Richard Russo, born in 1949, from upstate New York, is one of American's foremost living novelists. After Mohawk, his first novel, Russo went on to author seven other novels, including The Risk Pool, Empire Falls, Nobody's Fool, and Straight Man.
Compelling portrait of small town USA, Richard Russo's small town is located in the state of New York during the year 1970 and features the interlinking lives of seven main characters, men and women, young and old, but in many ways the year could range from 1915 to 2015 and the locale could be any of the fifty states since there is an undeniable sameness about what it means to grow up, live, and, if you do not leave, grow old and die in a small town. Here are snapshots from the novel, snapshots easily recognized by anyone who has ever lived in a small town:
Mrs. Grouse and Anne, her thirty-five year old daughter, find old Mather Grouse collapsed on the living room floor. Mrs. Grouse demands nothing to be done but call an ambulance. Anne defies her mother and gets her father breathing, thus saving his life. One of Anne’s friends, a guy named Dan, tells her, “You’re old enough to know better than to disobey your mother. Just who did you think you were, saving your old man’s life after you’d been expressly forbidden to?”
Randall is extremely intelligent and learns rapidly, qualities much appreciated at the private school he attended prior to coming to the small town of Mohawk. But once enrolled in Mohawk High School, everyone snickered and sneered. Randall quickly learned what he had to do to be accepted by his classmates: occasionally flub up and play dumb. As Richard Russo writes: “Perfection rankled just about everyone, including the teachers, whereas mediocrity made people feel comfortable.”
At the very center of small town USA - the high school football team
Old Mather Grouse has been afflicted with serious health issues these last few years revolving around his lungs and breathing. Mather listens to his wife’s tuneless humming and when the sound becomes very faint and he knows she is at the other end of their house, he pulls out a loose board above the cellar window and removes a plastic bag he’d hidden with some Camels and matches. Mather then puts on his windbreaker and goes out for a solitary walk – the high point of his day.
Henry is the owner of the Mohawk Grill on Main Street. He is the one man in town who befriends Wild Bill Gaffney, who never uses the front door but always enters by the door at the rear in the alley. Although Richard Russo doesn’t have the objective narrator or any of the Mohawk residents use the well-worn term, it is quite clear Wild Bill is what is referred to traditionally as the village idiot. And, perhaps predictably, Wild Bill Gaffney is a key player in the unfolding drama for the novel’s central characters.
The gloomiest times in a small town can be holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is one telling scene on Thanksgiving Day when we read: “Then Dallas borrowed fifty from Harry and joined the poker game upstairs. The other players were family men who’s seen enough of their families and grown depressed by the sight of the turkey carcass.” Ah, when all else fails, at least there is the reliable second-floor hideout where you can drink whiskey and do some illegal gambling.
One of the most heart-wrenching parts of the novel is where old Mather Grouse reflects on the future of his bright, beautiful daughter: “What if, despite her great gifts, she also ended up trapped? Would she pity some poor boy and marry him, set up house in some rundown second floor flat to wait patiently for him to come home from the corner bar, their meager meal sitting idly on the back burner? In another year would she be pregnant beneath her flowing graduation robes?” I’m quite sure this reflection has been repeated thousands of times by small town fathers and mothers as they pondered the future of their small town sons and daughters, particularly if those sons and daughters exhibit potential that will quickly be snuffed out if they never leave their small town.
Here are two of my favorite quotes about small towns:
“In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“People fear anyone who differs from what is considered normal, and in a small town the idea of normal can be as narrow as the streets.” -- Elizabeth Chandler
Lastly, here is a micro fiction of mine published years ago:
SMALL TOWN MENTALITY
From watching their Fourth of July parade and going to their county fair you wouldn’t ever guess this small town is home to such sordid, twisted, sadistic minds.
A few outsiders think it starts when kids bob for apples. The adults hold their heads underwater until their little fingers turn blue and clutch at the air.
Although, some say it begins at home, at night, behind closed doors, when every light in town is required to be put out.
American author Richard Russo
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