| Title | Somebody’s Fool [Book 3 of the North Bath Trilogy] |
| Author | Richard Russo |
| Copyright | 2023 |
| Type | Fiction |
| Length | 464 Pages |
| Finished Reading | November 2, 2023 |
| Notable | New York Times Best Seller Richard Russo is a Pulitzer Prize Winner (Empire Falls) |
| Ratings | Personal: 4 Stars Goodreads: 4.3 (5,672 Ratings) Amazon 4.5 (2,455 Ratings) |
It’s a bit problematic reporting on the third book of a trilogy. If you are a fan of Richard Russo and/or have read Nobody’s Fool (Book 1) and/or Everybody’s Fool you know the characters and don’t need my encouragement to read the third in the series. If you haven’t read the others, it’s a difficult to report on any details of the plot or characters because there is so much history. Oh, well – that won’t stop me.
The third novel of the North Bath trilogy, this book novel picks up ten years of Donald Sullivan’s (Sully’s) death. Many of the characters are at inflection points in their lives. Seeing them unfold through Russo’s prose is a beautiful journey.
Before his death, Sully gave Peter a list of people for him to check on and help as needed. Its that why Peter has stayed? As much as he has planned to leave North Bath, Peter Sullivan is still there.
[H]e returned to the bar and slid onto a stool. Seeing him do this always made Birdie smile. His father had had a way of sliding onto a barstool that suggested he’d been put on earth to execute this very maneuver, and Peter had inherited Sully’s very specific grace.
Page 38
We see all the characters of the earlier novels working through their lives; some have stalled while others are in the process of moving forward either willingly or unwillingly. The most striking growth is Rub’s; when he was Sully’s sidekick his biggest wish was for a donut or a hamburger. Now that both Sully and Rub’s wife are dead he grows up – surprising even himself. Janey is growing tired of her always picking the wrong man and toward the end considers changing her ways.
It seemed, in fact, that thanks to Roger, she’d finally turned a corner she’d been trying to turn her whole damn life. Who knew? Maybe turning it would only lead to more disappointment, but she’d give it a try, even if it meant going at Roger’s pace, not her own, eve if Roger was too damn much like the man her mother [Ruth] had loved so defiantly and at sun great cost, eve if it meant Ruth got to say I told you so.
Page 424
Raymer is no longer police chief now that North Bath has been annexed by their rival town Schuyler Springs. With the help of his ex:, current? future? girlfriend Charice and her brother Jerome, Raymer is able to come to terms with his life.
In the middle of all that there is a suicide by an – at first – unidentified man and the reemergence of Peter’s oldest son, Thomas. Thomas stayed with his mother when Peter and his wife divorced; his life was very difficult and he grew to hate his absent father. Thomas’ path is painful to watch. I can’t say more without divulging a key part of the plot.
So who is whom’s fool? This question is the rare occasion I wish I was in a book club so we could talk about it. When you’ve finished it, leave a comment letting me know who the title refers to.
Reading this summary makes the book sound as if it is a soap opera. It is so much more than that. Russo’s writing brings depth to the characters so we can make an emotional connection to them. For good measure there is plenty of drama along the way.
My advice is to not read this novel until you’ve read the first two. Through that path you will see the characters grow over time.
It’s interesting to note that Nobody’s Fool was a project where Richard Russo reflected on his relationship with his own father. Though he didn’t intend to write one follow-up, much less two. I’m glad he did. Richard Russo is one of my favorite authors and I highly recommend this novel with the caveat noted above. Russo’s most powerful novel is the one for which he garnered the Pulitzer Prize in 2002: Empire Falls. As I write that, it just hit me – some 20+ years after reading the novel – that the title can be read as a declaration sentence: The Empire Falls.
