What is that always so nice to read, that Russo. There is a kind of familiarity, an ease that you end up in. With ordinary people, a bit good, a bit wrong, just like everyone else and yet there is plenty of tension in his books.

Russo's works have a unique charm. The stories he tells are about the lives of ordinary individuals, which makes the readers easily relate to them. We can see ourselves in those characters, with their flaws and virtues. And yet, despite the ordinariness, Russo manages to create a sense of excitement and anticipation. The plots are full of unexpected twists and turns that keep us on the edge of our seats.

Whether it's a small-town drama or a complex family saga, Russo's writing always engages and entertains. His ability to bring the characters to life and make us care about them is truly remarkable. Reading his books is like taking a journey into the lives of others, and it's a journey that we always enjoy.

I fell in love with the works of Richard Russo the moment I read his Pulitzer Prize winning "Empire Falls".

Since then, I've devoured most of what he has penned, and loved each one to varying degrees. My top favorites, aside from "Empire Falls", are "Nobody's Fool", and a recently discovered gem called "Mohawk".

"Mohawk" holds a special place as it is the very first book Russo ever wrote. If you have any acquaintance with Russo's writing style, you'll know that his books resonate like a soulful bluesy Bruce Springsteen song.

They typically revolve around a small blue-collar town where the town's major employer has been contaminating the air and water for years and is perilously close to bankruptcy. Just like in "Mohawk", where the employer is a tannery, the fate of the town is intertwined with that of the employer.

Russo delves deep into the lives of the people who choose to remain in such a dying town. He poses thought-provoking questions: Why do they stay? What were the stories of their glorious days, and how do they come to terms with the loss of those times?

Moreover, he makes us question whether the tannery is a villain for draining the townspeople dry and leaving them with a poisoned river, or a hero for providing many years of a break-even economy to an otherwise impoverished community.

"Mohawk" is truly a captivating and intellectually stimulating book that leaves a lasting impression.

This is my third Russo book and perhaps my absolute favorite. He truly possesses a remarkable gift for giving a voice to the working class and small town America.

Mohawk is set in Mohawk, New York, a fading industrial town in the late 1960s. The story tracks several characters over a span of 5 years as they grapple with the void in their lives and the resulting quiet desperation.

Towards the conclusion, several of them manage to break free from Mohawk, either through death or by simply fleeing.

Russo has such a laid-back writing style that his books are a sheer delight to read.

His descriptions are vivid, making it easy for the reader to envision the town and its inhabitants. The characters are well-developed, with their own flaws and virtues, and the reader can't help but empathize with their struggles.

Overall, Mohawk is a powerful and moving novel that explores the themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning in life. It's a must-read for anyone who enjoys literary fiction.

Mohawk is just the second novel by Richard Russo that I've delved into. However, it had a strangely familiar feel to it. In fact, it closely resembles Everybody's Fool with its extensive cast of characters, the small-town backdrop, and the focus on domestic life.

It evoked that sense you experience when you encounter an old friend whom you had lost touch with for a long time. But when you meet again, the connection instantly reignites, as if you had never been apart.

The characters in Mohawk are incredibly diverse. There's the diner owner, retired men and their wives, a beautiful woman who made a wrong choice in marriage and is now in love with her cousin's husband, a policeman, and a whole host of other characters. They are all portrayed in a highly realistic manner. Richard Russo has a remarkable talent for explaining people's actions and motivations without passing judgment.

After reading Mohawk, I'm definitely eager to explore more of Russo's works. I'm looking forward to seeing what other精彩的 stories and characters he has in store for me.

This is the very first book that I have had the pleasure of reading by Richard Russo, a renowned author who is most widely known for his masterpieces such as Empire Falls and Bridge of Sighs.

The character development within this book is truly wonderful. Each character is crafted with such细腻ness and depth that they seem to come alive on the pages. The story itself is equally compelling, drawing the reader in from the very beginning and keeping them engaged until the very end.

Russo has an extraordinary talent for capturing the essence and feeling of a small town. He does this like few other writers can, making the small-scale events and daily lives of the townspeople seem larger than life. His descriptive writing allows the reader to vividly imagine the town and its inhabitants.

After reading this book, I am now eagerly looking forward to delving into more of Russo's work. I have a feeling that each of his books will offer a unique and captivating experience, just like this one has.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys well-written stories with rich character development and a sense of place. It is truly a gem.

I want to give this 5 stars because I truly enjoyed reading it to that extent. However, it seemed to lack that certain something extra that I expect a 5-star book to possess. Russo reflects on his characters, even when his characters themselves are not particularly introspective. I really like this aspect.

The plot, though, was a bit forced or perhaps convenient - probably due to the fact that this was Russo's debut. He had a very strong theme in the early stages and seemed to lose the strength of it approximately three-quarters of the way through. It's difficult to criticize him for that, and his later novels surely make up for it.

Russo's trademark humor was clearly evident in this debut. The setting is a small town, and his characters are mostly working-class males who stumble through life, not quite understanding why they don't understand the world around them. Consider a conversation between a couple of minor characters:

"I didn't know you ever were married."
"Just twice. Not lately."
"What happened?"
"Don't know. Something."

There are also quiet, often wise characters, although they may be hapless and not thought highly of by the others.

A man with only eight grades' worth of education himself, Mather Grouse had spent the better part of his adult life doing what he called "improving his mind." His readings were eclectic, albeit completely undisciplined, and by the time he was thirty, he knew a great deal without even beginning to satisfy his curiosity or discover its source. And he also knew that while he had read more than many educated men, the fact remained that they were educated and he was not.

Although my best reading experiences have come long after thirty, I could relate to this. Not everyone with an education makes the most of it, and some of us without one find a way to bridge the gap.

Overall, despite its flaws, this debut novel by Russo shows great promise and has many redeeming qualities that make it an enjoyable read.

I recently had the pleasure of reading Russo's newest book, That Old Cape Magic, and I absolutely loved it.

As a result, I decided to give his first novel a try, and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

This novel reminded me a great deal of Empire Falls, for which he won a Pulitzer.

The setting of the story was a small town that was down on its luck, which added a certain charm and authenticity to the narrative.

Moreover, it was filled with many interesting characters whose lives became intertwined in the most unexpected ways.

Their individual stories and struggles were both relatable and engaging, making it difficult to put the book down.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a well-written story with a touch of magic and a whole lot of heart.

Russo has truly outdone himself with this work, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Richard Russo (1949) has already written 14 books and several film adaptations. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, and Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman in the lead role was a modest box office success in 1994. It seems that with a pen, he can do little wrong. Soon, his latest novel will be published in Dutch (There Is a Chance). And someone at Publisher Signatuur must have noticed that the translation of his works started with Empire Falls and continued consequently, but as a result, his debut novel Mohawk was overlooked. Now that has been corrected. Mohawk was a great success in the US. It is also an extremely well-told story that contains all the ingredients that will later reappear in his books: small-town America (located in the state of New York, where Russo spent his youth), strong, stable women with the occasional intractability, and around them, men with a chip on their shoulder who are drawn into a downward economic spiral, visited by their demons, causing the story to often take on grotesque forms, but never losing the reader's attention or feeling contrived. Russo knows how to cast his characters well in recognizable settings (the diner, a trailer park, decaying neighborhoods, unimaginative industrial areas), and let them settle old scores in their mutual communication, cherish glimmers of hope, squander their future, or live out their inner paradoxes (the unfaithful scoundrel isn't always that) against a backdrop of overall control loss (here, industrial decline and polluting contamination). Mohawk (published in 1986) takes place at the end of the 1960s to the mid-1970s in an area that Russo knows better than many others. And from the story, one could conclude that the decline of the US, which is now on everyone's lips, began much earlier than we think. Industry in small towns was already under severe pressure in the middle of the Vietnam War (which plays a role in the book). For those who have never read a Russo before, Mohawk is a real recommendation. But be warned: Richard Russo is rather addictive.

Richard Russo is truly a master at描绘美国的日常生活，我非常喜欢他的《帝国瀑布》。这本书也是如此，故事背景设定在美国的莫霍克镇，在那里，每个人似乎都以某种方式相互认识。

Russo聚焦于书中的人物，其中有在烧烤店工作的Harry，和父母及儿子一起住在家里的Anne，还有那个放荡不羁、似乎无法掌控自己生活的Dallas。

然而，这本书并不是我最喜欢的Russo作品之一，因为它的高潮部分在我看来比较薄弱。书中的人物做出了一些我不太理解的事情，导致的后果也并没有真正引起我的兴趣。

不过我得说，这本书总体上还是一本令人愉快的读物，我会推荐它。尤其是如果你和我一样，喜欢阅读关于美国普通人以及日常生活的故事。只是在最终的结局方面，它没有完全达到我的期望。

I always have a great passion for reading the debut novels of authors whose later masterpieces I truly relish. And this particular one was no exception. In terms of sheer enjoyability, it doesn't reach the level of pure brilliance that we see in Empire Falls, the hilarious comedy of Straight Man, or the eerie drama of Bridge of Sighs. However, when you have devoured as many of Russo's works as I have (this being my sixth novel of his), it becomes fascinating to observe the origins of some of his other creations.

Some of those typical Russo trademarks are present here. There is the dying industrial town, the local greasy spoon, and the delightfully quirky characters who intertwine in all kinds of unexpected manners. But it doesn't all gel together in the same seamless way as in his later works.

I definitely found myself longing for the wonderful protagonists that grace his other novels, as the viewpoints shift constantly in this one.

For any die-hard Russo fan, this is an absolute must-read. But if you are new to his writing, I would highly recommend starting with the aforementioned works before delving into this one.

I am completely blown away by the profound love I have for this book. In fact, I love all of his books! My absolute favorites among them are his new ones - Straight Man, Empire Falls, and Bridge of Sighs. As I move backwards through his works, it becomes easy to observe the development of his themes from the very beginning. However, I didn't think the stories were as masterfully woven as in his later works. I thought Nobody's Fool and Risk Pool were good, filled to the brim with Russo's unique worldview. But they seemed to be trying too hard to be funny, or quirky, or something else. Both were built around aging hooligans who refused to compromise, walking disasters yet lovable fools all the while. Mohawk reminds me a great deal of Empire Falls. It doesn't really have ONE main character. Instead, it is a vivid portrait, an overview of a town, giving a wide variety of principles their equal time and focus in weaving everything together.

If you are familiar with his other work, you'll definitely notice the familiarity of his source material. There are more small, decaying towns with crazy old people and exasperated 40-year-old sons and daughters trying to care for them. There are also a couple of school-age kids wondering if they can escape, a goober cop no one respects, a grill cook/owner who acts as the "center" of town, poker games and gambling, tanneries and/or companies that may or may not pollute the river in town yet everyone needs the job, and generational conflicts dating back to Grandfather days affecting the grandson. It's funny because in some ways it seems like so much material overlaps - the grill here could be the grill in Empire Falls, the flat where Dallas lives upstairs could be where the father in The Risk Pool lives, and the poker game in Nobody's Fool could be the exact same as the poker games here. But the way Russo develops the plot, weaves through the details, he really makes each story his own. You notice the similar ideas in each book, but it's a different story, a different focus, like telling a story about St. Johns and then maybe a story about Alma, a story about Ovid-Elsie - similar, small towns, but still different and unique.

What was truly amazing about this story was the way Russo developed 5 - 6 different plotlines, involving all characters, young and old, and ended up bringing them all together in the end. The climax lasted nearly 50 pages as he attempted to combine and resolve all conflicts. The variety of characters gave all readers a focal point of view. He even saved many of the revelations for the final quarter of the book, slowly giving away one nugget of backstory at a time. The novel is so character-driven, yet the suspense and page-turning tension never let up. You have no idea what will happen with these characters and you find yourself really pulling for them, hoping that everything will turn out okay.

Like I said with the last Russo book I read, he just makes you feel so happy and sad to be alive. Everything is portrayed so realistically, with no sugar-coating. His "loveable losers" struggle like the best of us, dealing with the fallout of setbacks and past events in ways we don't even realize we do ourselves. Yet, underneath it all, there is such a current of empathy, of feeling, of love for his characters. These are human beings, and this is humanity, in all its pain, glory, conflict, success, desire, as time inevitably moves forward and we all attempt to keep afloat.

For whatever reason, during this particular re-read, "Mohawk" truly struck me as being particularly grim and depressing.

There is indeed a glimmer of positivity and hope at the end of the book. However, by and large, all the characters seem to have lived wasted lives. Some due to their own actions and choices, while others because of tragic circumstances that were beyond their control.

And unfortunately, the aforementioned glimmer of hope at the end simply wasn't sufficient to offset the overall grimness that pervaded the entire story.

Of course, it's important to note that not all books have to be balanced in such a manner. In fact, some of the very best books are relentlessly depressing, and they manage to captivate readers precisely because of their unflinching portrayal of the harsher aspects of life.

But given that "Mohawk" isn't an exceptional book in that particular vein, it was, at times, rather hard going to finish this book. Russo's writing is still excellent, no doubt about that. His prose is engaging and his characterizations are vivid.

However, it's a story that I'm ultimately glad I'm done with. It's one that left me with a sense of melancholy and a feeling that perhaps there are some stories that are just too heavy to fully embrace.