Rating: 
Summary: Another upstate New York alcoholic classic from Russo
Review: My only regret in buying this book is that I bought a second-hand copy with a different cover in a half-price bookstore...otherwise I definitely would have opted for this edition, the cover of which deftly encapsulates Russo's beautiful, heartsick world. Russo has imbued his awkward "Ned" and wayward "Sam" with endearing flaws that so become them and their goofy Upstate surroundings. Better than _Mohawk_; almost as smart as _Straight Man_.
Rating:
Summary: Nobody's Fool is better
Review: I read this book after Nobody's Fool (which I consider to
be one of my favorites), and I was somewhat let down. It's
still good stuff, but, especially in the first half of the
book, I kept thinking, "I've read this somewhere before" - it's
pretty typical boy-coming-of-age-in-a-small-town stuff.
I agree with Mike Stone that the first half suffers because
Ned is young and doesn't do much but shrug. The second half
perks up quite a bit because Ned interacts more with the
cast of characters in the town. Don't hesitate to read it,
but read Nobody's Fool as well.
Rating: 
Summary: A genuine American novel about genuine, realistic people
Review: Russo's first book, Mohawk, was beautifuly written with a realistic cast of characters, but I found that it was weighed down by a totally uninteresting and uninspiring plot.The Risk Pool takes the best elements of his first work, sprinkles in an even more colorful assortment of barflies and other sundry and sordid characters, and actually takes us on a sprawling journey of a son and his relationship with his hard-livin', hard-drinkin' father. Once again, Russo goes through great lengths to make his characters three-dimensional and genuine. He is a master of setting you right down in the bars, fishing holes, trailers, coldwater flats and smoking convertibles and getting you acquainted with Ned Hall and his father, Sam, and all their friends. He has a remarkable talent of making you feel as if you've known these guys for years. Russo also peppers these individuals with some fantastic, realistic dialogue that had me laughing out loud in places (especially when the fellas were discussing and debating the attempted suicide of a local resident). Russo makes no attempt to hide the many flaws in his characters; even the narrator, Ned, is a compulsive liar who seems to be an emotionally-detached observer and not a participant in his his own relationships with friends and lovers. His father, Sam, despite all of his problems (drinking, gambling, fighting, run-ins with the law, etc.), is made into a believably sympathetic character by Russo, and the author really captures that weird bond between a son and his father regardless of Sam's many, many negatives. Don't read this book looking for wacky hijinks or any profound insights into life, love or relationships. Thankfully, The Risk Pool never gets sappy or over romanticized like other parent-child novels. The book can be insightful and poetic at times, but that's not the main thrust of The Risk Pool. Take this book at face value like Russo does of his setting, characters and plot, and you'll be sure to love it. It's one of the best books I've read all year.
Rating:
Summary: Small town dreams and alcoholism explored fully
Review: This is arguably Russo's greatest achievement, although Nobody's Fool comes close in terms of characterization. Russo manages to bring the entire novel through twenty or thirty years, chronicling the young Ned Hall's struggles to escape his father's destiny. That Ned is unaware of this struggle for the first half of the novel is immaterial--his actions show him to be caught up in the inevitable destiny of all who reside in Mohawk. Sam Hall, Ned's father, is one of the most incorrigible characters ever seen in literature (with the possible exception of Dickens' Fagin), but this does not make him any less likable, even after we see him botch his job as father, husband, friend and even docile bar customer. Russo's skill at placing you right in the middle of his characters' lives and making you a part of them has not diminished, and this novel shows him at his prime in terms of this. The fact that this is a very funny book does not at all diminish the emotional impact Russo brings to a gripping climax; indeed, he continues the climax up until the very last page. The line between popular fiction and literature can be blurred, even at the best of times, but this novel makes the transition smoothly and gracefully.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic dialogue; poignant; entertaining
Review: I have not enjoyed a novel like this in a long time. True, a long, sweeping saga, but masterfully executed. The characters are so real, so genuine, I often forgot I was reading at all...I was sitting at the bar, grinning myself at the witty dialogue. I've only read Straight Man by Russo, which was amusing, but I found this novel to have more substance. I especially like how the entire book is pulled together by Ned's grandfather's sarcastic version of the seasons: Fourth of July, Mohawk Fair, Eat the Bird, and Winter, which dictates the flow of life in Mohawk as well as the Hall "family". Russo has a knack for creating unusual yet memorable characters with wacky, poignant misadventures that stick with you for a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: A pervasive emptiness with very little insight ....
Review: The novel Risk Pool seems to be much more of a thinly disguised memoir about a young man growing up in the dysfunctional awe of a not too bright, barely competent, alcoholic, gambling, violence prone - fighting father, who not only abandoned him as a infant but made his mother's life hell for no good reason. The non-action of this book takes place in the fictionalized dying upstate New York town of Mohawk, with a cast of derelicts and non too interesting locals who have rarely done anything worthy, funny, or significant. Though the story appears to be an homage to the boy's (Ned) father (Sam), it ultimately is about the emptiness of the boy's life. Though he came of age during the 60's and 70's there was no sense of the spirit of the times or its influcence. Whereas the difining event of the father's life was on the beach of Normandy in WWII, the only mention of the VietNam War for Ned was his great luck in drawing a high lottery number which allowed him the freedom to not be bothered. Some of the genuinely interesting characters (e.g. a young priest, and the "love" of his young life) were dispatched to oblivion. And even an influential, mostly despicable character like the son of his father's girl friend (and continually berated by his father, in the most unkind way) never penetrated Ned's hard exterior. This is a book about an alienated humorless individual living in a gray world who never conveys any sense of what is really important in life.
Rating:
Summary: If you can get by the first half, you're in for a treat
Review: Essentially a fictional autobiography told in two halves, "The Risk Pool" also serves as a neat summary of the development of Richard Russo's personal voice and writing style. The book's first half focuses on the formative years of Ned Hall, our trusty narrator. He is sharp and self-aware, periodically making pointed references to the circumstances of his life and how they influence the events to come. His parents are divorced, and he is shuffled back and forth between his mentally unstable mother and his egocentric father. The story in this section treads much of the same territory as Russo's first book, "Mohawk". In fact, all of the action here takes place in that dying small town. Even some of "Mohawk"s secondary characters make return appearances here (e.g., Untemeyer the bookie). It would have been a welcome return to a familiar setting, if I hadn't been so disappointed by "Mohawk". "The Risk Pool" falls easily into that book's traps. Russo populates his burg with a menagerie of sad characters, but does too much work in his prose explaining their psychology and motivations. It becomes bland and stilted after awhile. And even though there are some moments that predict Russo's later brilliance (e.g., Ned, his father, and his father's friend Wussy go on a fishing trip that is typical of the quality found in Russo's later oeuvre) they are not enough to save the plodding first half. However, if you can make it to page 268, you'll be rewarded with the book's poignant second half. I read "Mohawk" immediately after finishing "Nobody's Fool", and was startled by the difference in quality between those two works. It baffled me that one man could have written both works. Now I know how it happened. The second half of "The Risk Pool" is leaps and bounds ahead of its first. Russo accomplishes this by finding his eventual strength: razor sharp dialogue. The first half focused on explaining predicaments rather than showing their impact through conversation, and the story suffered because of it. Granted, our narrator is in his early teens as the half ends, and shy to boot, so he doesn't have many opportunities for talk. In the second half, Ned is ten years older, cynical about his academic career, and moving back to Mohawk for a second time. His father (and his father's friends) treats him as an adult, and the conversations these small town men have are interesting, descriptive, humourous, biting, and highly relevant. They spend much time in bars, drinking and betting, ignoring the women that may love them, but completely engrossed in their destructive lives. It may be the same subject matter for Russo, but he does it so well that I have no quibble with his one-track mind. I don't want to give too much away, but I would like to mention that Russo does a fine job moving the book towards a series of touching endings. They made me realize the one thing that served as a saving grace for the book's first half. The scope of the story developed in the narrative's lengthy beginning, detailing a life from childhood to manhood, allows the reader to get to know Ned Hall, [and] his father Sam, ...more intimately. So when these people have relationship difficulties, or experience personal tragedy, the reader can't help but feel involved. I did. Russo handles his ending with grace and a delicate touch, when he could easily have let it become maudlin and sappy. I commend him for that.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Story
Review: This is one of those books you'll finish, and immediately want to lend to a friend so they can experience it. The narrator, Ned Hall, is a man looking back at his life and the person who had the biggest impact on him; His father, Sam. Ned grows up in a fictionalized town called Mohawk which is so wonderfully detailed, it becomes it's own character. It's a town dominated by it's local bars more than anything else, and money isn't the easiest to come by. Russo, like John Irving, fills his novel with a colorful array of characters who propel the story forward as Ned interacts with them, most who are friends of his father's.It's a novel that has serious comedic overtones, yet manages to maintain it's nostalgic, and slightly melancholic center. Anyone who's ever gone back to visit their parents, or visit the town they used to live in will understand the emotions he so richly captures.
Rating:
Summary: A poignant coming of age story - the best
Review: For me this was a story of a boy who managed to grow up under the direction of an alcoholic, often absent father, who deeply loved that father and found his bar hopping life style, full of gritty and amusing people, seductive. Yet, he still managed to mature into a responsible adult doing creative, intellectual work and able to maintain a meaningful relationship with a woman. It is a different version of "you can never go home again." In this version, he does love the essence of Mohawk but manages to leave it. He is a better person for having been Sam Hall's kid and yet he is able to move on. A very hopeful book. Absolutely fabulous cast of characters. P.S. Does anyone find it sad, symbolic, anything, that the despised and vapid mother moved to California?
Rating:
Summary: no risk at all
Review: Richard Russo should be much better known than he is, and this story is a testament to his talent. Ned Hall, a bright, sensitive 12 yr. old stuck in a small-minded small town, born into a family that brings new meaning to the term dysfunctional. As the book progresses, Ned tries, and sometimes fails to be something other than the obvious losers that he's surrounded by, including his father. Sam Hall, a parent who never should have been, is a drunk, a gambler, a bad sport, and generally a case of arrested emotional maturity. Ned manages to raise himself with the help of some kind but also flawed people in Mohawk. Believe it ir not there are some real funny moments in this book. I liked this as much or more than his other three....and I really loved them.
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