Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous
Review: I'm always surprised at how many people I know (even writers!) who haven't read his novels, which do something rare in American literature: talk about the dirty, shameful topic of failure. He's a poet of it, whether of failed marital or parental relationships, or of careers and dreams. I enter his world the way I enter Balzac or George Eliot. There's a depth of social observation blending with psychological insight that no one else comes close to in contemporary fiction. He's not a flashy writer and he's not fashionably nasty or cynical--but he's rich, rewarding and deeply compassionate even of his fools. This collection has all those qualities, though I prefer his novels
Rating: 
Summary: Whets your appetite for Russo's next great novel
Review: I'm hoping Russo's just warming up for a big, fat novel with this wonderful collection of stories. Because reading The Whore's Child makes you want MORE. All of these stories are written with Russo's subtle combination of humor and pathos, which imbues them with a nostalgic, bittersweet feel. Like much of his fiction, most of the stories in this book take place in small towns with small-town (but not small-minded) characters as the central focus. From the nun who tries her hand at writing a memoir of her lonely life to the mother and son who take a harrowing cross-country journey, each story pulls you in and leaves you anxiously awaiting another novel as great as Empire Falls.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Character Tales
Review: I've never read a Richard Russo book before, but I heard him read the title story on NPR and was fascinated. Russo quickly brings to life images of characters and divines their motivations for our personal pleasure. All the characters are interesting and tragic in the small events of their lives. I highly recommend for anyone who likes stories based on personalities, and especially for anyone interested in psychology (from a case-study point of view, of course).
Rating:
Summary: Whets your appetite for Russo's next great novel
Review: I???m hoping Russo???s just warming up for a big, fat novel with this wonderful collection of stories. Because reading The Whore???s Child makes you want MORE. All of these stories are written with Russo???s subtle combination of humor and pathos, which imbues them with a nostalgic, bittersweet feel. Like much of his fiction, most of the stories in this book take place in small towns with small-town (but not small-minded) characters as the central focus. From the nun who tries her hand at writing a memoir of her lonely life to the mother and son who take a harrowing cross-country journey, each story pulls you in and leaves you anxiously awaiting another novel as great as Empire Falls.
Rating:
Summary: The Whore's Child: And Other Stories
Review: In his first collection, a master storyteller focuses on a fresh and fascinating range of human behavior. With a fluency of tone that will surprise even his devoted readers, Richard Russo here captures both bewildering horror and heartrending tenderness with an absorbing, compassionate authority. As with all his characters, we warm to these newcomers almost despite themselves. A jaded Hollywood movie-maker uncovers a decades-old flame he never knew he'd harbored; a precocious fifth-grader puzzles over life, love, and baseball as he watches his parents' marriage dissolve; another child is forced into a harrowing cross-country escape; an elderly couple rediscovers the power--and misery--of their relationship during a long-awaited retreat to a resort island; and in the title story, a septuagenarian nun invades the narrator's college writing workshop with an incredible saga. After the triumph of Empire Falls, Richard Russo now extends his versatility and accomplishment as he demonstrates once again that "there is a big, wry heart beating at the center of Russo's fiction"
Rating:
Summary: Russo shines
Review: in this publication of short stories, his first collection.I'm not a short story fan, but made an exception for this group, and was not unhappy that I did.
Russo is a master at characterization, and his heroes in these stories are observers of life, with the best story also concluding the book in "The Mysteries of Linwood Hart". Russo's observer here is the child of divorce, and it's not for the faint of heart, those that have had or are contemplating a divorce where there are children involved. The story seems to help us realize that the impact we all fear on the children involved is real, and goes beyond the ability to cope that we all hope they have.
"The Whore's Child" doesn't fit the collection really well, and it feels as though Russo sold out on the packaging, to get a tale in the lead whose title would draw readers who might not otherwise buy. As its own tale, however, the Whore's Child stands up to the standard set by Russo in his other work.
Nice change of pace for Russo fans!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but I am hoping for a novel next time
Review: It was hard to decide whether I thought this collection merited 4 stars or 5. Comparing this book to other Russo books, I would give it a 4. But compared to other fiction being published, it definitely rates 5 stars. I did not realize until I had this book in hand that 6 of the 7 stories had been published in magazines. The first and last stories are the best in the collection. The last story, The Mysteries of Linwood Hart, was pure Russo--complete with an irresponsibile deadbeat father, small-town restaurants and bars, a sharp-tongued waitress, and much trading of insults among family members, used car salesmen, and so on. Most of the stories tended to be depressing, dark, and often with more crude references and language than usually found in Russo's works. There is infidelity everywhere, and everyone seems headed for divorce court, if they haven't already been there. Still, I think the book is worth reading, even if only for the last story. I wish the book had been longer, especially for the price. And this is a minor complaint, but I disliked the style in which the pages were cut on the long unbound side of the book. The pages seemed to have been chewed rather than cut, with almost 1/4 inch variation in the width. Also I wish that the book's title had been chosen from one of the other stories, even though the title story is one of the best in the collection. It is kind of embarrassing to be hauling around a book with this title in public. I am hoping that Russo's next release will be a nice long novel (with uniformly smooth edges!). Hopefully these stories were gathered as something to publish while he is working on his next novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Quit Your Day Job
Review: Richard Russo can be a great writer, as "Empire Falls" proved. His best work comes in dealing with the plight of trapped citizens of small, fading industrial towns as in "Empire Falls", "Nobody's Fool", and "The Risk Pool". "The Whore's Child" then, does little to showcase his true talent. Most of the stories follow middle-aged professors experiencing mid-life regrets, a la Russo's novel "Straight Man". One story, "The Farther You Go" is later used (or copied from depending on the date of publication) almost exactly in "Straight Man", right down to the narrator's first name.
For anyone who really enjoyed "Straight Man", this collection of stories is great. Those who have little interest in aged professors with no REAL problems whining are better advised to stay away from this book. I definitely fall into the latter category. In terms of the stories, I thought the title piece would have made a better novella or novel than a short story. The problem is that the tale of the nun is told second-hand when allowing the reader to actually read her story would better allow us to experience the story and to be moved by it as her classmates and professor were. The constraints of the short story do not allow me to get involved with Sister Ursula, so that I never really care about her. "The Farther You Go", "Buoyancy", and "Poison" all follow along the similar line of an older married guy in a stale marriage on an island in Maine. "Monhegan Light" differs slightly in that the middle-aged guy is widowed and a cinematographer instead of a professor. None have the humor and power of Russo's better novels. "Joyride" is the story of a mother and son's doomed flight across the country that is more true to form. "The Mysteries of Linwood Hart" is the story that best captures the spirit of "Empire Falls"--it's a serious of episodes of 10-year-old Linwood Hart as he begins to truly understand the world. It is by far the best of the collection in my humble opinion. Most of Russo's writing is good as usual, but one sentence from "Joyride" is one of the worst I have ever seen in print. It reads: "My throat constricted with the knowledge of who I was and what." Try reading that aloud; the "and what" makes no sense at the end of a sentence. "What" at the end almost implies a question, not a statement. At the very least, to end with "what" sounds incomplete, like there should be more there. The better sentence would have been "who and what I was". I can't believe an editor didn't correct that sentence; it's positively awful. Anyway, except for "Linwood Hart" and "Joyride" (which has its moments), this collection of short stories holds little interest for those not experiencing a mid-life crisis. This attempt to cash in on the success of "Empire Falls" has convinced me that Russo needs to stick with his day job.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Quit Your Day Job
Review: Richard Russo can be a great writer, as "Empire Falls" proved. His best work comes in dealing with the plight of trapped citizens of small, fading industrial towns as in "Empire Falls", "Nobody's Fool", and "The Risk Pool". "The Whore's Child" then, does little to showcase his true talent. Most of the stories follow middle-aged professors experiencing mid-life regrets, a la Russo's novel "Straight Man". One story, "The Farther You Go" is later used (or copied from depending on the date of publication) almost exactly in "Straight Man", right down to the narrator's first name. For anyone who really enjoyed "Straight Man", this collection of stories is great. Those who have little interest in aged professors with no REAL problems whining are better advised to stay away from this book. I definitely fall into the latter category. In terms of the stories, I thought the title piece would have made a better novella or novel than a short story. The problem is that the tale of the nun is told second-hand when allowing the reader to actually read her story would better allow us to experience the story and to be moved by it as her classmates and professor were. The constraints of the short story do not allow me to get involved with Sister Ursula, so that I never really care about her. "The Farther You Go", "Buoyancy", and "Poison" all follow along the similar line of an older married guy in a stale marriage on an island in Maine. "Monhegan Light" differs slightly in that the middle-aged guy is widowed and a cinematographer instead of a professor. None have the humor and power of Russo's better novels. "Joyride" is the story of a mother and son's doomed flight across the country that is more true to form. "The Mysteries of Linwood Hart" is the story that best captures the spirit of "Empire Falls"--it's a serious of episodes of 10-year-old Linwood Hart as he begins to truly understand the world. It is by far the best of the collection in my humble opinion. Most of Russo's writing is good as usual, but one sentence from "Joyride" is one of the worst I have ever seen in print. It reads: "My throat constricted with the knowledge of who I was and what." Try reading that aloud; the "and what" makes no sense at the end of a sentence. "What" at the end almost implies a question, not a statement. At the very least, to end with "what" sounds incomplete, like there should be more there. The better sentence would have been "who and what I was". I can't believe an editor didn't correct that sentence; it's positively awful. Anyway, except for "Linwood Hart" and "Joyride" (which has its moments), this collection of short stories holds little interest for those not experiencing a mid-life crisis. This attempt to cash in on the success of "Empire Falls" has convinced me that Russo needs to stick with his day job.
Rating:
Summary: An absorbing series of peeks into others¿ lives.
Review: Richard Russo has a unique ability to plant his readers in the middle of a story, withholding just enough information, to leave us wondering "What happened that I don't know; what's that missing foundational piece to this story?" As each of the short stories emerges, the reader immediately surrenders herself to being swept up in the stream of an evolving story about commonplace folks. The nun who wants to join a fiction writer's class without the pre-requisite classes. What is it that she's so eager to tell? And why is she so willing to subject her story to the amateurish literary critiques of her fellow classmates? The young boy who joins his mother in a whirlwind trip across country in apparent abandonment of her married life. What's so lacking in her husband and marriage? His greatest transgression seems to be twirling a metal washer on the tip of his tongue. Each time the reader asks, "What don't I know?" Along with the young boy who accompanies his mom in her flight, we ponder what course of events initiated these varied situations? Russo parcels out the information in sufficient portions to keep us interested, sympathetic, understanding and appreciating his substantial writing skills. His knowledge of human beings, their idiosyncrasies, quirks and fallibilities is appreciably apparent. This collection of short stories is a quick read; nonetheless, each story is satisfyingly compact in its apt descriptions of the characters and the situations in which they find themselves. Finishing one story leaves us eager and willing to embrace the next one! And another journey begins with an exciting expectation of being plopped down in the midst of still someone else's living space.
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