Short Review: Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

Nobody's Fool was the first Richard Russo book I read. Here is the publisher's summary:

In 1750, without warning or apparent reason, the mineral springs of the colonial resort town of Bath, New York, ran dry. A little more than 200 years later, after numerous warnings and for too many reasons, Sully, the unluckiest man in this unlucky town, isn't doing too hot either. He's broke, out of a job, and the owner of a dead pickup truck. The good news? Sully has the dumbest man in North Bath as his devoted friend, a long-suffering, long-married woman who loves him, a forgiving eighty-year-old landlady who converses with her late husband, a spastic doberman as a watchdog, and the finest one-legged drunken Jewish lawyer this side of Albany. Now, if Sully could only banish his father's slyly grinning ghost and earn his own son's respect, he might just turn the whole damn thing around. Nobody's Fool is a funny, roguish novel that captures the imagination and provides a rich journey into a special world peopled by characters so real, so vital, we feel we've known them all our lives.

My reading notes on the book are sparse, but I commented on the great character development. In fact, although I read the book in 2006, I still remember Sully, his landlady, and several other characters. The plot is complex with intertwined stories but is not so complicated that you lose your place. I found the book to be funny, sad, and very real. Highly recommended. I also noted that the reader for the unabridged audio (Ron McLarty) was perfect for the novel.

The cover shows the 1994 Knopf Doubleday edition. (Source: Bought; see review policy)

Nobody's Fool at an Indie

Nobody's Fool at Powell's
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Reading at the Beach is the host for this meme: Each week she invites us to spotlight a book whose title begins with the featured letter. This week it's N.