That Old Cape Magic

Normally, I am not one to bash a book. What's the point? I also figure that if I bother to read the whole thing than the book obviously has something going for it. That said, I think it's okay to be disappointed by an author.

Richard Russo had a string of books that I loved. I even liked his short stories and those aren't my favorite genre to read. I admit I got bogged down in Bridge of Sighs and now that I've finally finished his latest, That Old Cape Magic, I think I know what has happened. I've been saying all week (to my patient husband who gave me the book in the first place) that Russo simply got old. There's more to it than that, of course. What happened, I think, is that his quirky old loser characters from his earlier books, that were so interesting and loveable as long as you weren't related to them (Sully, anyone?) shifted and became his MAIN characters and we were somehow supposed to accept their life choices. And there's more. What Lucy Lynch from Bridge of Sighs has in common with Jack Griffin in That Old Cape Magic is that neither character ACTS. They simply react. I felt like Russo spent all of his effort just telling us stuff instead of showing us anything. It felt like a basic lesson in a writing workshop. Griffin particularly is teetering between post-middle age ennui and full-blown alzheimers. I don't think he's supposed to be and it isn't fun. It isn't even interesting.

Jack Griffin goes to two weddings in That Old Cape Magic. They more or less frame the book. He is a former screen-writer turned respectable college professor who still wrestles with his parents (both in the flesh and in spirit) and his wife as well as himself about what he should do with his life. He has spent his whole adult life running away from his childhood and his parents' way of life, but never figured out where he was running to and so is left to sift through what is genetic and what is by choice.

There's a lot of generic stuff here, though I think if I were closer to Griffin's age, perhaps I would relate better. Even if you don't like his characters, several of them are well presented, but it's lacking a lot of the humor of his earlier books. Griffin's parents are mean, awful people with none of the loveable, old loser attributes of characters from his other books. And Griffin is so passive that I just wanted to slap some life into him. Do something! Do something wrong if you must, I thought, but do it. Do anything! It was a frustrating book to read.

We see a flash of old Russo when an entire wedding party crashes through a faulty handicap ramp and ends up in various states of disarray and dismay, but you have to wait a really long time to get there. That's good stuff, though.
I highly recommend Straight Man (campus politics), Nobody's Fool ( I still quote from that. Fantastic characters), Empire Falls (though that gets a little dark), and the short story collection, The Whore's Child.