This book was given to me by a friend with the promise that it was "saucy." There are writings in here that made me blush and others that made me sigh and others that made me almost cry. All of them were indeed saucy. It was like giving myself a mental message. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to bring some sensuality into their daily lives.

I especially enjoyed the poetry and many of the stories. This is real quality literature that evokes great feelings. This is a must for anyone that enjoys erotic literature

It's unfathomable why the works of Richard Yates have been out of print for so many years. Every person I recommend him to ends up wanting to read all of his books, asking questions about him I simply can't answer because I know little or any of his bio.

"Is he really that good?" Yes.

Finally, in one collection, are the master's collected stories culled from "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" and "Liars in Love." The book also features additional uncollected stories, which are real treats for any Richard Yates fan (we've been plowing through dusty periodicals in decrepit libraries for these stories for years).

Readers long familiar with 50s writers like Salinger, Cheever, Updike, and later such scions as Tobias Woolf, Richard Ford, and Raymond Carver, will find similar terrain in Yates's stories, with one important distinction: the inimitable voice of Richard Yates. His gift is not with pretty language or literary prose - though that's not to say that he's minimalist - he's much too focused for tricks. Character is his number one concern.

The characters in Yates's world are so real they're frightening. Yates explores their self deceptions, their frailties, their constant attempts to buttress a withering self-esteem by false promises or vain illusions. For instance, "A Glutton for Punishment" - a story about a loserish young man who gets fired from his first "real" job and convinces himself that he won't tell his wife about it until he finds another. The character realizes, though, that it's the very drama of losing that's always been the motivating force of his life.

What sets Yates apart from most writers of his age - or any age - is his heart. It's large, gracious, compassionate without ever being sentimental.

I would go on--but the stories truly speak for themselves.

The publication of this volume is a literary event, akin to Malcolm Cowley's "rediscovery" of William Faulkner. It's time to take Yates off the "writer's writer" list, and make him finally accessible to the general population.

This collection will prove Yates to be one of the greatest American writers of the latter 20th Century. You will not be disappointed, but only scratch your head and say, "Why haven't I heard of this guy?"

*Don't stop here--read "Revolutionary Road," "The Easter Parade," "Cold Spring Harbor" and "A Good School."

Richard Yates succeeds at fulfilling every accolade heaped on his output of writing. This collection of short stories is like owning a full library of novels by one author. Each story, whether familiar to us who have admired this master or newly discovered because of being previously unpublished, place Yates in the rarified air of brilliant American authors. Without the need for flashy technique or creating a Look & Style or preaching to elipitcal minds, Yates spins touching tales simply, clearly, and with a polish that few others can mimic. Yes, his stories are about those parts of our lives that we all usually try to keep private: few of us (or his characters) like to relate our insecurities, disappointments, frustrated dreams. But Yates opens windows for us to view the common man at his most vulnerable, and never once does he offer excuses for the individual's humanity. "We took risks. We knew that we took them. Things have turned out against us" may be the words of a polar explorer, but they so aptly speak to the stoic way Yates' people accept their plights. Praise can be made for every story, no matter how short or how long. Reading this collection of gems is entertaining, but it is also a chance to look at the ordinary world in a more appreciative way. Drop the prejudices. Forget your own bias as to what happiness is. Just get to know these people and you'll get to know yourself in the process. Magnificent addition to every reader's library.

It's perfectly understandable, I guess. His novels and stories move through detail after detail -- always thoroughly entertaining & bittersweet, but also muted. BIG MOMENTS don't scream at you; they happen & are absorbed into the fabric of each characters' lives -- simultaneously changing them and leaving them with every flaw perfectly in tact. His message is an unromantic one: pain doesn't create character; pain creates pain. Very few writers handle darkness as surely and poetically as Yates.

In every story & novel, Yates wastes no time getting to the matter at hand. This creates the impression that his will be an A-->B storyline, but Yates' detours are completely rewarding and earned. Rarely does anything feel forced or contrived in a Yates story. People act as people we know really act. Yates' dialogue is, in my mind, the best of any American post-war fiction writer -- it manages to be loose & realistic without relying on an onslaught of ums... ahs... or wells ...

Many of Yates' stories, as well as the novels "Revolutionary Road" and "A Good School" are nearly perfect, but it's quiet perfection, so he remains unfairly overlooked, while lesser writers get the gold star.

This is such a wonderful series of books. I picked them up at a used bookstore and I can't believe they are out of print. Working in a bookstore myself I read all the time, and these are some of the best novels I've read in a long time.

The first novel of the Carlucci trilogy is less about Frank Carlucci than it is about retired officer Louis Tanner, but it shares the same locale, wild thrills, unexpected turns and taut writing. Russo creates a believable near-future, fully fleshed-out with characters who continue on through the rest of the trilogy. Carlucci is introduced and appears, but he plays only a "second banana" role. The story in this book sets up the remaining two novels, and if you read one you'll want to read all three of this excellent set. I only wish I'd been able to read them in proper order.

Let's hope this novel is back in print shortly and becomes easier to find. It deserves it!!!

A great novel, and a lot of fun. You have to read it

Richard Russo hasn't published very many books, but he is quickly becoming one of the great authors of today. In Nobody's Fool, he writes another excellent tale of small-town life, a setting he revisits in his masterpiece, Empire Falls.

The main character in Nobody's Fool is Donald Sullivan, known more commonly as Sully. Sully is something of a free spirit, rarely thinking beyond the moment; now that he's sixty, he's feeling the effects of his short-sightedness; he has many friends but few real relationships, even with his son and his off-and-on again lover. Indeed, the closest relationship he has is with his landlady.

It's hard to describe this novel in terms of plot, since this is more a book about characters than a regular story. Russo is not interested in the standard beginning-middle-end structure of a novel; instead this book is almost pure middle. Plenty happens, but as in real life, few things are neatly resolved.

Russo is a brilliant writer and makes all his characters multi-dimensional. There are no good guys or bad guys here; even Sully, a likeable enough fellow, has some definite flaws. The way all these characters interact - Sully, his landlady Miss Beryl, his friend/worshipper Rub, his foe/friend Carl and the dozen or so others - is what makes this book so much fun. There is humor here, but this is not a comic novel; instead, it is a novel that does not fit well into any category.

For those whose tastes run beyond strict genre fiction, this is definitely a reccomended read. It just one indication of what a great writer Russo is.

Russo has written an exceptional series of novels, including The Risk Pool, Mohawk, and Nobody's Fool that peel back the layers of life in a small upstate NY town. His protagonist in Nobody's Fool, "Sully" (played effectively by Paul Newman in the recent movie), is a chronic underachiever, drinker, and working man hero whose trials and tribulations over the course of the novel are humorous and always true to life.

Russo writes the best dialogue of anyone I know, and he has a keen eye for detail. All of his characters, from Sully and his loyal sidekick Rub (who is terrified of his kleptomaniac wife), to the owner of the diner where he grabs his morning coffee and occasional meal, jump off the page and remain in your subconscious long after you forget the actual events of the plot. The story moves along in Russo's very capable hands, but it is not what makes this a great novel. Instead, you simply revel in the artistry of the author's storytelling technique, his accurate depictions of marriage and family relationships, and his obvious compassion for the lovable losers who reside in this little corner of upstate New York.

Even the throw away scenes, that have little to do with the overall plot, are brilliant. Russo writes about Sully's elderly landlady, (think Jessica Tandy), whose nosy neighbor is always calling her to try and bum a ride to the latest store grand opening or to a holiday buffet lunch, since the neighbor can't drive.

Sully always seems to try and do the right thing, and keeps ending up with the short end of the stick as a result. Not even his one legged shyster of a lawyer can set things right, as if there were any hope of a victory in court. Prosperity will always be out of reach for the cronies in this book, and for the town itself, but the story is nevertheless uplifting. Russo is a master, I loved Nobody's Fool and Straight Man and I can't wait for his next novel.

When is the rest of the country going to catch on to the numerous qualities of Russo's writing? If the reviews of his books here on Amazon are any indication, he is slowly but surely gaining fans every time someone picks up one of his books.

I picked up a copy of Straight Man at a bargain rack a while back, and to this day that book remains one of my favorite contemporary novels of all time. It pokes fun of academia, political correctness, family turmoil and greed with humor and compassion.

Nobody's Fool comes in a close second. I absolutely loved the character Sully, the principled loser and antihero of the novel who seems to keep begrudgingly doing the right thing and doing his best to maintain order in a chaotic town. His idiotic but loyal sidekick, Rub, is a perfect comic foil, and the scenes of them scheming to make a few bucks are outright hilarious. Every character in the novel, from Sully's old landlady and her busybody friends to the humorless bartender and the familiar group of losers at Sully's numerous stomping grounds, are dead on accurate and believable. Russo writes the best dialogue of any modern writer I know.

The book, like most of Russo's fiction, peels back the layers of a small town in upstate New York, a town that somehow missed out on prosperity when the interstate drew travelers away, but Russo writes about the town and its inhabitants with humor and compassion. This is not the stark, depressing realism of a Russell Banks novel like Affliction. You will laugh out loud at Sully's shameful flirtations, and at Rub's considerable problems at home with his perpetually angry wife, while recognizing the truth in Russo's small town mosaic. Read Nobody's Fool and Straight Man, and you will be a Russo fan for life.

Terminal Visions is an outstanding anthology showcasing fourteen short story writings of Richard Russo. The compelling selections include science fiction themes (eleven set on Earth). The themes run from alien encounters to the human condition to triumph over seemingly overwhelming conditions. Terminal Visions very nicely documents why Russo, who has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award and been nominated for the Arthur C. Clark Award, is considered on of the best of today's speculative fiction authors.

Enjoy fourteen fine stories which are set on Earth and which paint very different stories of men who dream of space, other worlds, and salvation. From urban gun scenes to solar contemplation, the backgrounds are different but the visions - ultimately of hope - are similar and moving. Highly recommended, haunting.

Russo's novels (at least the ones I've read, Carlucci's Edge and Carlucci's Heart) offer a dark, Blade-Runneresque vision of a near-future San Francisco in which chaos rules the streets and cops keep their heads down.

Terminal Visions is both wider and narrower -- wider in that these short stories are set in a variety of locales with differing casts, different premises, and different tones (although 'noir' seems to be the prevailing one). Narrower in that, like John Varley's short stories, these are miniature universes unto themselves, sketching out in a few hundred words an entire scenario for a possible future. Russo's spare use of language, and haunting ideas, make this one of the best and most thought-provoking collections of shorts I've read since The Barbie Murders.

Wonderful stuff.

"This . . . is what people mean when they refer to life as a great mystery," one of the characters reflects in this collection of stories (p. 109). Like Andres Dubus and Raymond Carver before him, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Richard Russo succeeds at honestly examining "the great mystery" of American behavior in his first collection of short stories. Whether he's writing about marital infidelity or domestic abuse, Russo engages his reader with well-drawn characters and bittersweet epiphanies. In the title story within a story, Russo introduces us to Sister Ursula, an aging nun who, through a fiction writing class, discovers the "willful lie" she'd been telling herself over a lifetime (p. 21). In "Monhegan Light," an emotionally calcified moviemaker falls "truly in love" with his deceased wife only "through another man's eyes" (p. 52). In another story, we accompany a middle-aged academic, who is recovering from prostate surgery, as he runs his physically abusive son-in-law out of town. In "Joy Ride," a mother fleeing the perceived "slavery" of her marriage, takes her son on a "shabby" cross-country roadtrip, "devoid of glory" (p. 108). While some are stronger than others, these stories are satisfying overall.

G. Merritt

In his first collection, a master storyteller focuses on a fresh and fascinating range of human behavior. With a fluency of tone that will surprise even his devoted readers, Richard Russo here captures both bewildering horror and heartrending tenderness with an absorbing, compassionate authority. As with all his characters, we warm to these newcomers almost despite themselves. A jaded Hollywood movie-maker uncovers a decades-old flame he never knew he'd harbored; a precocious fifth-grader puzzles over life, love, and baseball as he watches his parents' marriage dissolve; another child is forced into a harrowing cross-country escape; an elderly couple rediscovers the power--and misery--of their relationship during a long-awaited retreat to a resort island; and in the title story, a septuagenarian nun invades the narrator's college writing workshop with an incredible saga. After the triumph of Empire Falls, Richard Russo now extends his versatility and accomplishment as he demonstrates once again that "there is a big, wry heart beating at the center of Russo's fiction"

Why is it, do you suppose, that short story collections don't sell as well as novels? And why is it that critics and readers seem often to look down their noses at the short stories of established novelists? In this instance, as much as I admire Richard Russo's novels, and I admire them hugely, I will have to enter a minority report and say that these heartfelt, lapidary short stories trump Russo's denser, more complex novels. Not that I'd want to be without the larger books.

Each story in this collection conjures up a world that seems real: one can see, feel, taste, hear the settings, and can get inside the minds and hearts of the characters. In a story like 'Monhegan Light,' we even come to understand probably the most elliptical character, the painter Trevor, in a few deft strokes of the storyteller's brush. As always, Russo's own great heart comes through in his tales.

Make no mistake, Russo is an important writer. And his short stories are as breathtaking as his novels.

There's no doubt in my mind that Richard Russo is the best author I've read this year. In the last three months, I've read everything he's published: laughed my you-know-what off at Straight Man, read Empire Falls through tears, enjoyed Nobody's Fool and scratched my head through The Whore's Child. That's the context for me saying this about Russo: Risk Pool is not his best.

It's still worthwhile reading. Set in Mohawk Falls, Risk Pool is the story of a boy growing up into a man and trying to shake off the charismatic shadow of his shady father. More of a novel of ill manners than a novel of manners, Risk Pool is still reminiscent of those long English novels of the 18th and 19th centuries. It's funny, and the characters of this town are real and memorable.

What bothered me about Risk Pool is that it seemed like two separate books. The first two thirds of the book is about Ned Hall's growing up years, and the last third is what happens after he leaves college to come back and witness his father's decline. I really enjoyed the first part of the book, which really captured the universal experience of being a powerless child buffeted about by events created by not-too-healthy adults. The last third, when Ned is a not-too-healthy adult himself, was more of a reading chore. I finished the book because I loved the child Ned had been, but the last third of the book could really have been written about another person altogether. If Russo was going to take us from the moment-to-moment attention he gave to Ned's childhood to this slapdash adulthood, I would have liked to read more about Ned's college years and what was formative there.

Sam Hall's kid is having to grow up on his own. His mother is a victim of a serious mental illness that renders her totally insubstantial as a parent and/or gaurdian--when she's not in the hospital. Sam Hall is the town vagabond--the kind of guy who lives on the edge, is constantly on the move, so immeresed in his own schemes and shennanigans he's hardly got time for his kid. As a result Sam's boy essentially raises himself and spends his time wondering how his parents ever got this way, while flip flopping form the "care" of one parent to the other.

What makes this book work is that, flawed as the characters are, Russo nevertheless infuses them with the souls of real people. We can bemoan the fact that Sam's a lousy dad, and not that great a person overall, but it's hard to get too worked up about it as the fact is you kind of like the guy. In fact, this novel abounds in characters who are unsavory yet so brilliantly drawn and presented, we feel we know them well, warts and all.

Additionally, Russo is a master at rendering the landscape of the small town, painting a picture that isn't all that attractive yet abounds in appealing context and situations--that is, he makes Mowhawk feel like home feels, regardless of where you grew up.

In the end, what one is left with is a story--a rarity thses days. The novel is funny, sad, insiprational, gross and absorbing--in short, it's a lot like real life. What makes it an extraordinary story is that Russo pulls from it the extrordinary revelations about life, love, loyalty, stupidity, passion and loss that we ought to get out of our own lives but somehow don't.

A truly remarkable book.

Mohawk, New York could be any small town in the United States. People out of jobs, bar dwellers, heart attacks...every town has them and no one likes to talk about them.

This is, perhaps, one of the best novels I have read. Russo combines wit and dimension to his characters...so much that they become real.

Ned Hall has the dull life of a boy living with his mother when his father interrupts everything. Told from Ned's point of view, he walks us through the simplicity of his father's drunken stupor to the complexity of his teenage feelings...and everywhere inbetween.

The writing isn't filled with thesaurus words, rather words common people identify with everyday.

All in all, this book shows the reader a life in the life of a young boy. Parents estranged and town falling apart. And it holds you in for the whole ride.

Richard Paul Russo's superior series combines the best of the Science Fiction and Mystery genres into one package. Detective Frank Carlucci is an honest cop and a good detective in the hopeless corrupt world of the mid-21st century. He is determined to do the right thing despite the potentially negative consequences. The real strength of the book is the vivid desciptions of the streets of San Francisco that leave you feeling that it is inevitable that the world will turn out this way. Any of the books in this series, which include "Destroying Angel," and "Carlucci's Heart," are well worth owning.

While not as strong as Destroying Angel, I found Carlucci's Edge to be an intense ride. It takes the reader through the near future tecno-streets of San Francisco and is a hell of a lot of fun. The story is good and has a strong plot. I like the gritty background and I hope to see many more novels by Mr. Russo in the future.

This was the first Richard Paul Russo novel I read and so remains something of a favorite. I haven't been able to add anything substantive to the excellent reviews already here, so have refrained from posting a "me too" review.

But there's an angle which perhaps deserves to be mentioned, and that is Russo's use of the "backstory." All of his Carlucci novels IMPLY much of what has happened to society without really explaining it, and describe new technologies and fads almost in passing. The comparisons to "Blade Runner" refer to this fully-created future world of which our story concerns just a small corner.

For this reason, I found reading the novels out of order was not really that much of a detriment. The backstory of "Carlucci's Edge" was largely explained by "Destroying Angel," and the backstory of "Carlucci's Heart" was explained by "Carlucci's Edge," but these details are such a small part of this wholly-created new world that your bewilderment quickly settles into a willing suspension of disbelief anyway.

So don't be afraid to read them out of order. Once you've read one, you'll want them all anyway.

This book was, as most of Russo's are, a snap shot of time in the life of a small town guy. I enjoyed it. However, usually the snap shot encompasses a climactic event, and in this case I didn't feel like that was the case.
While Hank was struggling with his school, friends, and children, I didn't feel like there was a real story underneath.
Hank was well developed (as a character), and as usual, Russo's writing is more than noteworthy, but the other characters were slightly underdeveloped and you never got a feel for his daughter, his wife, or even his colleagues.
I think that this time, Russo didn't do enough to develop the characters, and he spent a lot of time describing scenery and places ... I'd rather he had done more people, and fewer objects - in terms of description.
If you want to start reading Russo, read Nobody's Fool or Empire Falls - those are each a better indicator of what Russo is really capable of.

Richard Russo's "Straight Man" is one of the most amusing novels I have read. "Straight Man" tells the story of English Professor (and Department Chair) William Henry "Hank" Devereaux, Jr. and his foray into a midlife crisis. His surrounding cast (to include his wife, fellow professors, university officials, television reporters, grown daughter, son-in-law, and various women he's half-in-love with) provides more than enough fodder for thought and laughter.

The book is told in first person narrative by Hank and the reader is offered quite a glimpse into his mental state as well his thoughts on life in general. Often comical and plainly human, Hank's experiences over one school year at a Pennsylvania college poignantly deal with issues of marriage, health, employment stress, family problems, relationships (both good and bad), and life in an English department. By the end of the novel you will know Hank well and very likely have laughed out loud on more than a few occasions. This is a terrific novel.
Very Highly Recommended.

You know, I have to tell you I was nervous about reading Straight Man. I bought Richard Russo's book Nobody's Fool at a second-hand bookshop in Taiwan, and since then I carried that darn heavy book in my backpack while being on the road travelling for 2 years, because it was a book I read over and over, and laughed each time at his descriptions of Rub with the doughnut, Sully's truck, and I just loved Beryl. Oh, that book is bittersweet. Alas, I finally gave it away somewhere in China to someone I thought was worthy of it, and decided (deep breath) I should try another Russo book. Straight Man.

So now, I have another travelling companion. In the first chapter or 2, I didn't really warm to the character of Hank, but as with Nobody's Fool, as the book continues, you can't help but wish you knew these characters to joke with and have as your lopsided friends. I don't want to write too much regarding plot, etc, as there are plenty of other reviews doing that, but if you want to read a book to warm your heart, enjoy humanity with all its quirks and quips and lurks, then read Richard Russo. Read Straight Man. It's one to savour.

not cyberpunk, no strange technology, the setting is a future san francisco/united states where there is numbness to the power of the commercial ruling class. the story is part epidemic, part human drama, dads and children, love stories. weaves a powerful story around a strange and unusual environment. i have not read the other carlucci books but plan to put them on my list.

I thought this novel was one of the best I have ever read. You are drawn into Russo's darkly beautiful world, and it is so much fun. He is as good, if not better than William Gibson. His prose is richly textured and detailed. I hope he doesn't make us wait long for another great story.

Carlucci's Heart is the latest, and maybe the best, of Russo's novels featuring Lt. Carlucci, a homicide detective in futuristic San Francisco. Russo's previous novels, "Destroying Angel" and "Carlucci's Edge" are other great stories, and it is not necessary that they be read chronologically to be enjoyed. The stories are suspenseful and move well, and dialogue is sharp and real. The real strengths of Russo's books are: the vivid portrayal of our civilization to come, and the character of Carlucci, a good man doing his best in a struggle against a world going to hell. DEFINITELY WORTH CHECKING THIS BOOK OUT.