Nobody’s Fool: Richard Russo

“We wear the chains we forge in life,”

Richard Russo’s delightful, witty novel Nobody’s Fool places the central character, 60-year-old Donald “Sully” Sullivan, in the village of North Bath in NY state. This is a town with a “two-block long business district” so there’s a tavern and a diner, a corner grocery, a Tastee Freez and a few other marginal businesses. North Bath was a once popular resort town famous for its mineral springs, but the springs eventually ran dry, and the town has never recovered. But things may be looking up…a banner advertises “The Ultimate Escape” a theme park which, under the hopes of bank president Clive Peoples, will be opening soon. Very few residents believe that the park will be built. The billboard is ironically, and ominously, placed next to the cemetery.

Sully is a down-on-his luck handyman who rents a room from former teacher, Beryl Peoples. Sully was Miss Peoples’ 8th grade student at one point, Miss Peoples’ deceased husband Carl Snr. was Sully’s one-time football coach, and Miss Peoples’ son, Clive is the bank manager who aspires to breathe life and $$ back into the town.

Sully is one of those people who peaked in high school and whose life has been a series of missteps ever since. He’s divorced from his bitter ex-wife Vera, estranged from his son, college professor Peter, eyeing his sometime employer’s lovely wife, Toby, and in the last tepid throes of a long-term affair with married woman, Ruth.

Throughout his life a case study underachiever, Sully—people still remarked—was nobody’s fool, a phrase that Sully no doubt appreciated without ever sensing its literal application—that at sixty, he was divorced from his own wife, carrying on halfheartedly with another man’s, estranged from his son, devoid of self-knowledge, badly crippled and virtually unemployable—all of which he stubbornly confused with independence.

The latest problem to plague Sully, apart from the usual–no money–is that he has a bum knee. As a handyman, this is a killer, so Sully is trying for disability and has a lawyer, Wirf, an alcoholic, a man who spends his evenings (and money) in the local tavern. Sully manages his pain with various free drug samples from a friend, and he works with Rub, another handyman, not the brightest bulb in the pack, who worships Sully. Most of the time, Sully isn’t particularly nice to Rub, bossing him around and treating him curtly. Sully’s work comes via local business man Carl Roebuck. Sully envies Roebuck–not only for his wife, Toby, but also for his money and his luck at life. Carl hires Sully for various oddjobs, and since Carl owes Sully money, Sully steals Carl’s snowblower as a form of recompense. This snowblower is stolen and hidden by Sully, and then subsequently recovered, by stealth, by Carl Roebuck multiple times throughout the novel. The two men have a peculiar relationship:

Carl swivel lazily, grinning, “Sully, Sully, Sully.”

Bad mood or no bad mood, Sully couldn’t help grinning back. Carl Roebuck was one of those people you just couldn’t stay mad at. His father, Kenny Roebuck, hadn’t been able to, and neither, apparently, could Carl’s wife, Toby, who had a world of reason to. The fact that nobody could stay mad at him was, perhaps, the source of Carl Roebuck’s luck. No wonder he had his way with people, especially women. What he managed to convey to all of them was that they were just what he needed to fill his life with meaning.

As the tale unfolds, Sully moves from one bad choice to another. His health, his home (one room in Miss Peoples’ house) his livelihood and his freedom (he punches a policeman) are all under threat. According to Sully’s lawyer, Sully is “the uncontested master of the futile gesture,” and that observation is reinforced repeatedly. Shooting himself in the foot would be another way of describing some of Sully’s behaviour. Yet while Sully makes his mistakes, he also faces challenges: his damaged relationship with his son, Peter, his newfound love for his grandson, and finally facing the demons of his childhood.

While Sully is the main character, we see many other characters in his life: Beryl Peoples whose son, bank manager Clive wants Sully (his bête noire from high school days) out of his mother’s house. Miss Peoples, in her 80s, is a resilient woman who, while she loves her son, doesn’t trust his financial advice. She resists his suggestion that she should sign over her house to him. Miss Peoples is fond of Sully, and they speak to each other in ways that no one else would dare. In the mornings on his way out of the door, Sully will tell Miss Peoples:

I just thought I’d stop in to make sure you didn’t die in your sleep.

Clive Jnr. who can’t wait to get his hands on his mother’s house, dances around his mother’s health by having her friend “snitch” on any missteps she may make and talking about how he wants to “protect [her] assets” for when “when the time came….”

For her part, Miss Peoples can ask Sully point blank questions:

“Doesn’t it bother you that you haven’t done more with the life God gave you?“

“Not often. Now and then.“

Peter, Sully’s long-estranged son becomes a central character when he shows up for Thanksgiving with his family. Peter’s life, according to his neurotic germ-phobe mother Vera, is a success, and yet the holiday reveals that Peter, now in middle-age is sinking into a quagmire of mistakes.

Author Richard Russo doesn’t rush through this story and time is lovingly spent on wonderful characters such as Miss Peoples. All of the characters in this leisurely paced novel face crises in the novel: illness, divorce, financial ruin, and Sully finds himself involved and taking responsibility for a change. It’s a new sensation for him. He’s spent decades living lightly, evading accountability. Sully also discovers that people (his ex for example) are far more complex than he ever considered.

The thing about small time life is that everyone knows your business or thinks they know, and their complex relationships go back decades, so we see how the many characters interact with each other during their daily lives. Sully runs into Ruth’s disgruntled husband, challenges a bar owner about Wirf’s tab and even steps in behind the diner counter to help out. Miss Peoples is faced with the prospect of a new daughter-in-law, an unpleasant woman Clive Jnr may very well be dating because he thinks Sully will envy him. This is a rich tapestry of unforgettable characters in small town America. Sully has his many flaws, but he’s saved as both a human being and as a character by his humour, self-deprecating view and lack of arrogance. To Sully, “the deepest of life’s mysteries were the mysteries of his own behavior.”

I want to add that this reminded somewhat of Olive Kitteridge: a crusty main character set against small town life. But at the same time I hesitate to make the comparison as these are two very different books. Finally, if you have a problem with swear words (I don’t), then this is not a book for you. I loved this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Sully as he makes mistakes, plays practical jokes and moves through his very ordinary life. The book gave me a lot of laughs and makes my Best-Of-Year list.