Somebody’s Fool, the third book in the Sully series by Richard Russo, is published in paperback on 4 July and as you may be busy out voting that day, what you will need is a good book or three to get down to at while you wait for the results to come in.
Nobody’s Fool is the first book in the sequence and one of my very favourites of all time. Essentially, I thought, since I’ve read all three books and watched the movie adaptation of the first book I’d give you my thoughts about them all.
For those of who who aren’t aware of Richard Russo’s books, and he’s less well known on this side of the pond, the series is set in a small town in New York state called North Bath. Very little happens in the books except life and luck and mostly bad luck at that. The main protagonist from the first book is Donald “Sully” Sullivan and, despite him having a peripheral role in the second book and having died by the third, the series is named after him.
The town is down at heel, especially in comparison to the better off Schuyler Springs down the interstate. People in North Bath are funny looking and they act a bit weird too, though not to their minds. The first book is the funniest, though some of the humour is cruel, there is a streak of humanity in Russo that means if a character has had a hard time, made a mistake, been a dick or suffered bad luck, there is karma or a change of fortune somehow waiting, sometimes not till the third book.
Plot-wise, Sully is an ageing, wise-cracking manual worker with a grudge against his abusive dead father and a grudge against his sometime casual employer Carl Roebuck. Carl is a serial philanderer, riding his luck and making dodgy deals all over town.
Some of the best and fondest drawn characters in the books are the supporting cast, in the first book the prime of these are Mrs Beryl Peoples, Sully landlady and former schoolteacher, and Abraham Wirfly, Sully’s one-legged Jewish lawyer. I’m very fond of them both, how they both have a role steering Sully through his stupid streaks and their faith in him, which is not always rewarded.
Essentially, Sully makes some bad decisions, teases good people and winds a lot more people up, but he’s also full of heart and will overcome most issues to win folk over.
The sequels get more involved with the other bit-players from the first book: specifically, police officer Douglas Raymer and Sully’s lover Ruth and her daughter Janey.
Perhaps reflective of the times, the books seem to get darker and less silly as you go on, like North Bath itself which, in the latest book, is about to be subsumed by its more glamorous neighbouring city, Schuyler Springs. Russo is interested in people with no future, places that are neglected and forgotten, and how anyone can get on without any burst of hope. This feels more and more relevant on both sides of the Atlantic though I don’t feel confident about things like this being solved or even cared about quickly, elections or not, but art and literature should examine all sorts and you can find all sorts in North Bath. There’s also a huge theme running through each about family, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters and legacies.
Russo is a ‘tell don’t show’ type of writer, which goes against the grain in modern writing advice – or at least modern British writing advice, though there seem to be more American authors who do this well. I like the style, but then I’m used to it.
At the end of the latest book, Russo mentions that the series has had three editors which may account for a couple of plot discrepancies I noticed when reading them back to back, and you also have to forgive the recounting of old stories in the pages of each, for first time readers doing the series out of order. But these are minor quibbles. Small town America at its worst, and somehow also its best.
The film is available to watch on YouTube and by necessity has to cut some of the nuance and interactions from the book. Paul Newman stars as Sully and is perfect for the role, and I would have loved to see more of Jessica Tandy in her final part as Miss Beryl. However, the cuts mean that most of the women and relationship parts are not included, with the exception of Melanie Griffith flashing her tits as Carl’s wife Toby. What the film does, it mostly does faithfully, but the female parts of the book are what help to give it a well-rounded view and without that interaction, without the range of people lining up for Sully to interact, piss off or mess around, or to point out Sully’s defects and mistakes, it feels like a missed opportunity. It should have been a miniseries.
I strongly recommend the books, I will always love the first most but the second and third books, because they offer a rounded view of other characters, don’t feel forced, like some sequels do; they’re books in their own right and have the requisite humour and warmth but also that sense that the world is playing with the characters, just because it can. They’re generous novels with the Austen-esque trick of painting a broad picture with a tiny brush. If you read the first two now, you’ll be ready for election day pre-orders and I promise you, you won’t regret it.
Certainly better than the election coverage.
Nobody’s Fool, Everybody’s Fool and Somebody’s Fool are all published by Allen and Unwin.
Susan E Barsby 