I never want a Richard Russo book to end.
I mark passages in his books to read to others.

This settled it. Richard Russo deserves all the accolades there are to give.

Sully is a guy who hogs bad luck. He takes whatever work he can get (when he can get it), but an arthritic knee and the worker's comp people determine to make that a difficult task. He lives in a small-town that loves him and hates him and loves to hate him and hates to love him.

Typical small town.

Speaking of, Russo's characters are brilliant. They never do or say what you expect them to, but when they do or say that, you know that's exactly what you expected of them. I lived with these people in New York, and I'm going to miss them.

And then there's Russo' wit! I'm not just talking witty dialogue, which there's plenty of. I'm not just talking witty writing, which abounds. Something runs deeper than that. It's the wit of life. The wit that comes from knowing people. Really knowing them. They're everyday people, not outlandish, quirky characters. Everyday. Which means outlandish and quirky, but not because Russo had to try. He didn't have to put in extra trick. He just wrote people.

In the end, you feel content. Content with who Sully is (and his landlady and her son and Sully's best friends and son and...). And really, you feel content with who you are. Somehow, this book made me look at my life and think, you know, I like it. Who cares about such-and-such? This is how it is, and I like that.

Russo sure does know how to make me laugh and he does a good job of it several times in this book. Yet, I got bored by several sections as descriptions of characters and their thoughts got overly wordy. I still got some good life lessons from this book. I learned that I need to take more risks in life and things will be ok no matter how bad off you are as long as you have friends.

I read this on the beach in Ixtapa. People had to have thought I had lost my mind, as I sometimes laughed so hard I cried. But, of course, the book is so much more than funny - it is a totally rounded book with off-beat, but believable characters.

Empire Falls has received more kudos, but I think that this is Russo's best novel so far. True, it lacks the firmest of plot structures and tends to meander as it explores an always arresting (if sometimes pitiful or depressing) cast of major and minor characters and seemingly peripheral incidents in the down-on-its luck upstate NY burg of "Bath." But that meandering embodies precisely what is so rewarding. The interactions and dialogue between these tragicomic small-town characters is as sharply written, humorous and on-the-mark as anyone could want. Especially for those of us of a certain age, class background, and social and geographic origin, this novel offers the kind of witty, sad and "enhanced" verisimilitude that modern American literature too often lacks. Russo has produced a marvelous work of fiction here, one that constantly elicits empathy and sympathy by exploring characters that inhabit a reader's mind and emotions long after the last page is read.

I started reading this book and remembered a scene from a movie that matched. It was a movie. However, I don't remember the movie being nearly as entertaining or addictive as the book. Great book. Great story. Even greater characters. I loved it and hated for it to end.

Nobody's Fool is an amazing achievement. It is "The Life and Times of Donald Sullivan, a.k.a. Sully," a 60-year old, curmudgeonly, disabled, laborer who lives in a small town in upstate New York. The novel is not at all plot driven --- hundreds of pages go by without anything really happening, and there is no particular story other than Sully's existence. It is not that literally nothing happens, a la James Joyce, it is rather that nothing special happens, a la, say, Seinfeld.

How does that make a great book? Well, first, like Seinfeld, the characters in Sully's life are quirky, clever and humorous, and full of behaviors and observations that are true to life in some way or other that, taken together, make following them interesting and rewarding (though in a completely different way from Seinfeld). Second (and, in this way, the exact opposite of Seinfeld), the characters, their lives, thoughts, feelings and experiences are so deeply, richly, thickly presented -- amazingly so. Frankly, I can't myself come up with the right adjective.

Whatever the complete opposite of superficial is, that is Russo's writing. The characters are so fully realized that it seems impossible that this could all have come from a person's imagination. Along the way, he explores many themes: parent-child relations in particular, but also friendship, love, the meaning of life and much more. The book has constant, lengthy digressions, but each one is great, and many brilliant. It's a series of small, often humorous and sometimes hilarious, masterpieces.

I have also read his Pulitzer Prize winning Empire Falls and thought that was great too. For me, though, this one was better. I thought that one had a contrived ending that lost the "trueness" that characterizes Russo's writing. I also did not feel the author's love for his characters in Empire Falls that is so apparent in Nobody's Fool.

My one criticism of the book is its treatment of race. That treatment is very small--it only comes up a couple of times in the book--but the casual racism of the characters in those passages and the actual depiction of the one African American in the story are the proverbial sore thumb in the book, lacking the subtle realism of the rest of the story and leaving a disturbing aftertaste.

Brilliant, if your definition of a brilliant modern novel includes great characters interacting in interesting, beliveable ways-- human, imperfect, utterly believable. And howlingly funny.

The plot plods; and the only car chase never exceeds walking pace, which [as you might imagine] is pretty darn funny in its own right.

Great fun, not to be missed.

This book is fantastic. It has terrific characters in a well defined setting that creates a heartfelt community. You'll laugh and feel your heart strings pulled. One of my favorite books ever. This genre brings a true environment, and conflicts with real people that tackle genuine problems, something we can all relate to. Sully is a hero cut from everyman.

This may be Richard Russo's best book, at least as far as a straight-ahead story goes. Any avid reader, and especially any writer about place, should read anything he writes. This may the best place --- pardon the pun -- to start.

I saw this movie starring Paul Newman a number of years ago and then started to travel through Upstate NY visiting family and working in Upstate NY. I was always amazed at how accurately the author captures this region of the country. The film was produced on location in the Hudson River Valley and other areas Upstate.

The US government has characterized several counties in New York as "Appalachian" and many counties are economically depressed. The plot of this novel captures the character of people who choose to stay in one place instead of chasing the American Dream all over the place as itinerant migrant workers.

I'm a voracious and very selective reader. And I LOVE this book. Full of eccentric characters, sharply (and lovingly) observed, it has some of the best snappy patter ever written. The old man of the title is irrefutably irresistible. And though the characters have rather sad lives, it's still an uplifting piece of literature.

I started this book many months ago and ended up putting it down during one of my "reading slumps." I picked it back up over the weekend and finished it. I really enjoyed the characters. Sully, Rub, Mrs. People's, Clive Jr. and the whole lot are really well written and representative of small town life. Sully, the main character, is funny, unpredictable, and lovable, although he tries to appear otherwise. He reminded me how much I enjoyed meeting "Max"~~the main character in my very favorite Russo Book, "Empire Falls." Nobody's Fool is a good read, not up to par with Empire Falls, but I would recommend it to those who enjoy a good look into small town life with very well written and memorable characters.

So far I've seen 67 out of 68 positive reviews for this book, and I say "Hurrah" for Richard Russo for all his positive praise. However, I disagree. The book has a flimsy to nonexistent foundation, that being backstory which takes circuitous twists and turns, and those turns take further turns.. So far I'm averaging 3 to 4 pages a night, and I'm a prolific reader. Why is Russo so fearful of forwarding the plot? Why the back and forth, the past histories upon past histories of every minor character? Just too much "muchiness" as the Brits would say.

This a wonderful book. It will have you smiling, laughing, and concerned with the lives and events of a place that might otherwise be seen as of little worth.

Anyone who has driven through the secondary roads of Northern New York will recognize the book's breathtaking authenticity. This is the land of rusting cars sitting on blocks in front yards, old farm houses slumped over and left unpainted for decades, and ugly roadside beer joints with neon window signs.

The town at the center of the story is a place, once somewhat grand, now for years in serious decline. Charm can be spotted in the decayed gingerbread woodwork of century-old houses whose residents are too poor or old to keep them up. Some huge old trees give parts of the main street a disguise of faded elegance.

The town might be taken as a metaphor for the main character, Sully, who is slowly rotting into the same fabric of decay. Sully is charming, offensive, funny, and pathetic in turns. He is both biting observer of the town's slide into oblivion and full participant.

Sully is a complex human being, and surely one of the most memorable characters in modern American literature. He is actually one of a number of attempts by Richard Russo to come to terms with the man who was his extraordinary father. Most of these attempts have not been as appealing or successful as Nobody's Fool, the only exception being The Risk Pool, another fine book, where his central character is a boy thrown by circumstances into the bizarre, chaotic life of his father, a much rawer character than Sully.

Russo has the gift to hold a place up to laughter while yet never separating himself from what he is having us laugh at. It is that quality that gives grace to a story that could fall into brutal sarcasm.

The film that was made of this book was the kind of fine little film Hollywood just does not make anymore. It was a terrific role for an older Paul Newman, and, if you saw it, I think you will find yourself hearing his voice and intonations sometimes as you read Sully's lines.

But the book is far richer and more interesting than the film. It is quite simply a modern masterpiece.

This a wonderful book. It will have you smiling, laughing, and concerned with the lives and events of a place that might otherwise be seen as of little worth.

Anyone who has driven through the secondary roads of Northern New York will recognize the book's breathtaking authenticity. This is the land of rusting cars sitting on blocks in front yards, old farm houses slumped over and left unpainted for decades, and ugly roadside beer joints with neon window signs.

The town at the center of the story is a place, once somewhat grand, now for years in serious decline. Charm can be spotted in the decayed gingerbread woodwork of century-old houses whose residents are too poor or old to keep them up. Some huge old trees give parts of the main street a disguise of faded elegance.

The town might be taken as a metaphor for the main character, Sully, who is slowly rotting into the same fabric of decay. Sully is charming, offensive, funny, and pathetic in turns. He is both biting observer of the town's slide into oblivion and full participant.

Sully is a complex human being, and surely one of the most memorable characters in modern American literature. He is actually one of a number of attempts by Richard Russo to come to terms with the man who was his extraordinary father. Most of these attempts have not been as appealing or successful as Nobody's Fool, the only exception being The Risk Pool, another fine book, where his central character is a boy thrown by circumstances into the bizarre, chaotic life of his father, a much rawer character than Sully.

Russo has the gift to hold a place up to laughter while yet never separating himself from what he is having us laugh at. It is that quality that gives grace to a story that could fall into brutal sarcasm.

The film that was made of this book was the kind of fine little film Hollywood just does not make anymore. It was a terrific role for an older Paul Newman, and, if you saw it, I think you will find yourself hearing his voice and intonations sometimes as you read Sully's lines.

But the book is far richer and more interesting than the film. It is quite simply a modern masterpiece.

This book is perfect. I have come across only a few books in my time that joyfully sing from start to end, it is like finding an open doorway into a place you never expected to find. This is the first Russo book that I have read and I am shocked at myself in that I never gave the author a chance before. The reason I have spent all of these years over looking Russo is probably because I thought that his books were of the intellectual vein, a tough read that would be satisfying upon conclusion, but a struggle to get through. Instead I found `Nobody's Fool' to be just the opposite. Though the story and plot line were elegantly complex and the characters portrayed were well fleshed out, Russo did this while not going Pynchon or Joyce on the reader. Instead Russo beckons the reader in with a familiar banter that is non-threatening ala Fante or a layman's Stegner. The book is calming and peaceful, embracing one with the joy of life.

Sully is in my mind one of the greatest characters that I have come across in literature. But it is not just Sully who is unique among fictional creations that I have come across. It is also the entire town that Russo has brought forwards. Everyone here is alive and struggling from one day to the next. Russo places just as much emphasis on bit characters as he does with Sully who holds it all together.

I'm finding it hard to say why I liked this book so much. I don't want to just re-hash the plot; other reviewers here seem to do such a fine job of that. Let me just say that you should trust your intuition, if you have gotten this far into this review and have scanned a couple of others here, you will see nothing but unadorned praise. A lot of Amazon books get higher reviews than they usually deserve, `Nobody's Fool' earned it. You will have to search far and wide to find a more satisfying novel than this.

If you want an author close to what Russo is writing hear, I would suggest Underworld by Delillo or the complete Fante collection. Neither are quite the same as Russo, but both either in expression or sentiment fall close by.

This book is perfect. I have come across only a few books in my time that joyfully sing from start to end, it is like finding an open doorway into a place you never expected to find. This is the first Russo book that I have read and I am shocked at myself in that I never gave the author a chance before. The reason I have spent all of these years over looking Russo is probably because I thought that his books were of the intellectual vein, a tough read that would be satisfying upon conclusion, but a struggle to get through. Instead I found `Nobody's Fool' to be just the opposite. Though the story and plot line were elegantly complex and the characters portrayed were well fleshed out, Russo did this while not going Pynchon or Joyce on the reader. Instead Russo beckons the reader in with a familiar banter that is non-threatening ala Fante or a layman's Stegner. The book is calming and peaceful, embracing one with the joy of life.

Sully is in my mind one of the greatest characters that I have come across in literature. But it is not just Sully who is unique among fictional creations that I have come across. It is also the entire town that Russo has brought forwards. Everyone here is alive and struggling from one day to the next. Russo places just as much emphasis on bit characters as he does with Sully who holds it all together.

I'm finding it hard to say why I liked this book so much. I don't want to just re-hash the plot; other reviewers here seem to do such a fine job of that. Let me just say that you should trust your intuition, if you have gotten this far into this review and have scanned a couple of others here, you will see nothing but unadorned praise. A lot of Amazon books get higher reviews than they usually deserve, `Nobody's Fool' earned it. You will have to search far and wide to find a more satisfying novel than this.

If you want an author close to what Russo is writing hear, I would suggest Underworld by Delillo or the complete Fante collection. Neither are quite the same as Russo, but both either in expression or sentiment fall close by.

I really enjoyed reading this book, which is a sort of character book rather than a story with a plot. The setting is Upstate New York. I think this is one of the reasons I like the book so much, since I lived several years in Upstate New York and thought Russo's depiction was quite accurate.

There are two main characters: an elderly, retired school teacher named Beryl, and a 50'ish beer drinking, blue collar worker named Sully. You grow to love both of these characters. The book maintains interest throughout; it never gets boring.

I highly recommend this book.

In brief, Nobody's Fool is yet another brilliant, hilarious and affectionate snapshot of small-town life in a fictional upstate New York town from Richard Russo. Though he mines the same territory in most of his works (absent, good-for-nothing fathers), in Nobody's Fool we get inside the head of one of these said fathers in Donald "Sully" Sullivan. And as is also the case with Russo's novels, his plots take their time to develop. In the hands of a less skilled writer, that could be infuriating, but Russo's prose and characterization is so entertaining, by the time he gets to the point you're having so much fun, it makes the wait more than worth it.

If you're looking for an introduction to Russo's work or just want a great novel to live with for a few weeks, Nobody's Fool is the perfect balance between "serious" literature and homespun storytelling. Do yourself a favor and start reading.

Mr. Russo is becoming one of my favorite authors. NOBODY'S FOOL is about nothing and yet it is about everything. He presents with a group of richly drawn characters in a small "dying" town in upstate New York. Donald "Sully" Sullivan is at the heart of the novel and forever in our hearts. This novel is to be savored and enjoyed.

Simply put, this book is a winner. If you love character development, great dialogue and wit, you'll laugh and cry to the last page. Some writers don't know how to end a novel, and leave readers feeling cheated, unsatisfied, or disappointed. Although I was worried as I neared the end of the book, I had nothing to fear. Richard Russo, in my opinion, couldn't have ended this story any better.

This book tells the story of a 60-year-old ne're-do-well who goes by the name of Sully. Sully does odd construction jobs in a small town in upstate New York, the very town where he grew up. His childhood friends, ex-wife, and high school flames all live in town, and in this story, he continues to annoy them as he always has. The town is slowing changing, though, and Sully with it. Sully certainly doesn't want to change, but between a knee injury that makes continuing his construction work dubious, an aging landlady, and the return of his son, whose marriage is failing, Sully reluctantly begins to admit that he's going to have to make some adjustments to the status quo.

I've run across Sully and his friends in my travels. Cranky, hypocritical, tough, and tender, they are the perpetrators of some of the funniest antics of family oral histories--that is, as long as you weren't on the receiving end of their ire at the time. You'll get a few laughs out of this book for sure, and it may even strike home.

This is a novel of amiable drunks, lovable ne'er-do-wells, eccentric old ladies and one slightly-paralyzed dog. Russo has a skill for writing likable characters -- even when they're irresponsible and self-destructive -- and after a while you get used to their being around. When the book ends it feels like losing touch with a bunch of old friends.

I'm not sure Russo's writing is the Great American Novel (or anything close) but it's a pleasant diversion for sure.

NOBODY'S FOOL centers around the story of Donald Sullivan (Sully), a middle-aged man whose life has been a series of mishaps and poor choices. As the book opens, Sully, out of work due to disability, decides to quit his college classes and to try to make some money instead. This bad decision sets off one of Sully's infamous streaks of bad luck, a streak which eventually lands Sully in jail, amongst other problems.

This novel's main strength lies in its richly developed characters. We learn the most about Sully, the chief narrator, from his ongoing feud with his deceased alcoholic father to his fleeting regrets about his own parenting skills. Another prominent character is Sully's octogenarian landlady, Miss Beryl, who provides the point of view for both the opening and the closing of the story. The remainder of the town is replete with quirky characters, including Sully's one-legged drunken lawyer, Wirf; his slow-witted best friend, Rub; his womanizing boss, Carl; his surprisingly competent son, Peter; his nervous grandson, Will; and finally, his long-time lover, Ruth, whose family includes her brassy daughter Janey and her troubled granddaughter Tina.

Where this novel is less successful is in its rambling prose: the author has the habit of going off on tangents and pontificating on various subjects which add little to the story. Despite this critique, however, the engaging characters sustain this novel, and like me, you will want to know how their lives turn out.

Nobody's Fool starring Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, and Jessica Tandy is my personal favorite movie of all time, and I have seen thousands. Therefore, it was with some trepidation that I turned to the book. In fact, I had the book in my possession for several years before deciding to read it. In the past I have been disappointed with a book after seeing an especially good movie. Case in point, Paul Newman's Hud, which was based on Larry McMurtry's Horseman, Pass By. I enjoyed the movie, but the reading of the book watered down that enjoyment. One reason, all of the good lines that were uttered by other characters in the book, were given to Hud in the movie. Alone, both the movie and book were fine, but together they sabotaged each other. Fortunately, this is not the case with Nobody's Fool. The book is a fine companion piece to the movie. And I am glad I visited them in this order. If I had read the book first, I would have felt cheated by the movie, because so much background on the characters was left out. However, reading the book after seeing the movie heightened the enjoyment of the movie as I learned more about all of the characters and their motivations. Sully's football hero youth and his on-again off-again affair, Rub's stealing and dominating wife, and Clive, Jr's fiancee are just a few of the extra goodies in the book not in the movie. However, there was one scene in the book which was not in the movie and I wish it hadn't been in the book. That is when Carl Roebuck lashes out verbally at Sully and catalogues his many shortcomings. It seemed viscious, especially when other characters started agreeing with the assessment. It truly made Sully a sorry character, which does not come out in the film at all. In fact, Sully's depiction in the movie makes him one of my folk heroes. Other than this short passage, I found the book very enjoyable and like the movie hated to see it end.