I would be hard-pressed to name a contemporary living writer who has given me more hours of deep, pleasurable reading than Richard Russo.
This pleasure started early with his first novel, “Mohawk,” from 1986, a favorite of my mom’s when she owned the Book Bin in Northbrook. “The Risk Pool,” another favorite, followed in 1988, and then 1993 saw “Nobody’s Fool,” the first installment of what would become a trilogy set in North Bath in upstate New York, Russo’s version of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County.
I have read all 10 of Richard Russo’s novels and all four of his short story collections. I would recommend them to any reader, any time.
So, please believe me when I say that I was befuddled when reading Russo’s new novel, “Under the Falls,” and experienced a creeping sense of disconnection and dissatisfaction.
Something was off.
“Under the Falls” centers on Tyler Sinclair, a famous musician and leader of the band Stone Mountain, returning to his home of Stone Mountain, a rural outpost in the Adirondack Mountains, for the first time since he left at age 18.
The occasion is a benefit concert for his friend, Tim Dockery (“Doc”), who was paralyzed in a swimming accident Tyler was involved in as a kid. The place is clearly meaningful to Tyler — he’s named his band Stone Mountain — but he has no desire to go back, and is mad at his manager, Jason, for arranging it without his permission.
This opening has all the elements I’ve come to appreciate in a Russo story. The individual at odds with their origins, but who cannot shake their ties to those origins, is used to tremendous advantage through a number of Russo novels, very much including “Nobody’s Fool.” Russo also does his signature scene setting in an opening prologue, where he sketches the landscape and people of the region, grounding Tyler in a particular time and place.
There’s additional tension between Tyler and Beth, his bandmate, co-writer and romantic partner. The hired gun musicians who round out the band for the tour crack wise about various subjects, including The Kinks. It all feels very promising and alive.
It’s the band’s first show after the pandemic layoff, and I started to get excited for the various interpersonal dynamics and drama Russo was laying the groundwork for. There is a weird and unsettling reunion with Doc and then an even more unsettling concert, and I wondered where we were going next, either inside or beyond Stone Mountain.
And then something happens that I cannot spoil, but it turns “Under the Falls” into a very different book than I thought it was based on my previous Russo experiences and the first 50 pages. Part of this disconnect is my fault. I do not read the jacket copy, and so I missed that “Under the Falls” is intended as “a propulsive thriller.”
This other book simply did not work for me. It jettisoned everything I thought was coming for something else. Even as I adjusted to what the book was attempting, it all felt at odds with Russo’s amazing gift for character interiority grounded in place.
I believe the origins of this disappointment are revealed in the acknowledgements, where Russo says the story started as an unproduced television pilot. I could see how this material would’ve worked well in that medium, and that the events that threw me out of the novel would draw me in to a televised drama
Other readers without my baggage of anticipation may connect with “Under the Falls,” but it was the first time I felt disappointed by a Russo effort.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke
2. “A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan
3. “Things in Nature Merely Grow” by Yiyun Li
4. “Flesh” by David Szalay
5. “Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus
— Laura P., Urbana
“Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi has the scope and intensity that will draw Laura in.
1. “Case Histories” by Kate Atkinson
2. “Citizens of London” by Lynne Olson
3. “Golden Hill” by Francis Spufford
4. “Fifth Business” by Robertson Davies
5. “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving
— Robert T., Chicago
For Robert, I’m recommending a haunting novel about the experience of post-war Germany, “The Clown” by Heinrich Boll.
1. “Contrapposto” by Dave Eggers
2. “Underworld” by Don DeLillo
3. “The Broom of the System” by David Foster Wallace
4. “No Way Home” by T.C. Boyle
5. “The Winner” by Teddy Wayne
— Dennis M., Oak Park
Something tells me that Haruki Murakami’s strange sort-of noir “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” is a good fit for Dennis.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.
