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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Sign of Things to Come, January 24, 2003
With his Pulitzer Prize winning and best selling novel Empire Falls, Richard Russo has become a well-known author. In Mohawk, his first novel, we see, if somewhat imperfectly, the writer he would become. Like his other novels, Mohawk is the story of a small town in the northeastern part of the U.S. The town - in this case Mohawk - is a place on the wane as the industry that fueled it peters out. In this story, we follow the adventures of Dallas Younger, his ex-wife Anne and their son Randall in the late '60s and early '70s. Dallas lives a life of general irresponsibility and likes it that way. Anne pines away for her cousin's husband, a wheelchair-bound man who she sleeps with every twenty years or so. Randall has his own issues to deal with including his efforts to evade the draft. As with Russo's other stories, the characters are more important than the plot, and he is able to make them compelling enough that we want to keep reading. Compared with his other novels, this one is rather serious, although there is some humor. This novel is good but not as great as his other books; in a way, this book is like an exhibition game before the regular season; we get a general feel for what Russo does but it is still just warming up. For example, in Dallas, we see the prototype for the deeper Sully in Nobody's Fool. Other elements of this story are revisited in his other stories. I would recommend this book, but don't judge Russo by this story. He's just getting warmed up here.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Four and 1/2 stars..., August 7, 2005
This review is from: Mohawk (Hardcover)
Richard Russo has become one of my favorite novelists, and Mohawk is one of the best books I've read this summer. I would have given it five stars had it not been a little slow going at the beginning.
Like most Russo books, Mohawk is a little short on plot, but very strong on characterization and relationships. Mohawk, New York is a leather manufacturing town whose best days are long gone. The residents of Mohawk also seem to have their best days behind them, with many shattered and unfulfilled dreams. Mohawk centers around two first cousins, Anne Younger and Diane Wood, and their families. Anne has always been in love with Diane's husband, Dan. Dan is a paraplegic as the result of an accident. Anne's ne'er-do-well husband, Dallas, never seems to do right by the people he loves. Anna's son, Randall, starts slacking in school as he seems more accepted when his grades start sliding. Diane's mother has a hissy fit and needs to be hospitalized every time she doesn't get her on way. Anne's mother tortures both Anne and her father. And Mather Grouse (Anna's father) lives his life by a moral code that affects everyone in his family. Mohawk is a book of unlikely heroes as people try to make right of the past.
Russo is a master of observation and turns this talent into an art form. Some of those that touched a nerve include:
When discussing dealing with her husband, "Mrs. Grouse had come to see virtually everything he enjoyed as a potential source of upset. She seemed intent on making his remaining years one long Lenten season."
"the most effective lies were those liberally laced with truth. The lie could be ninety-nine parts truth to one part falsehood, one tarnished part mingling with the pure until it was all tainted, more false than pure fabrication."
Mather Grouse "certainly understood how perversely loyal human beings could be to mistakes."
Unfortunately, Russo is not as prolific as other writers, although perhaps that is what makes his books so special. I've already read Straight Man, Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool. So I guess I'll just have to content myself with going back and reading some of his earlier works instead.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Masterfully rendered, succinct, bright in its dreary truth, February 25, 1998
By A Customer
A wonderful work, exciting. A truly literary pageturner with fully realized loveable characters. Completely unpretentious. Even Wild Bill--Russo is totally forgiven for his creation, a patent Faulknerian manchild--is never doubted for a moment and plays a very pivotal part in the author's unfolding of this unforgettable town and the folks in it. I dream Mohawk (finding myself in the town) sometimes, even though I read this book two maybe three years ago. I can't believe that no one else visiting this site has reviewed this book at this time, besides the reprint of the published review. But Russo is not well known and this is his first novel. I recommend this book to anyone who breathes air and is thankful that they are a small part in the midst of this great ongoing tragicomedy (life). Didn't change my life, but if you want to read someone who is NOT a hack, read Richard Russo. Funny, too. --Jeremy
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