Reader delagar reminded me of how much I love Richard Russo, the only American writer who, in my opinion, writes the kind of literature that is not a waste of time. Russo wrote Nobody’s Fool in 1993 but the novel is scarily relevant to what is happening in the country right now.
Nobody’s Fool is a novel about men who fail. Its male characters belong to different age groups and professions, they have different levels of educational attainment but they all share an uncanny capacity to fail at absolutely everything. They fail as workers, professionals, husbands, fathers, friends, citizens, lovers, neighbors, even pet owners. And as soon as they are done failing, they start all over again.
The question that lies at the heart of this novel is whether readers will find these male characters quirky and endearing or if they will notice how casually but relentlessly these men take their frustrations out on women. Beaten, abused, jailed, humiliated, dead, discarded, and infected women are everywhere in the novel but the male characters don’t notice their suffering and only see them as obstacles to getting what they want whenever they want it. Readers will either subscribe to this vision of women or will manage to resist it.
This is a complex novel, and Russo brings to it another layer. His favorite subject that he keeps writing about is bad parents and the damage they unthinkingly inflict on their children. The novel is funny but it’s the kind of humor that covers up something so horrible, so degraded that a mere glimpse of it makes one recoil.
Highly recommended.
Clarissa's Blog 
This is a good summary of the movie they made from the book, starring Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy.
11 December 2006 | by (fairjumper@yahoo.com) (United States) – See all my reviews
I can feel this movie deep inside. It is a reflection of the type of characters I have known and it relates well to real life situations that every working stiff goes through. Newman easily fits the character of Sully. Haven’t most people seen these characters in any town anywhere in this country. The production is well performed by all and has good locations. There is just enough humor in it so that it balances the harder things in life. A chance to laugh at frailties and unsung heroes. I get the feeling that I am right there with these guys and would like to cry in my beer with them. It is worth watching over and over and it could almost become a seasonal classic. I have given this movie to friends as a gift and recommend it highly.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110684/
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Ah, I didn’t know there was a movie! Thank you, I might watch it.
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Had to come back here to say: I read this and everybody’s fool, on your thumbs-up, and enjoyed them immensely.
But it is now 10x funnier because my brother just moved to North Bath. I know that town is fictional and doesn’t exist, but he totally found it, and now I get daily updates about his settling-in adventures: diners, dive bars, thrift shops, estate sales, veterans’ halls… in my head I’m writing him into the next book.
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Such great novels! I’m happy you enjoyed them.
Except for the most recent one in the series which was a flop. The one your brother is creating will be enormously better.
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He is an enterprising fellow. One week and he’s gone from camping out in his car at the highway rest area, to bartering repair services with nice old ladies he met at an estate sale to furnish his newly-rented turn-of-the-century house.
Introduced himself at the local veterans’ hall/bar, and I guess they don’t get many actual veterans there, because he triggered some dormant clause in their mission statement (OMG it’s a… homeless veteran! Activate!) (homeless is a technicality here, he has a house, it’s just in another state… still needed somewhere to live to start new job *there*). Anyway, now half the town is rummaging through their garages for spare lamps and chairs to help him get set up in his empty house.
He has been informed that there are no bad neighborhoods in his new town. There’s just that one bad house with all the shirtless kids in the yard… so he made sure to plan his exploratory dog-walking routes to check it out.
We wait on tenterhooks for each day’s update.
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