A review by jeffmauch
Mohawk by Richard Russo

4.0

Apparently this is Russo’s first novel, which I didn’t know until after I finished it. You’d never know this was his first effort as this reads like it was written by a veteran writer. There’s a lot to like here, setting, fascinating characters, interesting conflicts, and multiple intertwined plots. I think one of the things I like most about Russo is his use of setting to create conflict. Like many of his stories we are once again in a dying town that has clearly seen better days. In this case its set during the Vietnam era as factories are shuddering and business is rough. I also really enjoy how Russo gives us a glimpse into the life of the town and characters without setup, it’s as if we are just thrown into an ongoing story as opposed to a bunch of set up, we get to learn as we go. I really enjoyed Russo’s novel Empire Falls and this reminds me a lot of it. While Empire Falls is clearly more pulled together and refined, that’s expected of a later work, but it still shows a lot of the grit that I’m seeing in this novel. At first this book has almost too many characters to keep track of but it soon comes together and becomes much less confusing. We have characters that are young and old, of both sexes, and from different lots in life, all resulting in a story that contains murder, infidelity and redemption, which results in one very good novel.