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Nobody's Fool

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 8,099 ratings · 501 reviews

In his slyly funny and moving new novel, the author of The Risk Pool follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat, upstate New York town--and in the lives of the unluckiest of its citizens. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Jessica Tandy. Author reading tour.

Paperback, 549 pages

Published April 12th 1994 by Vintage (first published 1993)

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Jul 07, 2007 Leighann rated it 4 of 5 stars

I know, I know. You've probably read Empire Falls already. But why not read this Russo classic from 1994? Russo perfectly captures the desolation of small towns that have always longed to be something more than they are. Towns that long for old days. You know, those times when manufacturing jobs were plentiful. When you worked at your great-grandfather's business on Main Street as a kid and then took it over when you became an adult. Hey, I don't remember these times, but Russo paints what is le...more

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Mar 05, 2009 Joy H. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, watched-film-too, favorite-book, read-a-while-ago, adapted-to-film

I enjoyed reading _Nobody's Fool_. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but picture Jack Nicholson playing the part of Sully. In fact, to me, the rascally Sully *was* Jack Nicholson. This idea popped into my mind, spontaneously and unbidden. In fact, I expected everyone who read the book to have the same idea. A short survey proved me wrong. That puzzled me because I was convinced that the choice of Nicholson would be obvious to everyone. So I was a bit disappointed when Paul Newman was chosen t...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Michael O'Neill rated it 5 of 5 stars

I listened to Nobody's Fool while driving a rented moving van across country and regretted only that I was by myself and had no one else to laugh with, cry with, commiserate with, or just plain hug when it ended. I've read a few of Richard Russo's books and I don't understand why he doesn't have a statue on the Washington Mall. Must be only because he is still alive. Of all his books, Nobody's Fool is, by far, my favorite. And Sully, the main character, is, to my mind, an American hero. A beat u...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-books

Full of heart and humour.

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May 16, 2013 Mike Coleman rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read the last chapter of this novel carefully, savoring each word, not wanting it to end. Not wanting it to end badly, either. But Russo comes through. What a big, bawdy, satisfying book this is. Our protagonist is Don Sullivan, "Sully" to his friends, a 60-year-old ne'er-do-well handyman (played by Paul Newman in the movie, which I haven't seen) in a struggling, blue collar town in upstate New York. Sully drinks too much, takes too many pills slipped under the table by the local pharmacist to...more I read the last chapter of this novel carefully, savoring each word, not wanting it to end. Not wanting it to end badly, either. But Russo comes through. What a big, bawdy, satisfying book this is. Our protagonist is Don Sullivan, "Sully" to his friends, a 60-year-old ne'er-do-well handyman (played by Paul Newman in the movie, which I haven't seen) in a struggling, blue collar town in upstate New York. Sully drinks too much, takes too many pills slipped under the table by the local pharmacist to treat a badly injured knee that Sully can't afford to have properly repaired, and in general has lived life against the grain of everyone's expectations, beginning as a high school football star who failed to live up to his promise some four decades or so before our story begins.

But Sully has some saving graces. Namely, he has a talent for making everyone he comes in contact with feel good. Indeed, the folk in North Bath, New York, have come to depend on Sully's undependability, and therein lies the rub in this novel. He can't change. We don't want him to. Yet he has to, for the sake of his son and grandson, at least. Comic scenes with wonderful dialogue and laugh-out-loud situations are balanced by pull-you-up-short flashbacks of how Sully got to be Sully. It's a tough book in many places, especially as Russo describes the bittersweet, generation-to-generation realities of father-son relationships, but the rewards are great.

Russo's intentions are clear when he has local townspeople refer to Sully's work sidekick as Sancho. The assembled parties who are unhappy with our Quixote-like Sully at this particular juncture in his life comprise an entertaining array of local characters, including a neurotic ex-wife, a male colleague who will never admit to his deep Sully-crush, an employer who fancies himself the town Lothario, an attorney and drinking companion whose idea of a meal is three pickled eggs from the jar on the bar at the local hangout, and a son who has returned home from a college teaching job in West Virginia, tenure-free, fleeing a bad marriage and clearly on the same path to destruction as his father. Then there are the women in Sully's life, one of whom has a granddaughter, Two Shoes, whose scenes in this book are gut-wrenching and wise, to say the least. Step by step, Two Shoes carries us closer to the forgiving heart that is the core of the novel.

Through it all, Russo's prose is sure-handed, seemingly effortless. He can pull back the layers of a relationship in a few deft, witty strokes, and his understanding of human nature is remarkable. What sets him apart is his fondness for his characters, even as he reveals their unhappiest truths. And his characterization of a modern-day Don Quixote is food for thought indeed.

There are no tears or violins in the book's final scene, but there is hope for Sully and all the characters who love him, hate him, or both, and that is enough. I'm not sure I want to see the movie; I don't want to tamper with the vivid portrait Russo draws of a small American town on its last legs and the idiosyncratic characters who inhabit it--pickled eggs and all.(less)

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May 08, 2008 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: four-star-fiction, all-fiction, america

Richard Russo is a god! Okay, well, maybe only a demigod, but he's a literary deity for sure. He's the only author I know of who can write a story where nothing much of anything happens and yet it's so enjoyable to read. He's created his own genre---"dying small towns in northeastern U.S." He creates the most vivid, real characters of any author I've read. He also has a sneaky, quirky sense of humor that I love.

Nobody's Fool centers on Sully, a sixty-year-old lovable ne'er-do-well who can never...more

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Nov 17, 2008 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites

this book, along with russo's 'empire falls, is an unarguable classic of american literature...keepers of the canon take note...

it always amazes me when a writer can contain his entire thematic program for a novel in a single image...
chabon did it in 'wonder boys' with a tuba and russo does it here with a cherrystone clam...
this whole novel revolves around the image of a clam...
i freaking love that...
i guess that's my great love for symbolism at work...

an amazing book...
it's like an old friend t...more

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Jason they're opening a new barnes and noble near me on the 19th...that'll be one of the books i pick up in celebration...
i think i'll also get 'sexing the...more
updated Nov 13, 2008 07:08pm

Tracy Hm...

Well, first things first - and I wonder if I could create meaning from it -- The movie Casino Royale was wonderful. Despite its pure craziness, t...more
Nov 14, 2008 08:49am

May 13, 2007 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't know exactly why I love Richard Russo so much (not true: I like him because his characters are granted senses of humor in almost direct proportion to their integrity), but while reading this I had that gluttonous "I love this book and can't stop reading it but wish I could keep reading it forever and that there were tons more RR novels that I could read when I'm through" feeling.

Anyway, we should all live in a world where the definition of a villain is someone with no sense of humor. If...more

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May 17, 2007 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

A few chapters into this book, I realized with joy that I had found a new author whose works I would enjoy tremendously. "Please let this not be his only book," I thought, and I was not disappointed.

Once again, I find that it is the characters, more than plot or writing style, that make this one of my favorite books. (The plot and style are great too, though.) Unusual, lovable, flawed, and most of all hilariously WITTY!

Maybe because it was my first Russo, this remains my favorite of his novels,...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Dee Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Russo’s dialogue’s among the best I’ve ever read! Sully, the dogged loser and antihero of the novel, often does the right thing in the wrong way, doing his best to stay afloat in his scruffy hometown. Rub, his idiotic, zany sidekick, is perfect, and the scenes of their scheming to scrape up a few bucks are truly hilarious. Every character in the novel, from Sully's old landlady and her busybody friends to the caustic bartender and the familiar group of losers at Sully's various haunts, are dead...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: small town smarty pants who like anarchy

Shelves: 2013

This book shows what Richard Russo does so well... make small town life teeming with ne'er-do-wells charming. We're in upstate New York, Bath, where times are tough and everyone is a part of everyone else's business. Mostly everyone is down on their luck, even the town itself. That doesn't stop you from having a good time though. Where some authors would make the crazy shenanigans that go on dark, some how Russo makes them light. Even when the shenanigans are very bad things indeed. The dialogue...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Tamela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Russo is a natural storyteller, moving the plot along by anecdotely introducing more and more about his characters' lives. That he is able to do this using laugh-out-loud dialog and perspective is further tribute to his acumen as a writer. Set during the winter holidays of November, December & January, we are invited to celebrate the chains that main character, Donald Sullivan, forges in life.

Character--I like Russo's characters--mostly. He has an inclusive cast to his philosophy so that ev...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm not one who usually sees a movie and then goes back and reads the book, but what happened here was this: I first read Jennifer Finney Boylan's I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir, an October pick (I tend to read anything having to do with haunting/paranormal in October). The book was so good, I hoofed it to the library to get a copy of Boylan's She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, which was also amazing. That book contained an Afterword by Jennifer's longtime friend and...more

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May 22, 2012 Randy Ehrler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sully Lives in Every Small Town in America

Next to my childhood home was a rental home. This two-flat had a menagerie of tenets over the course of the twenty years I lived there – all colorful, all interesting – some quite scary. My favorite tenants moved in when I was five years old – their names were Herb and Bones. I loved these guys. They were biker hippies – living the single life in 1974 – plenty of woman, “herbs”, parties and visitors.

I knew nothing of there lifestyle. This is what I knew...more Sully Lives in Every Small Town in America

Next to my childhood home was a rental home. This two-flat had a menagerie of tenets over the course of the twenty years I lived there – all colorful, all interesting – some quite scary. My favorite tenants moved in when I was five years old – their names were Herb and Bones. I loved these guys. They were biker hippies – living the single life in 1974 – plenty of woman, “herbs”, parties and visitors.

I knew nothing of there lifestyle. This is what I knew – on a near daily basis I would knock on their door – one of them would answer (probably hung over – or worse!) – see me, smile and say, “Hey, little Fizz, what’s happening?” (Side note – my father’s nickname, in this very small town, was Fizz – making my brother Fizz Jr. and me little Fizz). To this I would hold up a Frisbee and ask if they wanted to play – they always said “yes!” What a picture – little fizz playing Frisbee in the middle of the street with a couple of longhaired bikers. This is one of my best childhood memories.

I don’t know what happened to Bones, but Herb is still around. I see him occasionally and he always makes me smile. He has lived a life much like Sully – the main character in Nobody’s Fool – a life filled with selfish and courageous choices that were always fueled by an unquenchable desire to be free. Herb lives on the edge – few entanglements, always free to leave – today – if the urge should strike.

There is so much about Sully (Herb) that I absolutely don’t agree with – a world full of these guys and the civilized world would be in shambles. But Sully (Herb) is the guy who will give his boss the finger (like we wish we could), he says the things, does the things and goes places many of us privately wish we could, but never will. The last three times I saw Herb, he:

• Sold his Harley and gave all the money to his brother in an effort to help him save his farm.
• Sold everything he owned, bought a large tent, hitch hiked out west and became a sheepherder.
• Moved into a shed behind the main gas station in town – room for a bed and his Harley – lived on microwaved burritos from the gas station – no TV, no fridge, and no pantry.

Sully (Herb) has no bank account. No 401K. No medical benefits. He lives a simple life in which he deals with what is in front of him – today. He is fascinating in what he reveals about what matters in life – because he is not impressed with pretention – he sees through you – sees your heart. Sully is a real man – I’ve known him all my life – his name is Herb. Funny thing is – when I think about growing up in a small town – I can think of many more Sully’s – some I’m even related to. I love those guys.

If you grew up in a small town – read this book - you will know this man intimately. If you did not grow up in a small town – read this book – this is a treasured slice of America that has been lost through the sterilization of our minds and culture resulting from suburbanization, mass everything and an insane desire to look and live like “everyone else.” Nobody’s Fool is a piece if genius.
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Jul 03, 2011 Jane Stewart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: relationships-fiction, 4-plus-star-other

4 ½ stars. About characters in a small town. Sully is engaging and unforgettable. The ending had contentment but made me cry.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
The main story is getting to know a group of characters who have lived their whole lives in a small dying town in northeastern U.S. There are not a lot of changes or major things happening. Instead we see characters talking to their neighbors, going to the diner, going to the bar, working on jobs for each other, and other interactions. The best part is s...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Richard Russo's "Nobody's Fool" focuses on Donald "Sully" Sullivan, a man who has been making his own bull-headed way through life in fictional North Bath, NY for six decades. As the novel opens, Sully is entering a string of bad luck and worse decisions he terms one of his "stupid streaks," and he's working hard to ride it out.

It's not easy, however, as he's got a badly injured knee but can't collect disability, his landlady's son is scheming to get him evicted, his estranged son just showed up...more

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May 19, 2011 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-literature

Yet another good read by this author. His books all seem to follow a similar pattern, not only in setting, but in character personality. He addresses the topics of dysfunction and emotional distance with mild humor; often, his works feature a lone, though not necessarily lonely, middle-aged man struggling with the choices he's made and trying to find his place in his world. This usually involves reconnection with family members in one form or another, a father or son, and the protagonist often f...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Chantal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Richard Russo is often praised for his ability to capture the typical blue-collar town on paper, “to chronicle with insight and compassion the day-to-day life of small town America.” (Houston Chronicle) He does this in Nobody’s Fool by masterfully manipulating points of view to depict/expose his characters from the inside out. Donald Sullivan (Sully), Russo’s main character -- a sixty-year old man with a failing knee, commitment issues, pensions for both drinking and fighting, a heart of gold a...more
Richard Russo is often praised for his ability to capture the typical blue-collar town on paper, “to chronicle with insight and compassion the day-to-day life of small town America.” (Houston Chronicle) He does this in Nobody’s Fool by masterfully manipulating points of view to depict/expose his characters from the inside out. Donald Sullivan (Sully), Russo’s main character -- a sixty-year old man with a failing knee, commitment issues, pensions for both drinking and fighting, a heart of gold and a streak of miserable fortune -- embodies Bath. In knowing him, the reader knows Bath, knows small town America.
Nobody’s Fool opens in a third person omniscient point of view with a broad description of the town: “Upper Main Street in the village of North Bath, just above the town’s two-block-long district, was quietly residential….” With his second sentence Russo brings his reader even closer, to capture his setting:
The houses that bordered Upper Main, as the locals referred to it – although Main, from it’s lower end at the Sans Souci, was less than a quarter mile – were mostly dinosaurs, big aging clapboard Victorians and sprawling Greek Revivals that would have been worth money if they were across the border in Vermont and if they had not been built as, or converted into, two- and occasionally three-family dwellings and rented out over several decades, as slowly deteriorating flats.

As if narrowing the lens of a camera, Russo guides his reader through the town’s streets and deeper into the story until, at page three, the reader has arrived in Miss Beryl’s front room to look out the window with this old lady. And being thoroughly aware of what she sees (Russo’s done an excellent job of description), the reader takes no objection to suddenly being aware of Miss Beryl’s inner thoughts, as well. What makes this first shift in point of view masterful is Russo’s slight of hand: nary are we aware of the shift before Miss Beryl has distracted us with her intelligent wit and eccentric charm: “There’s also a word in English, Miss Beryl had pointed out. Snail. Probably horse doo had a name in French also, but that didn’t mean God intended for you to eat it.”
Shortly hereafter, we meet Sully, Miss Beryl’s tenant. Through Miss Beryl’s eyes we learn that Sully “…was a careless man… without ever meaning to be …And therefore dangerous.” We also witness Sully’s good-natured ribbing of his landlord. We learn that she was his eighth-grade teacher, he checks on her daily, he shovels her walk and he is her ally. We know all of this of him before, on page twenty-five, Russo again shifts the point of view to give us Sully from the inside out: “The first thing Sully saw when he stepped outside….”
The remaining story is told predominantly from the perspectives of these two characters, with the exception of the odd line or short paragraph told from the points of view of various minor characters. These sporadic shifts in points of view, generally, inform the reader of either Sully or Miss Beryl in a way that neither could for the other. For instance, Russo lends the point of view to Rub, Sully’s best friend, in order to cast a different light on Miss Beryl – one that neither Sully nor Miss Beryl could accurately shed, but one that is truer to the town’s impression of her: “Whenever Rub saw her, his eyes got small and hard, his voice edgy and scared, as if he imagined that Miss Beryl were still capable of wielding absolute power over him.” This image of Miss Beryl becomes crucial to the reader’s understanding of her personal conflict and her relationship with her son.
Russo’s expertly crafted shifts in points of view lend the reader an understanding of the story’s characters and their relationships, and, while it is the characters and relationships that sit at the heart of this story, it is also the people and relationships that sit at the heart of any town. In laying his characters and their relationships bare from multiple view points, Russo lays bare the town of Bath, and small town America.
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Jun 04, 2010 Glee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I probably had a soft spot for this book even before reading it, because the film of the same name (starring Paul Newman as Sully) was filmed in my little hometown Beacon in upstate New York. Wonderful movie, wonderful book.

Russo can write. His prose is full of biting wit and clear-eyed development of tragically flawed yet sympathetic characters, such as the aforementioned Sully. And it rings true to my memory of the people I grew up with in that town. The retired 80 year old school teacher (8th...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Patdmac7 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nobody’s Fool – Richard Russo

- (it) hadn’t been so much foolish as “visionary”, which, as everyone knew, was what you called a foolish idea that worked anyway. 8

- Somehow old people, once the revered repositories of the culture’s history and values, had become dusty museums of arcane and worthless information. 16

- We wear the chains we forge in life… 25

- ‘How will you know when you’ve died?’ – ‘I guess everything will stop being so goddamn much fun. 32

- …like most physical labor, there was a rhy...more

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Oct 06, 2009 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My second Russo book and it was even better than the Straight Man. I loved this book and really didn't want it to end. I am still in withdrawal, missing following the life of the main character, Sully, a 60 year old man trying to make ends meet in a very small town in northern New England.

This book takes place between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, but like Straight Man manages to cover an entire life through the device of reflecting back on one's life. The characters in this book are incredib...more

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Feb 19, 2013 wally rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: russo, time-passages, favorites

#3 from russo for me...paperback 549 pages...from 1993, a dedication: for jean levarn findlay, followed by some acknowledgments...a foundation...this that the other a wife, barbara.

story begins:
upper main street in the village of north bath, just above the town's two-block-long business district, was quietly residential for three more blocks, then became even more quietly rural along old route 27a, a serpentine two-lane blacktop that snaked its way through the adirondacks of northern new york, w...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Mac rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-over-and-over

The Nobody's Fool fan club is deservedly large. It is a lovely book. There are some books that I keep coming back to over the years, and I end up reading them over and over. I think I am able to do this in part because the author almost never hits a false note. After a while, I no longer read from the beginning but simply open the book at random, dropping in on my fictional friends unannounced--they seem not to mind. I read the NYT review of this book, and Russo was criticized for wandering abou...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Elizabeth Quinn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here we go again -- another mash note about Richard Russo! I saw the movie version of Nobody's Fool years ago. In fact, I believe it's probably the first Russo story I'd ever "heard." Paul Newman did a great job as Sully, the main character, and I highly recommend the film. Because I'd seen the film, I put off reading the book, even though I'm a huge Russo fan. But once I'd finished everything else he'd written (except for a short story collection because I generally don't read short stories), I...more

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May 02, 2011 esterb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books2movies, must-reads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 19, 2012 Tom Pile added it

Richard Russo writes tales of rundown and overlooked people living in places that saw their best days long ago. Empire Falls, That Old Cape Magic, Bridge of Sighs -- they're all variations on the same themes that animate Nobody's Fool. That takes nothing away from their power as stories, because Russo is such a great storyteller. He makes you care about his characters and want them to win in a game where it seems the odds are always stacked against them. Their transcendence beyond their circumst...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

I bought the Kindle version of Nobody's Fool after being impressed by a handful of reviews on Amazon.co.uk.. I have to confess that I only reached about page 80 of 500-600. I found the first page or two very enticing, with it's dryly humourous description of the quiet, attractive town and the way day-trippers from New York would slowly drive up it's elm-lined residential street after turning off the highway, looking for gas. However, this story of small town America is to me, a young Briton with...more I bought the Kindle version of Nobody's Fool after being impressed by a handful of reviews on Amazon.co.uk.. I have to confess that I only reached about page 80 of 500-600. I found the first page or two very enticing, with it's dryly humourous description of the quiet, attractive town and the way day-trippers from New York would slowly drive up it's elm-lined residential street after turning off the highway, looking for gas. However, this story of small town America is to me, a young Briton with a head full of adventure and promise, too focused on mundane detail, and unreachable lives. I think it's more suited to American readers whose natural love for and interest in their country and its people will keep them reading more.

I think Richard Russo describes his character's thoughts and fears well with a mixture of their actions, words and their inner voices. He is a perceptive observer of the human psyche, but, sadly for me, there doesn't seem to be much passion and optimism in North Bath. I guess this is the point in a way, and perhaps I would enjoy this more as an older reader. The characters seem believable, but for me personally they are too distant, and crucially not enticing or interesting in any way, being so resigned to their humdrum existences. I began to feel depressed about the prognosis for Sully and the other character's futures, yet powerless to intervene, in the same way that I do about people in my own town. I'd like to read about happier characters who are optimistic and enjoying success and the good things in life. In fairness, there are another 450 pages which could feature such characters, but it didn't seem like the story was heading that way. The slow pace of the book is not a problem for me per se, but I would have preferred to read about the stirring and dramatic beauty of the US, and characters who lead more exciting lives (not to say that exciting lives are better, but they do make for more interesting reading).

I am curious enough to want to watch the film based on this book if it is shown on British TV, but I doubt, with so many classics available for free as ebooks, I will return to reading Richard Russo.(less)

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Oct 31, 2010 Kirby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Even though Donald "Sully" Sullivan is a complete screw-up, Richard Russo made me fall completely in love with him! This book tells the story of a down-on-its-heels town and its citizens who are opinionated, brash, and, according to the president of the development company considering a big project in the town, "funny looking."

It's not that you haven't met characters like these before -- Miss Beryl bears a resemblance to Olive Kittredge, for example -- but they do things you don't expect. And Ru...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I started off a bit slow with this book, feeling that his initial setup and exposition of characters, setting, and plot seemed too reminiscent of the beginning of Empire Falls (I know he wrote this first; I read the other first – still, he begins each with an older man who faces decisions from his past that have led him here, a small town with a long-shot hope of redemption from without, the longed-for older female, the local bar/restaurant where the gossip happens…). But I sure do love Russo’s...more I started off a bit slow with this book, feeling that his initial setup and exposition of characters, setting, and plot seemed too reminiscent of the beginning of Empire Falls (I know he wrote this first; I read the other first – still, he begins each with an older man who faces decisions from his past that have led him here, a small town with a long-shot hope of redemption from without, the longed-for older female, the local bar/restaurant where the gossip happens…). But I sure do love Russo’s style, and his talent for character-driven storytelling is definitely one-of-a-kind, and I was quickly won over.

Where to start with this? First of all, it’s massive: 550 pages with small writing. Russo really takes his time in cultivating his scenarios, but they really don’t drag, they just take some time to fully develop and detail the expansive nature of the story. There really isn’t just one plotline or one protagonist; Russo’s focus is spread across the whole town, each player’s role in its past, hope, and ultimate stalemate. The story is too all-encompassing to break down single threads, but I will say that Russo is a master of small-town mentality, city-wise and relationship-wise. And he always keeps the attention, the focus, on the characters, creating as close to real-life humans as you could possibly get, sensationalizing nothing and presenting a character’s flaws and Achilles’ heels as often as their successes – but regardless, you respond with 100% empathy and understanding. All of these characters have their redeeming qualities, and they all come across as “likeable,” even when the details describe them as complete pieces of shit. The main character – Sully – is unreliable, uncommitted, a drifter, a drunk, a gambler, fucks a married woman, runs out on his family: yet you can’t help but root for him. His main antagonist? Equally if not bigger of a piece of shit; yet he also end up being – more or less – likeable. Regardless, the characterization throughout is unbelievable, with time taken to show us multiple sides of many throughout the town: the banker, the 90-year old Sully rents from, the bum who works with Sully and his wife who steals from her dime-store job, the 90 year old owner of the main bar in town, her daughter who runs the place, the one-legged, drunken lawyer who frequents the place, the black cook, and so on and so on.

What I found most strange was that by the end of 550 pages there really wasn’t any resolution to speak of. There are hints certain things find an end of their trajectories, but like life all of these characters continue on with their individual searches, and the reader is left feeling much like a real member is this town, hoping for its eventual resurgence, pulling for its members to mend their ways, and continuingly curious as to what each would be doing now, even after reading.
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Mar 04, 2013 Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read all of Richard Russo's earlier novels prior to this one (Straight man, Mohawk, Risk Pool)and this is my favorite (until I finish Empire falls). I like the multiple points-of-view and how Russo portrays older characters. Those of his novels with blue collar characters and surroundings are more interesting to me because I'm not as familiar with that world. That's why I found Straight man less appealing; it was too familiar (faculty in an English department).

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About Richard Russo

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.

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Quotes from Nobody's Fool

“I'm about to fuck up, he thought clearly, and his next thought was, but I don't have to. This was followed closely by a third thought, the last of this familiar sequence, which was, but I'm going to anyway.” — 7 people liked it

“It was a scary thought. A man could be surrounded by poetry reading and not know it.” — 3 people liked it

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