Author : Richard Russo
Genre : Fiction (Contemporary)
Narrators : Mark Bramhall
Publisher : Random House Audio
Listening Length : 18 hours 53 minutes
Rating : 4.2/5
Narrator Rating : 5/5
Everybody’s Fool is the sequel to Nobody’s Fool and was written a good 10 years after that released. It is situated in the same small fictional town of North Bath with just about the same cast of characters – Sully, et al., except this time the main character, the man who considers himself everybody’s fool is Police Chief Doug Raymer.
Raymer was a minor character in Nobody’s Fool but here takes center stage as a man with serious thoughts of depression. Raymer’s wife, whom he believes he was lucky to marry (she apparently being way above his league) was about to leave him for another man when she died of a fall down the stairs. His grief at her loss is tempered by feelings of jealousy and betrayal. She made a fool of him but he has not been able to let go of her, and the anger has now turned into self-loathing. Things must come to a head, and we keep building up to it during the course of this novel.
We also get to hear from Sully. Since Nobody’s Fool he’s risen up in the world (relatively speaking), his relationship with son and grandson has improved but his health has suffered – he has about 2 years until his heart gives out, per the VA cardiologist. There’s also Rub Squeers, who’s waging a minor battle to still remain Sully’s “best friend”, Carl Roebuck, Sully’s erstwhile boss, who’s had a fortune reversal, and Sully’s on-again-off-again mistress Ruth, her daughter Janey and her abusive, no-good of an ex-husband Roy Purdy.
These are all intricate threads of the same story, and Russo, master storyteller that he is, keeps them all twanging heart-achingly, fleshing out their lives perfectly. Everybody’s Fool is populated (just like the rest of his books are) by everyday, ordinary characters struggling with their personal challenges, making decisions some good, some bad. Russo makes every one of these characters real, so that we are completely invested in Sully and Raymer and the rest of their cohorts.
While Empire Falls remains my favorite, Everybody’s Fool comes a close second. It is gorgeously written, beautifully detailed and progresses at a decent pace (something I thought Nobody’s Fool lacked). Narrator Mark Bramhall is an absolute marvel! Highly recommended.
