That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo -

Book Review by Mike Sullivan

for About.com

The Bottom Line

That Old Cape Magic. If only there was a little bit more and it could last forever. That is, if it's really real in the first place. That's the question of love Richard Russo brings to his most recent novel. After Empire Falls and Bridge of Sighs, is two greatest works, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author returns for a somewhat substantive summer read to close this 2009 season.

Pros

Russo's charming wit and natural New England ease creates prose that is both revelatory and humorous
Jack & Joy Griffin's marriage is a relationship you want to succeed, despite seeing the split coming
Russo's ability to create immediately recognizable and 3-dimensional secondary characters is a joy

Cons

As natural as his writing is, the dynamics of family life he creates are becoming too familiar
While quite good, the shorter focus and smaller scope doesn't allow Russo to breathe something new

Description

'That Old Cape Magic' by Richard Russo was published in August 2009
Publisher: Knopf
262 pages

Guide Review - 'That Old Cape Magic' by Richard Russo - Book Review

This one's more of a sad smile than the Cheshire grin one tends to get after finishing a Richard Russo epic like Empire Falls or Bridge of Sighs. f course, that's not necessarily fair. After those two, of which many readers and critics declared masterpieces (myself included), why shouldn't Russo delve into something a little bit more pithy.

Instead of attempting to capture the relationship of an entire town, Russo focuses his lens in on Jack and Joy Griffin. They are a middle-aged married couple as the novel begins. Through the eyes of Jack, via Russo's omniscient narrator, we see how his parents, her parents, his daughter, his career, etc. and all the other things that shape a marriage are beginning to take their toll on his. He's carrying the weight of all these thoughts, the constant calls of his badgering mother, and the urn of his dead father in his trunk, as he and Joy are meeting up to attend the wedding of their daughter's best friend.

But once Part Two of the novel begins halfway through the book and one year later from the beginning, he and his wife are separated and attending their daughter's wedding with their own dates. Doubt and desire ensue, the voices of his dead parents' ghosts chime in, calamity occurs and a marriage begins. In the in between, we get the Russo dosage of a loving daughter, a strong wife, an overbearing mother, an absent father, a love triangle, and the compass-less man attempting to navigate his life. It's all good as Russo always is. You'll enjoy it. But it may not stay with you as long as Russo's works usually do.

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