Rosie
asked
Richard Russo:
Straight Man remains my favorite of your books. I'm going up for tenure right now and am re-reading it. Now that you've written a sequel to "Nobody's Fool", any chance on a sequel to that one?
Richard Russo
Good luck with your tenure, Rosie, though I'm not sure what would entail, exactly. For Lucky Hank, tenure meant safety and the loss of a certain kind of struggle that's necessary, at least for him, for ambition. To him, risk (of loss) is a vital part of the game. I don't see a sequel to SM in my future, but then I see one to Nobody's Fool, either, until it happened. What means the most to me is that so many readers would like one. Thanks for that.
More Answered Questions
Caron Kamps Widden
asked
Richard Russo:
Loved Nobody's Fool (since I married into an upstate NY family and Sully was so familiar to me) and look forward to your sequel. Was there a particular moment when it occurred to you that there was a second novel to be written? Or was it something that came to you over time?
Mark Zaborowski
asked
Richard Russo:
Hello Mr. Russo. I'm a big fan of your writing, particularly your ability to make "ordinary" characters' lives so interesting. I have not found another author who can make the seemingly mundane life of a small town so fascinating. So my question to you is: can you recommend other authors that have styles similar to yours? Looking forward to reading your new novel.
Joe D M-H
asked
Richard Russo:
I loved Empire Falls and Straight Man; you capture so much in the way of the humor and humanity of your characters' inner thoughts and the closeness (and intense, familiar realness) of the towns/communities they inhabit. What do you do, if anything, to prepare yourself for writing? Any habits? Do you outline or discovery-write your plots and characterizations? Do you do world-building beforehand or as you go along?
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