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Title: The Risk Pool by RICHARD RUSSO ISBN: 0-679-75383-4 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 April, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.63 (52 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Far and away the best book I have read this year. Awsome.
Comment: Sam Hall's kid is having to grow up on his own. His mother is a victim of a serious mental illness that renders her totally insubstantial as a parent and/or gaurdian--when she's not in the hospital. Sam Hall is the town vagabond--the kind of guy who lives on the edge, is constantly on the move, so immeresed in his own schemes and shennanigans he's hardly got time for his kid. As a result Sam's boy essentially raises himself and spends his time wondering how his parents ever got this way, while flip flopping form the "care" of one parent to the other.
What makes this book work is that, flawed as the characters are, Russo nevertheless infuses them with the souls of real people. We can bemoan the fact that Sam's a lousy dad, and not that great a person overall, but it's hard to get too worked up about it as the fact is you kind of like the guy. In fact, this novel abounds in characters who are unsavory yet so brilliantly drawn and presented, we feel we know them well, warts and all.
Additionally, Russo is a master at rendering the landscape of the small town, painting a picture that isn't all that attractive yet abounds in appealing context and situations--that is, he makes Mowhawk feel like home feels, regardless of where you grew up.
In the end, what one is left with is a story--a rarity thses days. The novel is funny, sad, insiprational, gross and absorbing--in short, it's a lot like real life. What makes it an extraordinary story is that Russo pulls from it the extrordinary revelations about life, love, loyalty, stupidity, passion and loss that we ought to get out of our own lives but somehow don't.
A truly remarkable book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Richard Russo rules!
Comment: So you'll know where I'm coming from, I think I'm a pretty particular reader, lover of John Steinbeck and Ray Bradbury, to name a few, and not much for most of the popular fiction being written today. This is the second book written by Richard Russo that I've read, and he has joined my hit list of all-time favorites. I will read anything he writes, if they're all as good as this! Run, don't walk, to read this book!
Rating: 4
Summary: More of the same good small town stuff
Comment: Russo's novels all explore these two-bit towns in the northeast, with faded glories and unrealistic hopes. The Risk Pool is perhaps the best one I've read. The relationship between the boy Ned and his reckless father who careens through life breaking all the rules is the theme of the book, but it's so much more. Russo has the knack of making "ordinary" lives interesting, and for me this book was a real page-turner. If you've read Mohawk, Nobody's Fool or Empire Falls, you'll settle right into this one.
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Title: Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo ISBN: 0679753338 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Mohawk by Richard Russo ISBN: 0679753826 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Straight Man : A Novel by Richard Russo ISBN: 0375701907 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Whore's Child : Stories by Richard Russo ISBN: 0375726012 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Empire Falls by Richard Russo ISBN: 0375726403 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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