and daughters trying to care for them, a couple school-age kids wondering if they can escape, a goober cop no one respects, a grill cook/owner who acts as the “center” of town, poker games and gambling, tanneries and/or companies that may or may not pollute the river in town yet everyone needs the job, generational conflicts dating back to Grandfather days effecting the grandson. It’s funny because in some ways it seems like so much material over laps – the grill here could be the grill in Empire Falls, the flat where Dallas lives upstairs could be where the father in The Risk Pool lives, the poker game in Nobody’s Fool could be the exact same as the poker games here – but the way Russo develops the plot, weaves through the details, he really makes each story his own. You notice the similar ideas in each book, but it’s a different story, a different focus, like telling a story about St. Johns and then maybe a story about Alma, a story about Ovid-Elsie – similar, small towns, but still different and unique.

What was really amazing with this story was the way Russo develops 5-6 different plotlines, involving all characters, young and old, and ends up bringing them all together in the end, a climax that lasts nearly 50 pages as he attempts to combine and resolve all conflicts. The variety of characters gives all readers a focal point of view. He even saves many of the revelations for the final quarter of the book, slowly giving away one nugget of backstory at a time. The novel is so character driven, yet the suspense and page-turning tension never lets up; you have no idea what will happen with these characters and you find yourself really pulling for them, hoping that everything will turn out ok.

Like I said with the last Russo book I read, he just makes you feel so happy and sad to be alive. Everything is portrayed so realistically, sugar-coating nothing. His “loveable losers” struggle like the best of us, deal with the fallout of setbacks and past events in ways we don’t even realize we do ourselves, yet underneath there is such a current of empathy, of feeling, of love for his characters. These are human beings, and this is humanity, in all its pain, glory, conflict, success, desire, as time inevitably moves forward and we all attempt to keep afloat.
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Feb 09, 2013 Daan rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Oct 21, 2010 Felicity rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is now the third time I've read this book...a privilege I have never afforded to any author. But this is Richard Russo, and Mohawk is comforting...a place to which you can retreat when you need familiar terrain. I first read the book in 2004, then again in 2007, and now again. This time around, I've noticed that it's clearly the earliest of Russo's books...his writing style is nowhere near as elegant or well-developed as his later novels. But Mohawk is, nonetheless, comforting...Russo has t...more

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May 02, 2013 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my second book in a row that takes place in a small town. In both these books I found that character development to be exceptional.
The characters are all resigned to their small town existence which in Mohawk is a slow meandering life of bad choices made from few options. Although, I found this to be a great read, the characters inability to take charge of their lives and willingness to flounder in their past or familial issues will definitely keep this from my "feel good" book list. Un...more

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Oct 08, 2008 Ryan Lawson rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was Russo's first book and it shows. Richard Russo is one of the best authors that I have run across in my short stint of a life. His narrative has a high-caliber voice that seeks the nostalgia within the reader and steadily draws it out. He's got a knack for craft that most contemporary authors are lacking. His stories offer a steady structure and a very unique as well as entertaining balancing act of numerous characters.

With that said, I think Mohawk is the weakest of the novels. There ar...more This was Russo's first book and it shows. Richard Russo is one of the best authors that I have run across in my short stint of a life. His narrative has a high-caliber voice that seeks the nostalgia within the reader and steadily draws it out. He's got a knack for craft that most contemporary authors are lacking. His stories offer a steady structure and a very unique as well as entertaining balancing act of numerous characters.

With that said, I think Mohawk is the weakest of the novels. There are too many characters in this story, which causes a sense of, not only confusion, but also a kind of depreciation for those characters who are supposed to be the center of attention.

This isn't to say that the main characters are not fleshed out or interesting because they are; however, it is to say that the plethora of people in the book tends to become an assault on the reader's memory rather than an introduction to people they'd like to know.

Secondary characters in this novel, on the other hand, lack the very thing of which Russo is king: voice. In his other works that I've read The Risk Pool, Empire Falls, Straight Man, and The Whore's Child(A short story collection) even the secondary characters are powerful and serve a purpose. Mohawk just carries a lot of extra weight in this department and it does this at the sacrifice of distracting from the more important characters.

It's still a wonderful read. It tugged at my heart to watch the abuse of the town's local retarded character, Wild Bill, who is constantly beaten up by the high school boys and is wrongly accused in most situations he finds himself in. The love stories are full of frustrating and endearing entanglements. And, finally, the town, Mohawk, is an essential character in itself.

This is a book worth reading only after you've read Russo's better stories. I strongly recommend The Risk Pool then Mohawk. I feel fortunate that I have the luxury of picking and choosing from his greatest works instead of having to wait for each one to come out.
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Sep 24, 2009 Adele Stratton rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was Russo’s first novel, published almost 25 years ago in 1986. While it was interesting to read Russo’s first book knowing what an accomplished writer he has become (I adored Empire Falls), and while Mohawk had moments of keen observation, this one began to drag for me around the halfway point, and I almost gave up about 3/4’s through. This is a tale about the inhabitants of the upstate New York town of Mohawk, which has become trademark Russo territory. It seemed unnecessarily choppy, and...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is Russo's first book, but I read it after Straight Man. It's small town life in the North East, filled with characters dealing with a world that's changing and the loss of promise and potential. Like many of Russo's books, you get a great deal of poignancy and sadness, but you also get people who are just trying to make the best of what they have. I found it strangely uplifting. Oh, and for some reason I found Empire Falls much more depressing, I think because of the school incident.

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Nov 21, 2008 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

an extremely tragic novel...
it was very good, but also very difficult to get through...russo's later work has deep tragic elements, but he tempers the adversity and misfortune with charm and wit...those features aren't so much at play in this book...
it is a good first novel, and all the aspects of russo's work that makes him great are here in a sort of embryonic form, but the story never really seems to coalesce or find its narrative focus...
russo really shines when he revolves his narrative aro...more

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Jan 24, 2010 Coleenlou rated it 3 of 5 stars

Russo flexes the character muscles that will lead him to Empire Falls and many of his other great books. In Billy, he gives us a great tragic character without ever having him say more than a few unintelligible words. If I had read this book first, instead of after all of his other books, I would no doubt have scored it higher. Knowing how well Russo can write, however, made this a teeny-weeny disappointment, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

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Aug 31, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Part 1: 4.5 stars
Part 2: 1.5 stars

I've read all but one of Russo's novels (still need to read Nobody's Fool), and this is my 2nd least favorite. When I started it, I actually thought, "Wait a second, have I read this already?" because it is so similar in feel to The Risk Pool and Empire Falls. But not as good. This cast of characters is way too big, and the second half is way too plot-driven. I fell in love with a few really well-developed characters in the first half (Dallas, Anne and Harry), a...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in the mythical leather mill town of Mohawk in upstate NY, the story evolves around several families whose pasts and secrets entertwine.

In an interview for his latest book, a memoir, "Elsewhere," Richard Russo reveals that parts of this book are authobiographical as well. After reading "Elsewhere" I found it easy to identify some of the characters as his parents and grandfather.

An entertaining and suspenseful read.

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Dec 04, 2011 Kingston Bowen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Very goo dread. Having read Russo's most recent writings first, it is obvious this was an earlier novel. I enjoyed it though the style was much different than Straight Man, Bridge of Sighs and Cape Magic. There were similarities but the emphasis was less on a character's struggles with aging and coping with the surrounding changes than on a broader scope of characters and how they relate with each other. Russo did a good job living a small town showing how interconnected everybody can be. As wit...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fiction

This one was not quite as good as his others, for me. Doubly too bad, because now I'm out of Russo until I can get my hands on a copy of That Old Cape Magic. Anyway, the story here seemed awfully similar to that of The Risk Pool--or rather, since Mohawk came first, it seems like a tune-up for The Risk Pool. The Risk Pool was the better-told, more polished version of the story, but it's never a waste of time to read Russo's writing.

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Nov 25, 2012 Lois rated it 3 of 5 stars

I usually love Richard Russo's writing, stories, style... maybe it was me but when I read this book I kept feeling like I missed something. Maybe I was too sporadic in my reading schedule & maybe I'll try reading it again. It was about the small town of mohawk & the towns in the story are familiar to me so that's always interesting. I liked the characters & the era but ? what did I miss?

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Jun 16, 2011 Barbara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-literature

This was Russo's first book, which received critical acclaim, and was also the first that I did not especially enjoy. All the Russo elements are there: small, fading New York town; good guys, bad guys, and drunks; secrets hidden for years, gambling and divorce, and people loving those they should not. Lots of characters with intricate pasts. Unfortunately, this book was just the shell of what Russo's writing would later become; the characters lacked depth, the story was flat, with no excitement...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Scott Schneider rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Richard Russo's writing. I never read his early novels so went back and got Mohawk. It has wonderful characters. A colorful look at small town upstate New York where the local industry is dying. The plot sort of wanders until the final 100 pages where it cascades to the conclusion. It makes me want to reread Nobody's Fool and Empire Falls.

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Apr 08, 2011 Jami rated it 2 of 5 stars

It was okay. His first novel. Many things that he'll carry through to Empire Falls and Bridge of Sighs, but here everything was too crazy and I think there were about three too many subplots. It got too confusing and had too many drawn-out, too-subtle implications to follow. Skip this one and just move on to Empire Falls, which it seems is what he was trying to do here anyway. This is like a rough draft to his future Pulitzer!

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Nov 10, 2008 Kendall rated it 4 of 5 stars

A study of small town life- one built around an industry that is dead or dying. In the case of Mohawk- the industry is leather. Similar to Empire Falls- except Empire Falls is a more mature and grown up version of Mohawk. If you read Empire Falls and Mohawk one after the other- in either order- you can see how the Russo has matured as a writer. Ok. I read something similar to that last statement somewhere- but it's true. I'd also read somewhere that- Amazon.com I believe- that the story or plot...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Rajesh Kurup rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is my third Russo book and probably my favorite. He really has a gift for giving voice to working class, small town America. Mohawk is set in Mohawk, New York a dying industrial town during the late 1960s. The story follows several characters over the course of 5 years as they struggle with the emptiness of their lives and the ensuing quiet desperation. Towards the end, several do break out of Mohawk either by dying or simply escaping.

Russo has such an easygoing writing style that his book...more

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Mar 20, 2010 DRobb rated it 2 of 5 stars

Mohawk is the least satisfying of the three Russo Book i have read. Empire Falls gave much food for thought; Risk Pool provided several engaging, albeit flawed characters.
I didn't find much engaging in this earlier work. Maybe the small town aura has dissipated. Not the same tension or character studies in this one.

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Jul 22, 2010 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having read all of Russo's later books, I didn't find this first novel to be as addictive; the dialogue doesn't yet pop consistently, and the story is a bit flat. The trademark Russo characters are present but only populate the edges here - Mrs. Grouse and her spinster sister are clones of my grandmother and aunt.

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Nov 18, 2009 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I recently read Russo's newest book, That Old Cape Magic, and loved it; so, I thought I would try his fist novel, and I wasn't disappointed. It reminded me of Empire Falls for which he won a Pullitzer because the setting was a small town down on its luck and it had many interesting characters whose lives intertwined.

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May 04, 2013 Mya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2006

This is a complex story of the interwoven lives in a poor, small town. While the story may not qualify as "innovative" it does qualify as a well-written, well-told story, which may be harder. The feel of it has stayed with me, even if all the details haven't. I would gladly read more of Russo.

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Nov 20, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a reread. I wanted to go back to it after reading Russo's memoir, Elsewhere, and I found it more interesting this time through. The town and the characters are of the most interest; I didn't really like some of the plot elements in the ending. The story was somewhat choppy, but worth reading for the Richard Russo fan.

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May 01, 2011 Pam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Richard Russo is comfortable--a good read. But all his stories are so similar--I wait a couple of years until I want some of the same--then I pick up Russo and am not disappointed, just not surprised.
Empire Falls--hands down the best--but maybe I feel that way because I read it first?

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Oct 12, 2009 Anne rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was a real disappointment. He also wrote Empire Falls - a book I didn't want to end! This was a gloomy tale of the residents of a small economically stressed manufacturing town. I almost put it down unfinished, but I kept hoping it would get better - it didn't.

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“People sometimes get in the habit of being loyal to a mistake.” — 17 people liked it

“Knowing and knowing what to do about it were two different things.” — 5 people liked it

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Trivia About Mohawk

Quotes from Mohawk