That Old Cape Magic
by Richard Russo
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Book Reviews of That Old Cape Magic
Book Review: That Old Cape What?
Summary: 3 Stars
I recently read this book (beginning it the day it came out), because I am big Richard Russo fan. I find his writing amusing, honest, and sometimes painful...most of the stuff that makes a story worth reading. As I went to update my recent reading list, I'd completely forgotten that I'd read this. That is not my usual experience of this author's writing.
First of all, the protagonist's wife, Joy, was a paper doll of a character. After all those years of marriage I would expect that their relationship would be multi-faceted. She begins to become interesting when her husband overhears her crying in the shower. And then...the probing to understand her experience, and then his, it just doesn't happen. You could argue that this lack of curiosity, concern, and introspection is exactly what is wrong with Griffin in the first place and the author is conveying Joy's unsatisfying experience by creating a similar experience through his storytelling (an equivalent of the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There). The lack of emotional intensity leading up to the story's resolution robbed me of a rewarding sense of completion. I liken reading this book to eating half a box of wheat thins. You're hungry, they're both salty and sweet. Once you eat one or two, you continue to eat more. You're not really sure how it happened, but you've eaten half the box. You are no worse for the experience but not really nourished either.
The very best parts of this book revolve around the story being written by Griffin. It centers on his memory of childhood events, his mother's recollection of the same events, and where the space in between leaves Griffin.
All this being said, I would recommend it with the caveat that while Richard Russo's writing is always amusing, this book falls short in comparison with his other writing.
Book Review: That Old Cape Magic Had Him In A Spin
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Russo does what he does best---weaves an introspective tale of a middle-aged man coming to terms with a life that has not turned out exactly how he planned it way back in his twenties. Jack Griffin has a lot of baggage to deal with. He has a wife that he feels he has probably let down, a daughter on the brink of having a life without him, and most of all, two parents who haunt him day and night. His mother's voice rings in his ears constantly as she provides commentary on his life. Whether she's living across the country or whether her ashes are stored in the trunk of his car, her play-by-play on his life haunts his every thought and action.
It takes a long time for Jack to realize you cannot escape your genetic inheritance. His life has been filled with so many negative feelings about his parents that he has been blinded to the gifts they gave him. His journey of self-understanding leads him back to the place he always wanted to be, but it's a rocky and often hilarious journey.
As the only child of parents who spent eleven miserable months teaching in the Midwest to attain one glorious month of summer at Cape Cod, Jack Griffin is as enchanted by the beach community as they were. Just as they counted on that place to save their marriage, so does he. It takes him the length of the book to realize actions have consequences and it is he alone who must be responsible for his own actions.
Russo takes the reader on a sentimental journey as Jack grapples with writing a story about the summer he and his parents met the Browning family. When he learns how the story really unfolded and how all the characters should mesh, his future is clear and suddenly he sees where his life is meant to take him. Decidedly witty and often surprising, this is one sure to please Russo's many fans.
Book Review: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
Summary: 5 Stars
A powerful new novel by Richard Russo explores the heights and depths of a modern marriage. When Jack Griffin, a successful screenwriter and son of academic snobs, who teach at a college in the mid-West, marries Joy, a beautiful girl from a loving but highly dysfunctional family, they seem to have it all--youth, good looks, successful careers. They spend their honeymoon at Truro on Cape Cod, where Jack's parents had escaped every summer from the hated mid-West. Deeply in love they fashion what they call the Great Truro Accord, a plan for their lives which has largely come true. But 30 years later as they arrive on the Cape to attend the wedding of their daughter's best friend things don't look so rosy. Jack is carting his father's ashes around in the trunk of his car and can't decide what to do with them, while his caustic mother, very much alive, is still giving him advice. By now Jack has left screenwriting for an academic career of his own, he and Joy live in the kind of lovely old house they'd always dreamed of, and they have a kind and beautiful daughter Laura. But at the wedding the past catches up with them and they begin to wonder what has happened to them and where they're heading.
By the time their own daughter is married a year later Jack and Joy have separated, Jack's mother has died, and now he's carting the ashes of both parents around in the trunk of his car. Both he and Joy show up at the wedding with members of the opposite sex and what follows are scenes of hilarity as Joy's crazy family take over, as well as moments of sadness, great tenderness, and love. This is a novel of deep thoughtfulness and introspection as a couple in a 30-year marriage confront middle-age, lost dreams, and what is left. But it's also a story of hopefulness and compassion, and the surprise ending is simply wonderful.
Book Review: Small pleasures in what should have been a smaller story
Summary: 3 Stars
According to writer Richard Russo, his new novel, That Old Cape Magic, began in Russo's mind as a short story, but expanded into its current shape when Russo concluded that there were too many elements and themes to explore. You can see its modest origins in the final work, because That Old Cape Magic feels like a Hoberman Sphere, one of those museum toys that, when pulled, expands a small ball to a much larger size. Here, the expanded story only serves to highlight the empty spaces in the structure.
The story is a simple one. Two weddings, spaced a year apart, serve as the contrast points in the relationship between married couple Jack and Joy Griffin. Their marriage is in far different shape at the second wedding, and the question at the center of the story is how they got from point A to B.
The novel also explores Jack's caustic relationship with his parents, failed academics and accomplished elitists, and focuses on how well Jack does or does not succeed in distancing himself from them.
The hallmarks of Russo's style - his clean prose, his ability to zoom in on the small but key moments in his characters' lives - are all to be found here. However, this small story, expanded to a novel's size, is loosely held together. The key scene, on which the fate of the Griffins' marriage pivots, is off-camera, with only minor references to it after the fact.
The overall effect is Russo Lite - it has all the pleasures to be found in a Richard Russo work, but you can't help but feel that the story would have been better served as a tightly-structured short story or a fully-developed novel. As a minor work from a major writer, it'll do, but it doesn't stick around long enough, or carry enough weight, to make more than a passing impression.
Book Review: When you can't stand the main character...
Summary: 4 Stars
...it makes it very hard to appreciate the novel as much as you might.
And quite frankly, I'm not sure what to say about 'That Old Cape Magic'. In the end, it seemed less a story than it did a cohesive commentary. Albeit through someone I really wasn't interested in spending time with.
Now, someone once said that you can't react to anything without something being triggered in you. So, if someone makes you angry...you're subconsciously identifying something in that person that you don't like about yourself. If that's the case with Jack Griffin, then I'm screwed.
Besides; I hated his parents...didn't like his in-laws...and can't say I was too fond of his wife.
Actually, I didn't warm up to anyone in the novel...save for perhaps Laura, the daughter.
Making things worse, I'd recently become aware of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And Lord knows that the mother in this tale had this...and the father was and enabler, and a real prick in his own way, to boot. So maybe I was flinching more than usual because of how many times I realized that what I was reading about was also the stuff I'd been digesting elsewhere.
In any case, 'Cape' is well-written. This goes without saying; Russo's chops are exemplary, he knows what he's doing, and he gets done the job that he's attempting to get done.
But even having said that, I'm not sure I'd be recommending this novel. I think the final impression it had on me was that it was an effective exercise, and nothing more. My suspicions are that if Russo had written it as a 'conventional' tale, I would have had a different reading experience.
But I think I still would have been glad to say goodbye to Griffin.
(Personal rating: 8/10)