Rating: 
Summary: Favorite of favorites.
Review: I had seen the movie (it was entertaining) and so I didn't consider reading the book. I prefer to read and then see the movie. But I saw an autographed copy in Denver and bought it for my bookshelf. On the flight home, I chose to read it rather than the Delta Skymagazine...and I was hooked! Nobody's Fool is laugh-out-loud funny...the characters are so well developed, they jump off the page! There is no plot...it's a slice of life in a small town where real people drink, gamble, cheat, marry, divorce, but most importantly--really care about one another. The book is immeasurably better than the movie. I bought all of Russo's other books (love them, too), bought un-autographed copies of Nobody's Fool to share with friends and family, and bought the movie! I await Mr. Russo's visit to Atlanta to sign his new book.
Rating:
Summary: Lucky you, here's another great Russo book
Review: After reading "Straight Man" I realized that Richard Russo had written one of my favourite books. And now after reading "Nobody's Fool", not only has the man written *two* of my favourite books, but he has become one of my favourite authors. So how does one best sum up the tone of a Richard Russo novel? The best example I can come up with is this: there was a lot of grinning going on here. Carl Roebuck, the luckiest man in town who's married to the prettiest woman and having an endless series of affairs, perpetually wears a s**t-eating grin. Peter, Sully's son who was just turned down for tenure and is nearing the end of an unhappy marriage, wears a very guarded ironic grin. And Sully, who knows in his heart of hearts that no one can be this stupid but goes and does stupid thing after stupid thing, wears a sheepish grin of embarrassment. The point being, really, is that even though these people are generally miserable living in a go nowhere town, they are always amused. There is no more cathartic defense than laughter in the face of melancholy. The book focuses on Sully, who, like "Straight Man"s Hank, is an aging man on the downswing of a wasted life. Only he has so much vitality that you can't feel sorry for him. Sure, he has a bum knee (which constantly provides him with a "symphony of pain", a wonderful metaphor that Russo uses judiciously to great effect) and is in the middle of one of his vaunted 'stupid streaks', but he brings so much cheer to the people around him that the reader falls in love with him too. Having seen the Paul Newman movie many times before ever having read the book, I was worried that the Sully Newman created would leave too indelible an image for Russo's prose to overcome. Thankfully, that's not the case. While both the written Sully and the cinematic Sully are definitely one and the same, Russo's opportunities to flesh out the man, to give him a personal and psychological history, are not wasted for a moment. He is a very rich character, and, most importantly, never implausible. Which is handy, because he is a virtual lightening rod of a main character. He is surrounded (or is that 'surrounds himself'?) by a menagerie of adorable misfits, who all interact with him in their own wonderfully unique way. Mrs. Beryl, his landlady, acts with all the maternal instinct she can muster, while knowing full well that her "dangerous" tenant is the only thing keeping her going in her old age. Wirf, the one-legged drunken attorney shows some serious wisdom in that he usually knows Sully better than Sully knows himself. Will, Sully's grandson, is a shy and scared boy who relishes the opportunity to finally get to know his grandfather. And of course there's Rub. Rub, Rub, Rub. Russo's genius is never more apparent than in the creation of this painful portrait. Rub smells. He hates his wife. He is constantly wishing for things, but never too much above his station. He is threatened by Sully's son honing in on his turf. He is stupid. And he is lazy. But his relationship with Sully is quite tender. It is brilliant because so many things are said between these two men via simple subtext, and even though there is a constant barrage of insults, Sully's affection for his partner should never be less than apparent. These two make a great comic team. Once again, Russo shows that he is a samurai with dialogue. He has an amazing ability to give working class heroes quick minds and sharp tongues, all the while making their conversation fluid and very natural. He also has an intense gift for subtly implying sarcasm, which is an awful tough thing to do on paper because meaning usually gets lost in the translation. In the mouths of Russo's characters, the irony comes through loud and clear. It is a joy to read these passages. "Nobody's Fool" is a surprisingly long book, considering that the narrative is quite bare. It is really nothing more than a fortnight-long dissection of Sully's bad luck. What carries the day is that these people, in this town, are very real and very fascinating. I was never disappointed at any time, and that's an awful tough thing to do. Another trip down one of Russo's paths will be most welcome.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful - A Small Town Mosaic
Review: Russo has written an exceptional series of novels, including The Risk Pool, Mohawk, and Nobody's Fool that peel back the layers of life in a small upstate NY town. His protagonist in Nobody's Fool, "Sully" (played effectively by Paul Newman in the recent movie), is a chronic underachiever, drinker, and working man hero whose trials and tribulations over the course of the novel are humorous and always true to life. Russo writes the best dialogue of anyone I know, and he has a keen eye for detail. All of his characters, from Sully and his loyal sidekick Rub (who is terrified of his kleptomaniac wife), to the owner of the diner where he grabs his morning coffee and occasional meal, jump off the page and remain in your subconscious long after you forget the actual events of the plot. The story moves along in Russo's very capable hands, but it is not what makes this a great novel. Instead, you simply revel in the artistry of the author's storytelling technique, his accurate depictions of marriage and family relationships, and his obvious compassion for the lovable losers who reside in this little corner of upstate New York. Even the throw away scenes, that have little to do with the overall plot, are brilliant. Russo writes about Sully's elderly landlady, (think Jessica Tandy), whose nosy neighbor is always calling her to try and bum a ride to the latest store grand opening or to a holiday buffet lunch, since the neighbor can't drive. Sully always seems to try and do the right thing, and keeps ending up with the short end of the stick as a result. Not even his one legged shyster of a lawyer can set things right, as if there were any hope of a victory in court. Prosperity will always be out of reach for the cronies in this book, and for the town itself, but the story is nevertheless uplifting. Russo is a master, I loved Nobody's Fool and Straight Man and I can't wait for his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Russo is a Master
Review: When is the rest of the country going to catch on to the numerous qualities of Russo's writing? If the reviews of his books here on Amazon are any indication, he is slowly but surely gaining fans every time someone picks up one of his books. I picked up a copy of Straight Man at a bargain rack a while back, and to this day that book remains one of my favorite contemporary novels of all time. It pokes fun of academia, political correctness, family turmoil and greed with humor and compassion. Nobody's Fool comes in a close second. I absolutely loved the character Sully, the principled loser and antihero of the novel who seems to keep begrudgingly doing the right thing and doing his best to maintain order in a chaotic town. His idiotic but loyal sidekick, Rub, is a perfect comic foil, and the scenes of them scheming to make a few bucks are outright hilarious. Every character in the novel, from Sully's old landlady and her busybody friends to the humorless bartender and the familiar group of losers at Sully's numerous stomping grounds, are dead on accurate and believable. Russo writes the best dialogue of any modern writer I know. The book, like most of Russo's fiction, peels back the layers of a small town in upstate New York, a town that somehow missed out on prosperity when the interstate drew travelers away, but Russo writes about the town and its inhabitants with humor and compassion. This is not the stark, depressing realism of a Russell Banks novel like Affliction. You will laugh out loud at Sully's shameful flirtations, and at Rub's considerable problems at home with his perpetually angry wife, while recognizing the truth in Russo's small town mosaic. Read Nobody's Fool and Straight Man, and you will be a Russo fan for life.
Rating:
Summary: They don't get any better than this.
Review: Thank God for Amazon. I discovered Richard Russo while looking at reviews of Moo by Jane Smiley. A reviewer put me onto Straight Man, and that's how I got to Nobody's Fool. I liked Straight Man very much. Then I went on to The Risk Pool and Nobody's Fool, which I read within a few months of each other about a year ago. Looking back it's hard to separate the two because of their similar setting and characters. Both are wonderful. If there is the perfect novel, both The Risk Pool and Nobody's Fool are it. One night while I was reading Nobody's Fool in bed, I finished a paragraph and put the book down on my chest thinking that I had actually been touched by God; it was that unusual. I felt that I had experienced perfection. That has only happened to me once before. Russo's chracters are "ordinary;" some would call them losers. Russo clearly loves them, and that is the wonder of these two books. When I tried to describe Russo's writing to an author friend, she said that a good writer leads his readers by the hand, but she said it sounded in this case as if Russo were leading his readers by the soul. I couldn't have said it better. Please read this book.
Rating:
Summary: "Could I interest you in a cup of tea?"
Review: Richard Russo is quickly becoming my favorite author. "Nobody's Fool" is filled with characters endowed with traits that either made me laugh out loud or cry. Donald Sullivan (Sully) the main character appears to be a disappointment to all but himself. He's lived a lifetime making mistakes and as he gets older he makes it clear, he has absolutely no intention of changing his ways, for anybody. As for his detractors, "I'll grow on 'em." Sully's unpretentious attitudes during his dialogues are hysterically funny. Eventually, the reader realizes Sully is the type of person we all need in our lives, faults and all.
Rating:
Summary: Great book from a great author
Review: This was the last (out of 4) books by Richard Russo I've read, and it's difficult which to say which one is best, but it's probably a close race between 'Nobody's Fool' and 'The Risk Pool' - but 'Straight Man' and 'Mohawk' are great too! As someone else said, Russo's character development ranks up there with Anne Tyler, if indeed he's not even better. 'Nobody's Fool' is peopled with all kinds of great and interesting characters. For such an 'ordinary guy', Sully is pretty complex, actually. Rub and Hattie are hoots, Sully's landlady is wonderful, and the list goes on. The movie is pretty good too, but as usual, the book is better - it's hard to get much of a 550-page book into a movie! Buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: NOT ENOUGH STARS TO RATE THIS BOOK
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I loved all the characters, especially the senile mother at the cash register in the diner. This book is a keeper and I will read it over and over.
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: Everyone should read this book to get an idea of what REALLY GOOD fiction is. What a wonderful talent Richard Russo has and how lucky we are to have his books to read!
Rating: 
Summary: A refreshing look at life in a small town
Review: For about the first quarter of this book, I was waiting for the plot to begin, and then I decided that it didn't matter. This book is not about something happening; it's just about people living their everyday lives in a slowly dying small town. Nobody's Fool is a nice change from all the novels that write about small towns in a nostalgic, wish-we-still-lived-that-way vein. Sully and the other inhabitants of North Bath, New York, are more representative of those living in the real small towns bypassed by the present. They are not the sharpest twigs on the tree or they wouldn't still be living in these towns, and their lives reflect this. Their lives are depressing, sometimes desperate, but not untinged with humor. One comes away with a better understanding of those who just can't seem to get life right!
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