What I learned reading Richard Russo's "Nobody's Fool"

Last fall, I visited my parents in (not so sunny) California, and lived the retired life for a week. It was glorious. Since we all went to bed so early every night, I basically stayed on East Coast time, waking up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 4am. I would lie in bed for hours enjoying the book I started on the plane.

Richard Russo's 1993 novel Nobody’s Fool takes place in the fictional small town of North Bath in Upstate New York. It is economically depressed, and its residents are each coping and getting through day-to-day life in their own way. Some with denial, some with resignation, some with delusion.

“There was supposed to be a tour you could take where they’d show you how everything ran, but it was the one thing in Disney World Mrs. Harold wasn’t interested in. It’d spoil the magic, was the way she looked at it. She wouldn’t let Harold go see it either for fear he’d explain everything to her, which would be even worse.”

Nobody's Fool was made into a movie in 1994 starring Paul Newman, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis, which was wonderful, but offers just a glimpse into the world and characters Russo creates in the book. I found myself re-reading and underlining certain passages. 

“The best she was able to do was to reflect that people invariably exhibited the very worst side of their flawed natures when invited to put their thoughts into writing, especially when the invitation was sanctioned hit-and-run posing as democracy in action.”

I enjoyed waking up with this cast of flawed and complex characters, who were at times crashing into each and at other times helping each other. Occasionally showing grace and more often lying, teasing and enabling each other. 

“This was twice now he’d cheated people out of a tragedy, and even his own son looked conflicted on the point of his continued existence, though this was probably due to the fact that his not being dead after all, made Peter, who’d called for the ambulance, look like a fool.”

Most of us know people who make decisions or behave in ways that are nonsensical and self-destructive. We watch them and think, “Why are they doing what they are doing?” Or we move through life with assumptions about how others see us or feel about us without any real evidence or the chance to know more.

“What did it mean that at age eighty she suddenly seemed unable to decide who she was angry at, who was deserving of pity and understanding?”

Russo peels back the layers of  each character revealing their humanity and vulnerability and insight into the cause of their dysfunction.

“…Only then did Vera have the leisure to note that the perfect moment, so long awaited and planned for, was a lie.”... “Only Will, her grandson, seemed aware of her distress, and he watched her so fearfully that she wished there was a way to reassure him that this feeling would pass, that truth was something she’d always been able to swallow and keep down.”

It's a reminder that the person someone is today is a Chex-Mix of everything that they have experienced so far. It’s all normal and understandable if you know the whole story, but we rarely know the whole story.

Nobody’s Fool validated my urge to roll my eyes at others, while inspiring me to also find some grace.