Following Bridge of Sighs—a national best seller hailed by The Boston Globe as “an astounding achievement” and R...
read full description
reviews
Sep 08, 2011
Will
rated it: 
The title refers to a modification of the song “That Old Black Magic,” a tune sung with verve and hope by narrator Jack Griffin’s parents when they would cross the bridge into Cape Cod every summer for one month of relief from eleven months of misery. Each of the book’s eleven chapters connects to some aspect of Cape Cod in Jack’s life, from summer vacations there as a kid, to his honeymoon to the wedding of his daughter’s friend, and later his daughter’s wedding.
Place is important to More...
Place is important to More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
Orrin
rated it:
This is the first book by Richard Russo that I have read and I know he has had some great reviews on previous publications. This was just an OK book for me. It reminded me of a 21st Century Updike or Cheevers. There was almost as much drinking, cheating and dysfunction, but not as many interesting people. The academic snobbery hasn't changed with the century. Other than the male protagonist's wife , daughter and temporary girlfriend, I didn't like or relate to any of the characters in this b
More...
4 comments
like
(8 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
Anderson's Bookshops
rated it: 
Sally said: "This Russo book is a funny, poignant look at a man's mid-life crisis as he travels Cape Cod and his memories. Like the author's Straight Man, this is a light, amusing story that will be sure to please his fans. The main character is carrying around...more This Russo book is a funny, poignant look at a man's mid-life crisis as he travels Cape Cod and his memories. Like the author's Straight Man, this is a light, amusing story that will be sure to please his fans. The main charac
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Aug 18, 2011
Drea
rated it: 
I find Richard Russo's greatest strength to be the humanity he gives to his working-class, somewhat crude, and deeply flawed characters in the blue-collar New England and upstate New York towns he generally chronicles.
That said, this is a book centered on the highly cerebral problems of a middle-aged, middle-class academic going through a life crisis. So...yeah, not so much.
Russo's writing ability still shines through, but the characters just don't have that sympathetic s More...
That said, this is a book centered on the highly cerebral problems of a middle-aged, middle-class academic going through a life crisis. So...yeah, not so much.
Russo's writing ability still shines through, but the characters just don't have that sympathetic s More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
Steve
rated it:
Russo said in an interview that he’d originally intended for this to be a short story. Then he wrote a scene where Jack Griffin, his main character, was on the side of the road talking to his shrew of a mother on the phone when a seagull flew by and dropped a calling card on his head. At that point any tidy resolutions to Griffin’s problems weren’t going to work – further development was going to be needed. But at 261 pages, we could have used more. To be honest, it felt a little thin. I sa
More...
6 comments
like
(7 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
Set in Cape Cod, California, and Maine rather than upstate New York, That Old Cape Magic is smaller in scope than Russo's previous novels but nonetheless contains Russo's trademark psychological complexity. While reviewers disagreed about the novel's overall success, they concurred that Griffin's quarrelsome, bitter parents -- whom Griffin can't seem to shed -- steal the show. Another favorite was the story within a story called "The Summer of the Brownings," about Griffin's childhood
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jun 22, 2011
Lisa
rated it: 
Did Richard Russo fire his editor? I don't care how many Pulitzer Prizes you have; after foisting a book this clumsy on your faithful public, you should be forced to read Elmore Leonard's "Ten Rules of Writing" until your eyes water.
Characters' quotes shouldn't be bookended with long phrases that explain to us what mood they're in when they say them. Readers shouldn't trip over unnecessary verbs that take the place of the perfectly adequate "said" (sneered, sniff More...
Characters' quotes shouldn't be bookended with long phrases that explain to us what mood they're in when they say them. Readers shouldn't trip over unnecessary verbs that take the place of the perfectly adequate "said" (sneered, sniff More...
2 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
Margaret
rated it:
I love Richard Russo. This is my 3rd Russo read in a year, and I'm hooked. That Old Cape Magic is wise and very funny. Spoken in first person, we really get inside the skin of Jack Griffen, learning to empathize with all his baggage around his parents and how their stormy relationship and vacations in Cape Cod gets him stuck in behaviors that even he doesn't like, but can't change. The writing comes from a mature and knowing place that looks at people and loves them despite in spite of their
More...
2 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jan 15, 2012
Sherry
rated it:
What could be wrong with this book? The writing is very good, as one would expect from Richard Russo. The plot is barely there, but that isn’t an issue. The characters are vivid—and that’s the problem. Nearly to a man (or woman), the characters are unlikable, and they are so vividly drawn that the reader feels like they’re jumping off the page—unfortunately, because these are not characters with whom you’d ever want to interact in real life.
The protagonist is Jack, whose parents are More...
The protagonist is Jack, whose parents are More...
Jul 30, 2011
Russo has written another heartwarming novel about love, marriage and familial relationships. His usual candour and humour ensures that the story does not degenerate into a sappy tale about bitter old folks finding their second wind.
Lead character Jack Griffin finds out that he is very much a product of his parents, exhibiting the very traits he finds loathsome in them and also relating to his wife of 34 years in much the same way his parents did with each other. His seemingly perfect marriage More...
Lead character Jack Griffin finds out that he is very much a product of his parents, exhibiting the very traits he finds loathsome in them and also relating to his wife of 34 years in much the same way his parents did with each other. His seemingly perfect marriage More...
Jul 29, 2011
I LOVED this book. Maybe it is a factor of where I am at in life and where Richard Russo is--where this comes from in him, and what it speaks to in me, maybe that accounts for why so many people either love or hate this book. I do think that loosing elderly parents is hard, and that it is hard in a way that losing your parents 'prematurely' is not. All their irritating, difficult aspects have solidified over time--gotten worse and more in your face, and how you have dealt with that over time
More...
Apr 04, 2011
Bobbi
rated it:
Richard Russo is one of my favorite writers--after loving both Bridge of Sighs and Empire Falls, I knew that I had to read this one. Jack Griffen struggles with mid life as he is struggling with his marriage and haunted by memories of his cynical, selfish college professor parents. Definitely one of those books that is more character development than plot, but of course I like that. The characters and scenes are quite vivid--the story takes place mostly in New England. If there is ever a movie,
More...
Mar 30, 2011
Brett
rated it:
Jack Griffin is a screenwriter/college professor who has his father's ashes in his trunk. He and his wife attend the wedding of his daughter's childhood friend and he plans to scatter the ashes while he's on Cape Cod as well. He has a lifetime of memories on Cape Cod though and thoughts of his past and realizations in the present will cast some doubt on his future.
This book is full of interesting characters who are developed as well as to be expected in a 261 page book. Jack Griffi More...
This book is full of interesting characters who are developed as well as to be expected in a 261 page book. Jack Griffi More...
Feb 26, 2011
switterbug (Betsey)
rated it:
Jack Griffin is an irresolute 50-something guy driving around with a lot of dead weight, both figuratively and literally. As the novel opens, he is placing the ashes of his dead father (9 months in the urn now) in the wheel well of his car, (they have been in the trunk) intending to scatter them in Cape Cod. He is meeting his wife and daughter there for the wedding of his daughter's best friend. During this time, the lacunae of memory begin to break free and combat with the credo and convictions
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 25, 2011
Josh
rated it:
Russo has written another heartwarming novel about love, marriage and familial relationships. His usual candour and humour ensures that the story does not degenerate into a sappy tale about bitter old folks finding their second wind.
Lead character Jack Griffin finds out that he is very much a product of his parents, exhibiting the very traits he finds loathsome in them and also relating to his wife of 34 years in much the same way his parents did with each other. His seemingly perfe More...
Lead character Jack Griffin finds out that he is very much a product of his parents, exhibiting the very traits he finds loathsome in them and also relating to his wife of 34 years in much the same way his parents did with each other. His seemingly perfe More...
Oct 05, 2010
Pamela
rated it:
I have enjoyed Russo's Bridge of Sighs, and I loved Empire Falls. I was a little apprehensive about reading another male mid-life crisis book. I'm glad I read this one.
While I don't believe Russo is making any new statements about families and marriage, his prose is just beautiful. I also very much enjoyed the structure of the book, which is bookended by 2 weddings. The descriptions of the story-within-the story are also fascinating and resonant, especially as the character of Griffin More...
While I don't believe Russo is making any new statements about families and marriage, his prose is just beautiful. I also very much enjoyed the structure of the book, which is bookended by 2 weddings. The descriptions of the story-within-the story are also fascinating and resonant, especially as the character of Griffin More...
Sep 26, 2010
Nadeen
rated it:
Somewhere in the middle of this book, a quote from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina stuck in my head and stayed there echoing Russo's writing. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Except in Russo's case, the happy families are non-existant and the unhappy families alike in their own haunting destructive ways. Even happiness foreshadowed some future imagined sadness, realized of not. The families and people are all nuanced but alike in their sadness and
More...
Sep 22, 2010
Elisamatt
rated it:
I almost wanted to give this book a 5--it is very good. However, I was also reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" simultaneously, and they are very different kinds of books. "Cape Cod" is a true 'slice of life' book--a story about a 30 year marriage, bad parents, good parents, perplexing life situations, unrequited love, and marriages that are doomed to fail from the start. Although Richard Russo writes in a totally different way than Ann Tyler, this is that sort of book-
More...
Sep 21, 2010
Stephen
rated it:
Russo's novel starts well and has funny and wise moments throughout--e.g. "You aren't a real adult until you have a mortgage you can't afford" (p.75). However, I found the ending an all-too-easy capitulation to those twin American beliefs: the power of marriage and the family as a refuge, and the psychological insight that can cure almost any neurosis. Plenty of American novels end with a return to the bosom of the family or with an insight that quickly resolves some serious problems,
More...
Sep 03, 2010
Jen
rated it: 
I wasn't prepared for all the emotions in this book! It kind of had me on a rollercoaster and not in a bad way, but it does kind of stay with you even when you're not reading. At first, I couldn't stand Griffin and wasn't sure I even wanted to finish the book because it was kind of depressing, and his weak personality and his domineering mother drove me crazy...but something told me to keep going, and then I wanted things to come out good for him in the end and was really, really glad I finished
More...
Aug 29, 2010
Sterlingcindysu
rated it:
Another reviewer said it best, it was "thin"--would have been a great short story, but the second half really seemed lacking in substance and details. (copied review) The book's two-part structure is simple and elegant: two weddings, a year apart, the first on Cape Cod, the second in Maine. Russo's focus in both parts is on Jack Griffin, a 57-year-old English professor who's having a "middle-age meltdown." Even while the wedding march plays for members of the younger generat
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 19, 2010
Jenifer
rated it:
Even though I have a lot bad to say about this book, our book club had a very good discussion about it. Turned out there was just a lot to say. Early on, I thought the author was taking sort of a dour, pessimistic attitude toward families, marriage, education, and life in general. I hoped there would eventually be some lovely moment to hold on to, or some tenderness in at least one of these dysfunctional relationships, but even at the end it was completely unromantic and unsentimental. Nothing.
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Aug 10, 2010
Sue
rated it:
This story is almost a 4, but because it felt tedious at times, I'm giving it a 3.
Russo reminds me of John Irving, a favorite author of long-standing. Russo, like Irving, tells a story. It's just a story about people and their lives, nothing grandious, nothing in particular about a place or time (although every story, of course, happens some place, some time). But both authors wrap me up in their stories, their dialogues, their situations, and I find myself acting with and reacting t More...
Russo reminds me of John Irving, a favorite author of long-standing. Russo, like Irving, tells a story. It's just a story about people and their lives, nothing grandious, nothing in particular about a place or time (although every story, of course, happens some place, some time). But both authors wrap me up in their stories, their dialogues, their situations, and I find myself acting with and reacting t More...
Jul 22, 2010
Every summer when Griffin and his parents fantasized about buying a house on Cape Cod, where they vacationed, the houses fell into two categories–”Can’t Afford It” and “Wouldn’t have it as a gift.” His parents, self-absorbed snobs, were as hard to please in just about every other regard. Now grown, Griffin finds himself nearly as negative, which his wife Joy finds hard to live with.
The book’s first half is set around a wedding which Griffin and Joy attended, their relationship solid More...
The book’s first half is set around a wedding which Griffin and Joy attended, their relationship solid More...
Jul 19, 2010
Amy Wilder
rated it:
Anne bought me this at Christmas and though I wanted to read it, because I share with some of the characters an obsessive love of the Cape, I also dreaded reading it, because it seemed a little unhappy, and my life, while far from miserable, isn't usually happy enough to withstand a depressing novel tipping the emotional scales.
So I postponed reading it till my week at the Cape, at which point I figured the familiarity of the surroundings would intensify the experience of reading it, More...
So I postponed reading it till my week at the Cape, at which point I figured the familiarity of the surroundings would intensify the experience of reading it, More...
Jun 23, 2010
Mary (MrsBrownsFan)
rated it:
I have to be honest and say that I don't read many books by male authors. I have some that I do read (Nicholas Sparks, Richard Paul Evans, James Patterson, and Pat Conroy), but for the most part, I am strictly a Women's Fiction kind of gal. I also have to say that I purchased Empire Falls when it first came out, and I never read it. I think I read the back and thought it looked good, but then I never picked it up to read the book.
I LOVE any book that takes place in a beachy sett More...
I LOVE any book that takes place in a beachy sett More...
Jun 22, 2010
Debbie
rated it:
Jack Griffin is 57, married to Joy for over 30 years, still chats with his mother regularly by phone, and carries his father's ashes in an urn in the trunk of his car...living life the way his parents did, yet trying to deny that he is doing so. Jack just can't seem to understand why Joy's family enjoys spending so much much time together...and of course why they seem happy while doing it. I would think some of the things he heard from his parents are chiefly to blame for the way he views life
More...
Jun 09, 2010
Claire
rated it:
I fell in love with Richard Russo when I read EMPIRE FALLS. This is a much smaller book, both in scope and in heft. While it didn't overwhelm me the way EMPIRE FALLS did, it did leave me a lot to think about. In the story, Jack Griffin attends two weddings, and in between them considers his marriage, his parents, and his past.
The first 30 pages or so didn't really grab me, and I might have put it down but for the fact that I was going to see Russo speak at an authors' event here in Ka More...
The first 30 pages or so didn't really grab me, and I might have put it down but for the fact that I was going to see Russo speak at an authors' event here in Ka More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 16, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it:
Perfection! Jack Griffin is having a mid-life crisis (A layered topic handled deftly by Russo) that involves reconciling his past and his feelings & impressions of his parents with who he is. He evaluates his parents' marriage and the marriage of his in-laws. He thinks about his dreams that were shared with his wife and how they have changed over his 30 year marriage. He is also witnessing the future through the love life of his daughter and the love lives of her peers. Ultimately, the separatio
More...
Apr 12, 2010
Kate
rated it:
My husband doesn't read fiction quite often, but he does really like the novels by Richard Russo (Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs, The Whore's Child). I was in a pinch to find a book for my book club that I am hosting in May, and I chose his latest novel, That Old Cape Magic.
I finished this over our spring vacation and had mixed feelings about it. It was intriguing to be in the head of a man who is so introspective about his relationships. I don't feel like my husband ever gets to tha More...
I finished this over our spring vacation and had mixed feelings about it. It was intriguing to be in the head of a man who is so introspective about his relationships. I don't feel like my husband ever gets to tha More...
