Diane
asked
Richard Russo:
Dear Mr. Russo, So excited to read this! I had written in a previous review that I love your writing so muchI would even read your grocery lists. Do you have a favorite among your own novels? I still laugh out loud when I read Straight Man...especially the part about getting the dog. Hilarious! Thank you for enriching my life. Diane
Richard Russo
Dear Diane--
I have special affection for Straight Man, too, but mostly because it was by far the easiest of all my novels to write. I'd been storing up academic lunacy stories for a good decade and they all just gushed out. As to my other novels, couple stand out not so much because of what's in them as where I was when I wrote them: The Risk Pool written as my father was dying, Empire Falls when my daughters were teenagers and I was terrified I wouldn't be able to protect them from the world's cruelties.
I have special affection for Straight Man, too, but mostly because it was by far the easiest of all my novels to write. I'd been storing up academic lunacy stories for a good decade and they all just gushed out. As to my other novels, couple stand out not so much because of what's in them as where I was when I wrote them: The Risk Pool written as my father was dying, Empire Falls when my daughters were teenagers and I was terrified I wouldn't be able to protect them from the world's cruelties.
More Answered Questions
Caron Kamps Widden
asked
Richard Russo:
Loved Nobody's Fool (since I married into an upstate NY family and Sully was so familiar to me) and look forward to your sequel. Was there a particular moment when it occurred to you that there was a second novel to be written? Or was it something that came to you over time?
Mark Zaborowski
asked
Richard Russo:
Hello Mr. Russo. I'm a big fan of your writing, particularly your ability to make "ordinary" characters' lives so interesting. I have not found another author who can make the seemingly mundane life of a small town so fascinating. So my question to you is: can you recommend other authors that have styles similar to yours? Looking forward to reading your new novel.
Joe D M-H
asked
Richard Russo:
I loved Empire Falls and Straight Man; you capture so much in the way of the humor and humanity of your characters' inner thoughts and the closeness (and intense, familiar realness) of the towns/communities they inhabit. What do you do, if anything, to prepare yourself for writing? Any habits? Do you outline or discovery-write your plots and characterizations? Do you do world-building beforehand or as you go along?
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