"Somebody's Fool," by Richard Russo

On 8/13/23, I wrote here with great enthusiasm about Ann Patchett’s new novel, “Tom Lake.” Soon after, I read the newest novel of another of my very favorite authors, Richard Russo, and read it with equal enthusiasm. The novel, titled “Somebody’s Fool” (Knopf, 2023) is the third in Russo’s “North Bath” trilogy; the first two novels are “Nobody’s Fool” (1993) and “Everybody’s Fool” (2016) (about which I posted here in some detail on 5/14/16, including some amateur analysis of gendered aspects of writing displayed by many novelists, but transcended, in my view, by Russo). Each novel in the trilogy stands alone; one does not have to have read the earlier novels to thoroughly enjoy “Somebody’s Fool” (although I highly recommend reading all three!). But the site (North Bath, located in Upstate New York, and surroundings) and many of the characters, are the same, but at different time periods. Sully, the complicated, flawed, tough-but-kind, part eccentric and part working-class-male-archetype main character in the two earlier novels, has now died, but his legacy still pervades this most recent novel. The characters in the novels all know each other and each other’s histories and strengths and foibles, in the way of small towns everywhere. I mentioned Ann Patchett in my first sentence here, not only because she and Russo are both such essential and treasured writers for me, but because they share some qualities. They are both profoundly humane in their treatment of their characters, and in their attitudes toward life. They both care deeply about, and thoroughly understand their characters, and they care most of all about the relationships among those characters’ family members, friends, lovers, co-workers, and neighbors. And both authors care about the settings of their novels: they describe them in clear and loving detail. I must add that Russo’s novels also have intriguing plots that keep readers involved, and that his novels, including this one, are suffused with humor.