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Title: Mohawk (Vintage Contemporaries) by Richard Russo ISBN: 0-679-75382-6 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.38 (24 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not as Good as Empire Falls
Comment: Prior to reading this book I read Empire Falls by the same author. Both books are similar in that they are tales about small towns that depended on a factory to keep their economic viability and in both cases the industry has dried up. The first book had a lot of fascinating characters, who for various reasons were "trapped" in their town to live out the rest of their lives there. Mohawk is similar except the characters for the most part are very dull. In both books the two main characters are divorced with a teenager that seems to get into a lot of trouble. In Empire Falls, we have a lot of sympathy for both main characters and their troubled daughter. In Mohawk, the parents are so dull (Anne Grouse and Dallas Younger) that we couldn't care what happens to them and their teenaged son (Randall) seems to do a lot of things on a whim (just drop out of college and hitch-hike back to town) that we really do not know what makes him tick.
Anne has done a few things that defy logic like having an affair with Dallas' best friend (Dan) and still marrying Dallas, though she doesn't love him. Russo fails to reasonably explain Anne's attraction to Dan and the reason for her wanting to marry Dallas. Dallas is so drab as an ex-star high school football player who constantly forgets what he had planned to do.
One of the few characters with any substance is Mather Grouse, Anne's father who lived a very rigid life. Mather always wanted that Anne leave Mohawk to find her fortune and she is on the verge of doing so, when he suddenly dies. Anne is forced to give up her plans in order to stay with her mother. Anne's mother is pretty annoying and is herself annoyed by just about everything especially any type of insect.
I slogged through this book and finished it only because I felt I needed to, not because I enjoyed it, which I didn't.
It seems like this book is an early stab by Russo and Empire Falls is the "cleaned up" and greatly improved version. Final score: Empire Falls 5, Mohawk 2 ½ to 3.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not as good as Empire Falls
Comment: Prior to reading this book I read Empire Falls by the same author. Both books are similar in that they are tales about small towns that depended on a factory to keep their economic viability and in both cases the industry has dried up. The first book had a lot of fascinating characters, who for various reasons were "trapped" in their town to live out the rest of their lives there. Mohawk is similar except the characters for the most part are very dull. In both books the two main characters are divorced with a teenager that seems to get into a lot of trouble. In Empire Falls, we have a lot of sympathy for both main characters and their troubled daughter. In Mohawk, the parents are so dull (Anne Grouse and Dallas Younger) that we couldn't care what happens to them and their teenaged son (Randall) seems to do a lot of things on a whim (just drop out of college and hitch-hike back to town) that we really do not know what makes him tick.
Anne has done a few things that defy logic like having an affair with Dallas' best friend (Dan) and still marrying Dallas, though she doesn't love him. Russo fails to reasonably explain Anne's attraction to Dan and the reason for her wanting to marry Dallas. Dallas is so drab as an ex-star high school football player who constantly forgets what he had planned to do.
One of the few characters with any substance is Mather Grouse, Anne's father who lived a very rigid life. Mather always wanted that Anne leave Mohawk to find her fortune and she is on the verge of doing so, when he suddenly dies. Anne is forced to give up her plans in order to stay with her mother. Anne's mother is pretty annoying and is herself annoyed by just about everything especially any type of insect.
I slogged through this book and finished it only because I felt I needed to, not because I enjoyed it, which I didn't.
It seems like this book is an early stab by Russo and Empire Falls is the "cleaned up" and greatly improved version. Final score: Empire Falls 5, Mohawk 2 ½ to 3.
Rating: 5
Summary: Classic Russo
Comment: Richard Russo is simply one of the finest American authors writing today. I would take this a step further, and say he is one of the best, period. What is most remarkable about Russo is his ability to use the same characters over and over again in his books, yet still manage to make the story seem fresh and new every time.
This is Russo's first book, but I was hard pressed to find any skill lacking. It is quite simply a thoroughly remarkable debut in every way. Although lacking the humor of "Nobody's Fool," it nearly matches "Empire Falls" in its humanity. As usual, this is a novel about a small town in New York and the various characters that inhabit it, including the mandatory Russo ne'er-do-well, an incompetant cop, and a beautiful ex-wife. There isn't necessarily an overriding plot, just a bunch of interweaving stories. There is comedy, tragedy, mystery, murder, and love, all told wonderfully through Russo's living and breathing characters. Although not as interesting and fully fleshed as Russo's characters in other novels, they are nonetheless more well written than most characters in modern American literature. I would categorize Russo's character work as comparable to Charles Dickens. High praise, but deserved all the same.
If you are interested in starting to read Russo, this is as good a place to start as any, all his skills are on display. However, for Russo at his absolute finest, don't stop here, but move on to "Nobody's Fool" and "Empire Falls."
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Title: The Risk Pool (Vintage Contemporaries) by RICHARD RUSSO ISBN: 0679753834 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Nobody's Fool (Vintage Contemporaries) by Richard Russo ISBN: 0679753338 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Straight Man : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) by RICHARD RUSSO ISBN: 0375701907 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Whore's Child: And Other Stories (Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback)) by Richard Russo ISBN: 0375726012 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Empire Falls by Richard Russo ISBN: 0375726403 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 12 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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