Mohawk

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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Community Reviews

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Julie Suzanne
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
Richard Thurman
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
Randy Ehrler
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
Ajay R
Harry who runs the 'Mohawk Grill' restaurant has a calender which is out of date by a year.This is because "...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
Ryan
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
Daan
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Felicity
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
John
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
Ryan Lawson
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
Adele Stratton
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
Monica
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.
Jason
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
Coleenlou
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.
Amy
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
Diana
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.
Kingston Bowen
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
Nancy
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.
Lois
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?
Barbara
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
Scott Schneider
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.
Jami
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!
Kendall
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
Rajesh Kurup
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
DRobb
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.
Chris
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.
Diane
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.
Mya
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.
Susan
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.
Pam
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?
Anne
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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Richard Russo (born July 15, 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Born in Johnstown, New York, and raised in nearby Gloversville, he earned a B.A. (1967), a M.F.A. (1980), and a Ph.D. (1979) from the University of Arizona.

More about Richard Russo...
Empire Falls Straight Man Bridge of Sighs Nobody's Fool That Old Cape Magic: A Novel

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