Richard Russo, �Nobody�s Fool�
A long time ago, at �The Apartment� as it was so dubbed by the locals who frequented it, I lived across the street from a supermarket, a 7-11, a Wienerschnitzel, and a combination liquor and video store. We made jokes about how we never really needed to leave our block for the rest of our lives, which wasn�t funny once we realized that we rarely ever
On Monday, the video store had a deal for renting two videos and getting one free, so it soon became a standard practice to rent three films, load up on booze, and fill my apartment with 15 to 20 people who all got shitfaced before it was time to watch the third film, which usually was returned unwatched.
This meant we never really got a deal on these Mondays, something I just now figured out.
I worked early in the morning during this time in local history, so I usually woke at 7 in the morning — tired, hungover, and reeking from a house full of smokers. I don�t know how it happened, but one day I actually got home at a decent hour and decided to watch the third movie before returning it to the store — a small film with Paul Newman and Bruce Willis. It certainly didn�t sound promising, which is why the drunken crowd at my house decided to skip it the night before.
But Christ, it was great, much better than the cheesy horror movies we had voted to watch the night before. I tried to tell other people about it, but found I was at a loss to explain what it was about. The film didn�t have a point A to point B plot with increasing tension.
Instead, it entailed a lot of quirky small town folk who basically, well, fucked with each other for the hell of it. Rather than try to dissect the film, I got it again the next week and used my house rules to play it first, before the booze hit people.
Everybody protested at first, but what could they do? It was my fucking house! So they grumbled and made disdaining sighs during the first five minutes. And then they were all totally hooked.
I don�t know why I don�t own a copy of this movie, but I think it�s because I never saw a copy for sale. [Ed. note: I have seen it again recently, and I still like it, but it�s just not good enough to own. It is good, though]
Meanwhile, the video store closed down, I lost my job and went back to school, and eventually landed the job at the bookstore. I remember the first time putting away this Russo novel, seeing Paul Newman�s face plastered across the cover like it was a container of salad dressing. Oh, that movie, I thought, That was really good! I wonder what the book is like? Then I put the book on the shelf and continued working.
Still, every time that book came through I had the same thought about how I should read it. But there were so many other books to read, and this book, at nearly 600 pages, ain�t small. I kept putting it on the shelf instead of taking it home, where a customer usually snatched it up quickly.
So what changed my mind? Damned if I know. Even after finally purchasing a copy, I still read other things instead, not wanting to invest the time in a new author based on a hazy long ago memory. But my shelf is actually becoming smaller, and I was tired of reading yet another Steinbeck novel. Or Philip K. Dick. Or Don DeLillo. It was time to read somebody else, 600 or so pages or no.
And I�m really pissed that I took so long to read this, as it�s one of the best books I�ve read this year, and possibly last year. There is still the same problem about how to describe the plot — essentially, it�s a bunch of quirky small town people who fuck with each other for the hell of it — but it�s done in such an assured way that you can�t help but to savor it.
Russo won the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls not that long ago, so I�m obviously not the only person who thinks he�s good. And Nobody�s Fool is so good that I already know I�m going to do the same thing I did with DeLillo after reading White Noise, or Tom Robbins after reading Jitterbug Perfume, which is to read everything this guy Russo ever writes.
And of course, this is yet another example why I will never, ever finish this fucking project. The thing is, with books like this, I don�t really mind.
