{"id":2382,"date":"2018-10-18T09:55:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T16:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2382"},"modified":"2018-10-18T09:55:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T16:55:32","slug":"richard-russo-times-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2382","title":{"rendered":"Richard Russo, times two"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know when Bob Moyer finds time to read and \u00a0review books when he’s always traveling, playing p\u00e9tanque and writing haiku, but I’m glad he does.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

THE DESTINY THIEF: \u00a0Essays on Writing, Writers and Life. By Richard Russo. Knopf. 194 pages.<\/p>\n

Two for one.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what you get in this collection of essays: two Richard Russos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first Richard Russo is the one most people know and love, the critically and commercially successful writer of Empire Falls\u00a0<\/em>and Nobody\u2019s Fool<\/em>. He\u2019s an entertaining guy who openly professes \u201cIt\u2019s life\u2019s comedy I feel most compelled to share.\u201d\u00a0 His material this time is his own life, as he mines it for some smiles and a couple of guffaws. He was not the best writer in his MFA program, and he resisted as long as he could his material \u2014 small-town, upstate New York, where he came from.<\/p>\n

While sharing some of the stuff he thinks is humorous, he even uses a line from a well-known movie to make his point, and make us laugh (no spoiler here!). He\u2019s a parent, and he gives the commencement address at his daughter\u2019s college, where he reads out RUSSO\u2019S RULES OF LIFE. #3<\/em>: \u201cHave children. After what you\u2019ve put your parents through, you deserve children of your own.\u201d\u00a0 He gives us a down-to-earth perspective on his career by explaining how, as he earned more money through his writing, he moved from writing in the basement to a room on the second floor, with a view.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in this room where we meet the second Richard Russo, the astute commentator on art and writing. He moves us into this room, as he moves us into his past, to let us see what he sees. The window overlooks a tombstone leaning against a tree, an object that came with the house. One day, as the upstairs bathroom is being redone, a commode appears next to the tombstone. And he does what a writer should do \u2014he pauses to look at it, and then shows us why that\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n

In another lengthy essay, he uses his grandfather\u2019s involvement with the glove makers\u2019 guild back in upstate New York, and then with the unions, to help him illustrate his own experience as a successful writer. Also a member of both a guild and a union, he illuminates the difference between art and craft, which he then extends to a contrast between print writers and e-writers who print only digitally. His arguments are at once well crafted \u2014 and artful.<\/p>\n

He includes two essays calling our attention to the finer points of Dickens and Mark Twain, in case we missed them, and a lengthy piece extolling the virtues of \u201comniscience\u201d in narration. This is the barefaced second Richard Russo, and if you came to the book expecting just the first one, you may find this a bit of a slog. But if you just like Richard Russo, period, you will enjoy every minute of this small volume.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know when Bob Moyer finds time to read and \u00a0review books when he’s always traveling, playing p\u00e9tanque and writing haiku, but I’m glad he does. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE DESTINY THIEF: \u00a0Essays on Writing, Writers and Life. By Richard Russo. Knopf. 194 pages. Two for one. That\u2019s what you get in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,1],"tags":[1065,1064,1066],"class_list":["post-2382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-uncategorized","tag-essays","tag-richard-russo","tag-writing-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2385,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382\/revisions\/2385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}