That Old Cape Magic
by Richard Russo
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Book Reviews of That Old Cape Magic
Book Review: Not my favorite Russo but still wonderful
Summary: 4 Stars
There will be no spoilers in this review.
Let me start off by saying that Richard Russo is one of my very favorite authors. I love the way he writes, and I love the fact that he cares so much about his characters, because in doing so, he makes us care about them too. This book is no exception.
Jack Griffin (referred to as "Griffin") has parent issues, which is putting it lightly. He is the child of two college professors, both eccentric and fairly narcissistic, and both very smart. He has grown up full of resentment towards them and it is this resentment that becomes so important to this story.
When the book starts out, Jack has just finished teaching his own college class, and he is heading towards Cape Cod for his daughter Laura's best friend's wedding. Jack's wife Joy will meet him there the next day. But Jack is not alone, for he has his father's ashes in the trunk of his car. He has intended to put those ashes in the ocean at the Cape, but hasn't done so yet.
Jack had been a a semi-successful screenwriter in Los Angeles, but he and Joy had always planned to move back to the east coast. And they did. It seemed as if everything seemed to be going according to plan, and indeed it was. But the past has a way of intruding into our lives and if we don't learn to deal with it and see if for what it is, then there will be a price to pay.
I really enjoyed this book and really cared about Jack, Joy, and all the other assorted eccentric characters. And as to be expected from Richard Russo, it's very witty and funny and expect to giggle out loud.
The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is difficult to state without a spoiler, but I will try. I had problems with the plausibility of the story itself, and I felt that Jack and Joy's response to their conflicts felt a bit forced and I just didn't buy it. There were certain scenes that threw me out of the story and that has never happened to me in a Russo book before.
Still, I enjoyed this book a lot, and do highly recommend it. Although I don't think this book is as good as Empire Falls or Bridge of Sighs, it's still a great read and full of heart and humor.
Book Review: Cape Cod vacations don't reinvigorate marriages
Summary: 5 Stars
Jack Griffin hates his mother. (She's elderly now, though. OK, he _resents_ her. But in a deep-seated way.) Even at 58 -- married but arguing a lot, torn between screenwriting and teaching, busy going to weddings and carving out vacation time, unsure even whether to live on the West Coast or the East -- Griffin is still trying to escape the influence of his discontented, adulterous, academic-snob parents.
Richard Russo's seventh novel sidesteps his frequent theme of small-town decay and returns to the academic parody of *Straight Man* (1997) -- aiming the ridicule directly at Griffin's mother.
For one thing, she can't be troubled to remember the names of people who haven't done graduate work. She lashes out even when Griffin is sitting dutifully by her hospital bed: "'How,' she asked, matter-of-factly, `does having you sit there day after day make me any less alone?'"
But Russo is a master of tonal shifts, and *Magic* overcomes such ugliness with a wedding rehearsal scene in which Grandpa somehow ends up in a tree, still in his wheelchair, upside down.
And there's the funny story about Dad allowing 7-year-old Griffin to drink some spiked eggnog, which is funny until it turns into the little boy wondering which of his boozy, irresponsible parents had pulled him out, or when. Or even if they cared about him at all.
In trying to refashion our personalities and improve our lives, Russo seems to suggest, we're no better off than a feeble old man, stuck in a tree -- upside down in a motionless wheelchair -- cursing like mad and trying to get out.
And yet. Near the end of his tale of two weddings, Griffin has conversations with people from different parts of his life -- all of whom had [expletives] for parents, and all of whom still manage to retain some love for the folks who raised and enraged them.
The cynical voices of his snobbish, misfit parents, Griffin realizes, have been buzzing around in his brain for a long, long time. Finally, late in middle age, he learns to shut them off.
When it come to his mother, he discovers, he didn't hate her at all. He loved her -- loves her. Well, parts of her. Is that so unusual or bad?
Book Review: No one does it better, no one.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to be up front and say I think Russo can do no wrong, only variations of great. He's the only author who I will pay full retail for their first-day issue of a hardcover, be giddy with anticipation doing it, and suffer absolutely no buyer's remorse after I've finished the book. I only keep one of two of the hundred or so books I read each year, yet I've kept all of his. Having said that, I always hold Russo to a higher standard than any other author, and am more critical of his books than I am of any other; not that there is much to be critical about. Why? Because he sets the standard. No one tells stories better than he does. Few are as skillful with character development. With Russo, it's all about storytelling. I've never been able to anticipate the next sentence in a Russo book. Never. I can't speed read him. I don't want to. I'm always afraid I will miss something and Russo makes me covet each word. Is That Old Cape Magic his best yet? No, it's still Nobody's Fool in my book. To a good friend of mine it's Straight Man (which I love), and to another friend it's Empire Falls, and to a writer friend it's Risk Pool.
That Old Cape Magic was a great read for me and very entertaining as well as thought provoking. I don't think Russo has any great moral lessons buried in the text, however I found several that made me think, so who knows what he intended. What I know he did was tell a good, entertaining, smart story, and he did it like few can with his unobtrusive writing style. I loved the book and that's no surprise. I loved how he pulled his first-hand knowledge into the story. And his characters: Jack Griffin's mother is a priceless character, one of Russo's best. And I was married into a family much like Joy Griffin's family, so I could identify with Jack's plight. As usual, he caught me completely off guard with the (funny as hell) misfortunes at Jack Griffin's daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner. I'm not going to divulge any more of the story because I hate it when a review spoils the story for me. Go out and buy it, then sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride through Jack Griffin's life.
Book Review: Great book
Summary: 4 Stars
Sometimes when I read a book, I like to take a few days before I write about it. I wanted to live with this book for a while, swim in it, let it get under my skin. What I've come up with today is the same conclusion that I came up with when I turned the last page -- what a great book.
The story begins and ends with a wedding, each wedding one year apart from the other. During that time, our main character, Jack Griffin, goes through a mid-life crisis of sorts. We learn why the Cape has such magic for Griffin, "As if happiness were a place." But, what Griffin learns is that the Cape may not have been able to produce miracles after all. When one makes a plan for himself, and follows that plan, at what point is it too late to look back and want to change your mind? Griffin and his wife, Joy, honeymooned on the Cape 34 years ago, and mapped out their lives together, only to second-guess their decisions and wonder if being settled meant they were settling.
Russo's small cast of characters are unique and believable. His mother is that bird constantly whispering in his ear, her sharp, cutting humor never quieting, even after her death. At what point should one stop listening to his parents, stop trying to please them? At the heart of Griffin's midlife crisis is his marriage to Joy. Usually when a couple is married, two families are joined; <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">instead</span>, Griffin and Joy served as gate-keepers between their respective families. Did this keep their marriage from becoming a true union, especially with each one of them so connected to their own parents?
This was not an action/adventure book. No big mystery to solve. No supernatural creatures lurking in the woods. No drugs, sex or violence. This was just a great book that was beautifully written, one that I would recommend to any of my friends
That Old Cape Magic was the first book I've read by Richard Russo, and it has turned me into a fan. I'm looking forward to reading Russo's Empire Falls and Bridge of Sighs.
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Book Review: NATURE OR NURTURE, IT'S A QUESTION OF WHO BLINKS FIRST
Summary: 3 Stars
Have you ever had the unsettling experience of standing before a mirror and seeing your mothers' (or fathers) face staring back at you wondered when the heck did this happen? It seems that at some point in our lives we all begin to resemble our parents, either physically or in our actions and outlook on life. In Richard Russo's new book That Old Cape Magic he has "magically" captured what each of us has or will experience at some point in our lives......the awful realization that we have become our parents.
Russo presents his readers with series of twos. A two part book consisting of two weddings, two urns, two love triangles, a wedding rehearsal dinner worthy of being a "bit" on the old Dick Van Dyke show and a protagonist named Jack Griffin who, like his parent before him, is congenitally unhappy. We follow along as Jack takes a long, introspective look at his 57 years of life and finds it to be wanting. Most of Griffin's dissatisfaction with his own life and musings about his childhood and early married life are centered around his parents, a couple of frustrated, elitist academics who aspired to teaching at an East Coast Ivy League school but were relegated to plying their trade at second-rate Mid-Western colleges. As with all things in his parents lives, from the homes they rented to the jobs they held, nothing was ever good enough or worthy of their talents. Their mantra concerning all things was either "Can't afford it" or "Wouldn't have it as a gift". Even today his mother's ever critical and disdainful remarks continue to play on in Griffin's head, even after dear old mom departs this earthly plane. In contrast to his sarcastic mom, we have Griffin's thoughtful daughter Laura, his ever-loving and forgiving wife Joy, and his friend Marguerite, a woman so sweet, warm and understanding you could almost suffer a diabetic coma just reading about her.
Russo has held up a mirror to all our lives and dared us to take a look. Happiness or despair ......ultimately the face staring back at us is the one we choose. 3 ½ stars.