Getting Inside Richard Russo’s Head
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I like authors who write fiction and autobiographical nonfiction. I love seeing the overlap of their lived life with the fictional lives of their characters.
I particularly loved Richard Russo’s autobiographical work from years ago, Elsewhere: A Memoir. Though it was his memoir, the main topic seemed to be his mother. I specifically remember – and often say this when speaking about the author – that when he left home for college, his mother went with him. That seems to tell a lot.
Recently I re-read Russo’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Empire Falls with my book club. We LOVED the vividly drawn characters. And I’ll be darned if the male lead in the book, Miles Roby, doesn’t say in so many words that when he left for college his mother, Grace Roby, left too. The fictional mom’s leaving was different from the real mom’s. The real mom got in the car and moved with her son to his new college location. The fictional mom pretty much walked away from her home and her younger son to be the helper at another home.
But the wording was exactly the same.
And it piqued my curiosity. Has Russo written more autobiographical stuff? If yes, might it explain more of the characters in Empire Falls? I truly disliked Miles’ father, Max. Was Max a stand-in for Russo’s father?
Thus when some algorithm brought Richard Russo’s new book of essays to my attention, I immediately read it. Published in May, 2025, Life and Art gave me a lot of what I wanted in the first section – information about both his parents. And then in the second part – with talk of the art of writing – he gave me a true bonus of self-understanding.
There is so much I could share… I will go with two things from each section.
In the first section we do indeed learn about his dad. As the author says, “My father, who’d been part of the Normandy invasion, had little use for reflection, nor was his postwar life of hard physical labor particularly conducive to an active interior life. Distraction in the form of cold beer and a steady stream of bullshit with men like himself was what was called for.” (Max Roby-ish indeed.)
We also learn more about his mom and her mental illness. Richard Russo processes and processes his mother. And in this book, his father too. In speaking of which parent was right in their views of America post-World War II he says, “That’s the question I’ve been asking over the course of ten novels, two collections of short stories and two books of essays.” Equally, though, he’s been processing his relationship with his parents through all of that as well. And I for one have enjoyed his ruminations.
The second part of the book on Richard Russo’s art was an eye opener to me. I had no idea how many credits he has as a screenwriter. Wikipedia gives this list:
- Monsters
- Nobody’s Fool (based on his novel)
- Twilight
- The Flamingo Rising
- Brush with Fate
- Empire Falls (based on his novel)
- Keeping Mum
- Lucky Hank (based on his novel, Straight Man)
The second part of the book also brought me a gift of self-understanding. He talks about the pandemic and how he loved the freedom it provided him. He got to wipe all his conferences, speaking engagements, and a foreign book tour off his calendar. He was overjoyed that “somebody told him to go home and stay there.” He goes on to say that he finds “something akin to peak happiness in solitude.” I have felt these same things and thank him for this stamp of approval on such emotions.
I personally love Richard Russo’s work and was happy to learn more of his thinking in this book of essays. But if you are only going to read one autobiographical work, I would stick with his memoir, Elsewhere.
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Click here to learn more about Life and Art on Amazon.
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If you like my writing, I hope you will check out my new book, Chai on Life. It contains 36 slice-of-life stories ranging in topics from belly fat to Billy Joel. It is available wherever books are sold and on Amazon. There is even a companion journal for you to write the stories of your life.
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