What a great book to start the year! I'm a fan of Richard Russo, especially The Whore's Child, and I was eagerly looking forward to this book. I have to start with Griffin's parents. What sad, repugnant, fascinating, believable people. I spent so much of the book analyzing Griffin and how his behavior and actions were influenced by his parents. Of course his mother is in his head! Whether our parents are with us physically or not, some part of them is always rattling around in our brain. As the novel progresses, Russo skillfully reveals how a son's memories and perceptions may not necessarily contain the whole truth and reality of a person or an event. This is a lesson he needs to learn, and it is a difficult one for him, considering the certainty of opinion that his parents have ingrained in him. Griffin's parents are full of pride and intellectual arrogance, but by the end of the novel I felt sympathy and pity for them, something I would have not thought possible earlier in the story.
One scene in the book really stuck with me. In it, Russo neatly captures how a relationship can change in an instant--satisfying and happy one moment and fractured and anguished the next--unspoken resentment, suspicion, contempt erupting from the smallest of fissures. This scene between Griffin and his wife, Joy, threw me for a loop because I didn't see it coming at all. I should have anticipated it--the foreshadowing was there--but I guess I didn't want to see the signs (gullible romantic that I am).
Griffin's life is in motion. He is a man on a physical journey and an inner journey as well. He moves east to west and back again, not satisfied with where he is or what he is doing. His parents, Joy's family, and his job are all sources of anguish for him. Satisfaction is elusive. Cape Cod, however, holds a special place for him and his parents. It holds the mythic pot of gold at the end of the rainbow--the elusive summer cottage--if they can only find the right one, which unfortunately all too often fall into the one of two categories: "Can't Afford It or Wouldn't Have It As a Gift." It is only right that Griffin returns here to put the past to rest and start anew.
I laughed out loud in parts and also felt the bittersweet pain of dreams lost and hopes smashed. The characters were real and their decisions and actions believable--sometimes maddeningly so. The best part of the book was the least surprising, having read other stories by Russo, and that was that the feelings engendered were true and earned.
One scene in the book really stuck with me. In it, Russo neatly captures how a relationship can change in an instant--satisfying and happy one moment and fractured and anguished the next--unspoken resentment, suspicion, contempt erupting from the smallest of fissures. This scene between Griffin and his wife, Joy, threw me for a loop because I didn't see it coming at all. I should have anticipated it--the foreshadowing was there--but I guess I didn't want to see the signs (gullible romantic that I am).
Griffin's life is in motion. He is a man on a physical journey and an inner journey as well. He moves east to west and back again, not satisfied with where he is or what he is doing. His parents, Joy's family, and his job are all sources of anguish for him. Satisfaction is elusive. Cape Cod, however, holds a special place for him and his parents. It holds the mythic pot of gold at the end of the rainbow--the elusive summer cottage--if they can only find the right one, which unfortunately all too often fall into the one of two categories: "Can't Afford It or Wouldn't Have It As a Gift." It is only right that Griffin returns here to put the past to rest and start anew.
I laughed out loud in parts and also felt the bittersweet pain of dreams lost and hopes smashed. The characters were real and their decisions and actions believable--sometimes maddeningly so. The best part of the book was the least surprising, having read other stories by Russo, and that was that the feelings engendered were true and earned.
