“I actually was in Venice last Christmas and walked over the Bridge of Sighs. Prison was pretty frightening...they allowed us to roam through it.”
“God, this book was horrible.The characters were consistent, I'll give them that. But I really didn't care about a single one of them. Or their town. Or their damnable store. True, the characters were well drawn, but they were completely one-dimensional, predictable, and unlikeable. Russo captured a town in stagnation, and along with the population, my interest stagnated after paragraph one. I hope the rest of his books aren't this boring.”
“This is definitely the least of his novels. The alternating view-points worked well for me until the abrupt shift to a third perspective at the end of the novel. It was like some sort of emotional blackmail - a total cheat and cop-out. (and the melodramatic situation it described was from some other world entirely - like a bad Hallmark Hall of Fame special). Fortunately his prose is as engaging as always, and his career will withstand this mis-fire - and I'll still be one of the first in line for his next effort.”
“Russo's writing never fails to be moving and memorable. However, this book could have used a good editor.”
“Unreliable Narrator?Do you believe Lucy was unreliable in his telling of his youth? Sarah mentioned a few items where he was unreliable. Do you think he told his story differently that how it really happened? Which parts were most changed (Bobby's friendship)?”
“I agree with Tippy Toes. I've enjoyed most of Russo's work but this novel seems to collapse in a tangle, as though he was unsure where to take his characters. Usually with Russo your patience in the early pages is paid off in the ending pages, but not so here. For me the novel just seemed to sputter when it should have begun roaring. And without revealing key plot details, the places he takes his characters, particularly Sarah, just weren't that believable.In the end his characters seem to be prisoners of their own past, destined to repeat in many ways portions of their parents' lives. I haven't seen any critics pick up on this, but one has to wonder whether his choice of a name for the town was intentional. It is set in New York, but Thomaston is also the town near where Russo lives in Maine that was home to the state prison for nearly two centuries (closed in 2002). I wonder if his point is that we're all prisoners of our pasts -- even the painter (character) Noonan, who escapes Thomaston but find his best work weighted by his life. Not a very original observation by Russo, and in the end not very compellingly drawn. Though his dissections of small-town life are, once again, spot on, with its close clashes of class and racial differences. ”
“I wanted to love it but I didn't--not like Empire Falls or Straight Man. My main problem, I think, was that I didn't find one character I could really cheer for. Most of them were just exasperating. Do all boys really love their fathers this way, as one character remarks? Lord, I hope not. Lucy made me want to scream. At times it felt like Russo was trying to rescue certain characters by giving them sections of the narrative that might flesh them out a bit, or provide insights into who they were (or could have been) when they weren't trapped in their small town, but it felt too random. Nor will I ever understand why Sarah, having gotten out of tiny town and into Cooper Union, and who had some spunk along with her talent, could go back and marry Lucy. Just to be part of the Lynch/Ikey's family? Well, maybe I'm wrong about the spunk. At the end of the book, Russo credits his editor for saving the book. Well, maybe--but honestly I think there was a lot more editing to do. I don't know what to emerge from this book thinking; don't know what Russo is telling me about these people. I got tangled in all the plot threads. What is the reason for Lucy's spells? Is this all about parallel lives and the hopelessness of dying towns? If you're determined to read it, wait for the paperback that you know is coming, and find a couple of erudite readers to hash it out with. Probably a great book club book!”
