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Richard Russo

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Born

in Johnstown, New York, The United States

Website

http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/russo/

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Member Since

May 2016

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/RichardRusso

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RICHARD RUSSO is the author of seven previous novels; two collections of stories; and Elsewhere, a memoir. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which like Nobody’s Fool was adapted to film, in a multiple-award-winning HBO miniseries.

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Dear Mr. Russo, So excited to read this! I had written in a previous review that I love your writing so muchI would even read your grocery lists. Do you have a favorite among your own novels? I still laugh out loud when I read Straight Man...especially the part about getting the dog. Hilarious! Thank you for enriching my life. Diane

Richard Russo Dear Diane--

I have special affection for Straight Man, too, but mostly because it was by far the easiest of all my novels to write. I'd been storing u…moreDear Diane--

I have special affection for Straight Man, too, but mostly because it was by far the easiest of all my novels to write. I'd been storing up academic lunacy stories for a good decade and they all just gushed out. As to my other novels, couple stand out not so much because of what's in them as where I was when I wrote them: The Risk Pool written as my father was dying, Empire Falls when my daughters were teenagers and I was terrified I wouldn't be able to protect them from the world's cruelties.(less)

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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?

Richard Russo I don't do much to prepare. No outline, little research. I'm not sure what you mean by world building, but I'm pretty sure I don't do it, at least not…moreI don't do much to prepare. No outline, little research. I'm not sure what you mean by world building, but I'm pretty sure I don't do it, at least not as preparation for writing. Mostly I just try to go slow, see and hear everything I'd see and hear if it was really happening and I was really there. Small bites. Chew thoroughly. Repeat.(less)

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Combine Editions
Richard Russo’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 326,750 ratings · 27,667 reviews · 56 distinct works • Similar authors

	Empire Falls 3.95 avg rating — 127,335 ratings — published 2001 — 35 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nobody's Fool (Sully #1) 4.11 avg rating — 33,345 ratings — published 1993 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Straight Man really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 30,825 ratings — published 1997 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bridge of Sighs 3.83 avg rating — 28,088 ratings — published 2007 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chances Are... 3.77 avg rating — 22,169 ratings — published 2017 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everybody's Fool (Sully, #2) 4.13 avg rating — 17,726 ratings — published 2016 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (Goodreads Author), Arthur Morey (narrator) 3.37 avg rating — 18,943 ratings — published 2009 — 51 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Somebody's Fool 4.27 avg rating — 8,224 ratings — published 2023 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Risk Pool 4.08 avg rating — 7,789 ratings — published 1988 — 35 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Elsewhere 3.78 avg rating — 8,377 ratings — published 2012 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Richard Russo…

Series by Richard Russo

Falls (2 books)
by

Richard Russo (Goodreads Author)

3.95 avg rating — 127,462 ratings

North Bath (3 books)
by

Richard Russo (Goodreads Author)

4.14 avg rating — 59,290 ratings

Related News

Interview with Richard Russo

In his first memoir, Elsewhere, the novelist writes about how his vivacious but volatile mother and his small hometown of Gloversville have shaped...

Polls

Best Fiction

The Help

1121 votes 17.3%

The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)

653 votes 10.1%

Her Fearful Symmetry

319 votes 4.9%

Shanghai Girls (Shanghai Girls #1)

315 votes 4.8%

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)

307 votes 4.7%

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2)

292 votes 4.5%

The White Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #2)

273 votes 4.2%

Fool

232 votes 3.6%

The Magicians (The Magicians #1)

228 votes 3.5%

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

226 votes 3.5%

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

223 votes 3.4%

Juliet, Naked

206 votes 3.2%

Cutting for Stone

187 votes 2.9%

The Little Stranger

146 votes 2.2%

South of Broad

144 votes 2.2%

The Story Sisters

141 votes 2.2%

Pygmy

137 votes 2.1%

Let the Great World Spin

134 votes 2.1%

This is Where I Leave You

130 votes 2.0%

Little Bee

126 votes 1.9%

Brooklyn

119 votes 1.8%

Drood

107 votes 1.6%

The Children's Book

104 votes 1.6%

A Reliable Wife

103 votes 1.6%

A Gate at the Stairs

96 votes 1.5%

The Weight of Silence

91 votes 1.4%

That Old Cape Magic

77 votes 1.2%

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

69 votes 1.1%

Await Your Reply

69 votes 1.1%

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

62 votes 1.0%

The School of Essential Ingredients

60 votes 0.9%

6497 total votes

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