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PB

Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
In a warmhearted novel of sweeping scope, Russo animates the dead-end small town of Empire Falls, Maine, long abandoned by the logging and textile industries that provided its citizens with their livelihood.  Miles Roby surveys his hometown with bemused regret from the Empire Grill, owned by a local magnate but run by him ever since he was called home from college to take care of his ailing mother.  His daily parade of customers provides him with ample evidence of both the restrictions and forced intimacy of small-town life and has left him with a deep appreciation for irony: his ex-wife's new paramour, "the Silver Fox," has suddenly become a loyal customer and is constantly challenging him to an arm-wrestling contest; his father, always a day late and a dollar short, has talked a senile priest into running off to Key West for the winter (where they tie for first place in the local Hemingway look-alike contest); and the diner owner's daughter, apprised of Miles' impending divorce, is forever trying to engulf him in a teary embrace. Russo follows up his rollicking academic satire, Straight Man (1997), with a return to the blue-collar milieu featured in his first three novels and once again shows an unerring sense of the rhythms of small-town life, balancing his irreverent, mocking humor with unending empathy for his characters and their foibles. Hardcover. Amazon.com

HC
PB

Straight Man, by Richard Russo
Straight Man is hilarious sport, with a serious side. William Henry Devereaux Jr., is almost 50 and stuck forever as chair of English at West Central Pennsylvania University. It is April and fear of layoffs -- even among the tenured -- has reached mock-epic proportions; Hank has yet to receive his department budget and finds himself increasingly offering comments such as "Always understate necrophilia" to his writing students. Then there are his possible prostate problems and the prospect of his father's arrival. Devereaux Sr., "then and now, an academic opportunist," has always been a high-profile professor and a low-profile parent.  Though Hank tries to apply William of Occam's rational approach (choose simplicity) to each increasingly absurd situation, and even has a dog named after the philosopher, he does seem to cause most of his own enormous difficulties. Not least when he grabs a goose and threatens to off a duck (sic) a day until he gets his budget.  The fact that he is also wearing a fake nose and glasses and doing so in front of a TV camera complicates matters even further. Hank tries to explain to one class that comedy and tragedy don't go together, but finds the argument "runs contrary to their experience.  Indeed it may run contrary to my own." It runs decidedly against Richard Russo's approach in Straight Man, and the result is a hilarious and touching novel.  Hardcover.  Amazon.com

PB

Nobody’s Fool, by Richard Russo
An unlucky man in a deadbeat town in upstate New York, Sully must overcome numerous obstacles -- a bum knee, terminal underemployment, and a not-too-helpful group of friends -- as he copes with a new problem, his long-estranged son. Paperback. Amazon.com

HC

Maine : The Seasons, with essays by Ann Beattie, Richard Ford, Richard Russo and Elizabeth Strout
Photographer Terrell S. Lester presents rich images of his adopted home state in Maine: The Seasons. With essays by Ann Beattie, Richard Ford, Richard Russo and Elizabeth Strout, the 120 full-color photos of Maine in all its natural and cultural glory and nuance will make residents proud and potential visitors covetous. Beattie, a half-year resident, writes, "Maine is a serious place masquerading as a summer paradise," articulating something intangible also evoked by these photos of struggling mom-and-pop fishing businesses and untouched landscapes, something that modern visitors and homeowners increasingly crave as it slips from sight: authenticity, as opposed to quaint- making gentrification.  Hardcover.  Amazon.com

PB

The Risk Pool, by Richard Russo
Sweeping, humorous and greatly moving, The Risk Pool is a 30-year saga of Sam Hall, a roguish hellraiser, and of his introspective son, Ned.  When Sam abandons the family, Ned vacillates between his nervous mother and his reckless father, struggling to win his father's affection.  Paperback.  Amazon.com

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Mohawk, by Richard Russo and Gary Fisketjon
The town of Mohawk may be provincial but it's far from sleepy. Its inhabitants seem perpetually awake, and not only on Saturday at two in the morning, "when the bars are closing and people are forced to consider the prospect of returning home with so many of the night's dreams unfulfilled." Richard Russo focuses on several characters who are leading lives of extreme -- and extremely funny -- longing. Dallas Younger, for instance, hit his peak playing high-school football, and it's been downhill from there.  He has no idea what women, particularly his ex-wife, are thinking, which makes him really glad there are none in on the local poker game.  And he's still at a loss to figure out why he has no relationship with his son (probably something to do with the fact that he never sees him). Even the calendar at the local grill is for 1966, since the owner figures "the months are the same" and being a few days out of whack doesn't matter. This same man has a private betting system.  Choosing among the top jockeys isn't that hard -- he tries to assess their current levels of pride, concentration, and desire.  Richard Russo shows us that these same qualities exist in his hard- luck characters. Hardcover. Amazon.com

PB

Carlucci's Heart, by Richard Paul Russo
Lt. Frank Carlucci is drawn into an investigation surrounding the disappearance of his daughter's friend.  But as Carlucci digs deeper, the corruption and decay he finds is nothing compared to a final horror that could have devastating implications: a secret known only as Cancer Cell.  Paperback.  Amazon.com

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Dreams Are Wiser Than Men, by Richard A. Russo
A collection of poetry edited by Richard Russo.