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Summary: A genius gathering of society's dark secret
Review: Never before have I felt the urge to read a book a second time. The Risk Pool is in my opinion the best of Richard Russo's fine novels.
It's humor is profound enough to equalize it's unyielding drama. I will check this site daily to see if Mr. Russo has released anything new.
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Summary: Character driven, autobiographical, assimilation of life.
Review: I loved this book. Beautifully written with characters so real I miss them. This work has the ring of truth, and the ability to make you dissapear into the text. I laughed out loud while reading this story. The kind of laugh that makes you want to put down the book grab someone and tell them about it. At the same time the book brought tears and the weight of life's non-refundable ticket policy crashing home. A beautifull and uplifting read
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Summary: Richard Russo, I love you.
Review: "The Risk Pool" is just perfect Russo, although at some points it is apparent it is only his second novel...but just barely. The characters are reminiscent of "Nobody's Fool", but the plot and emotional weight is more similar to "Empire Falls," meaning this is both a seriously funny and serious book. I agree with a previous reviewer...the first half can be slow moving, but stick with it through the first 50 pages or so, and you'll start to get your just rewards.
Typical Russo, this is a story of a small New England town (Mohawk) that has seen it's best days pass by. Sam Hall is a ne'er-do-well who is trying to be a father to his son, Ned, but is constantly letting himself and his son down. "The Risk Pool" follows this relationship and the intertwined relationships of the other people living in Mohawk. It's hard to explain why Russo's novels are so wonderful. If you've read him before, then you know why he's just one of the best novelists America has right now, and "The Risk Pool" can stand on its own on the shelf beside "Nobody's Fool" and "Empire Falls."
If, on the other hand, you haven't had the chance to read Russo yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? This book is as good a place to start as any. NOW...GET READING!!!
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same good small town stuff
Review: Russo's novels all explore these two-bit towns in the northeast, with faded glories and unrealistic hopes. The Risk Pool is perhaps the best one I've read. The relationship between the boy Ned and his reckless father who careens through life breaking all the rules is the theme of the book, but it's so much more. Russo has the knack of making "ordinary" lives interesting, and for me this book was a real page-turner. If you've read Mohawk, Nobody's Fool or Empire Falls, you'll settle right into this one.
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Summary: A Real View of America
Review: In the Risk Pool, Richard Russo follows up on his first novel, Mohawk, with a return to that same small town. It is only in the loosest sense a sequel, with only a couple minor characters from the first book returning. Instead, it is another successful Russo exploration of the themes that run throughout his books: the dying of the small town and the relationship between fathers and sons.More particularly, Russo explores the damage wayward fathers cause. In this case, Sam Hall abandons his son Ned shortly after birth and returns only haphazardly to create additional messes. Sam is a deadbeat dad, a drunkard and a philanderer and interestingly, one of the better fathers depicted in a Russo story: when the going gets tough, Sam does at least somewhat come through for his son. The town of Mohawk is not a pleasant place; while many are happy within, it is a trap, one which Sam and his estranged wife, Jenny, cannot escape. Whether Ned can overcome the snares of his parents and his home is one of the questions that are at least partially answered within. If I am not really getting into plot here, it is because there really isn't much of one; this book is more or less Ned Hall's memoir, the tale of his childhood and young adulthood. As always, Russo delivers with great writing, a blend of the humorous and the serious, and if this doesn't quite rate five stars - he has even better books such as Nobody's Fool and Empire Falls - it is a strong four star book and well worth reading.
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Summary: Russo's Best
Review: This book is divided into four parts by the author based upon a quote about the dying town of Mohawk by the narrator's grandfather. In reality, it is in three parts: When the narrator is 12-14 years old, when he is just out of college at age 24, and a decade later. The part told by the youthful Ned is more than half the book. The characters are all introduced by the teenager. As he tells the story, the characters are like cut-out cardboard figures. This is true even of his father who is the main character and motivator behind the telling of the story. Although one would not expect a 12 year old to depict characters with depth and sympathy, the voice telling the story was ot that of a twelve year, thus the incongruity. This was a major disappointment to a reader who found the characters to be the best part of "Empire Falls." The disappointment was so deep that I almost put the book down for good. When the narrator leaves college and heads back home to Mohawk and renews his relationship with his alcoholic father the entire book turns around. Suddenly the characters have some depth so there can be empathy with them - particularly the father. When Ned resumes the story ten years later, the characters have been completely fleshed out and the relationship between father and son is completely compelling. At that point I did not want to see the story end, but knew that if it had been lengthened it would have been cheapened. This novel depicting the relationship between a dysfunctional (and somewhat bizarre) father and his son finally became gripping. There is some humor to the book as you would expect from Russo. However, the characters are so down in the dumps it rarely reaches the light-hearted nature of his books. Although "Risk Pool" is not nearly as good as "Empire Falls" due to its major problem getting the reader to know and sympathize with its characters, I was glad I stuck with it to get to the narrator's adult years. The last third of the book lifted it from a two star to a four star.
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