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A review by sdibartola
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
3.0
Remember that wonderful old song by Paul Simon?
“When something goes wrong
I’m the first to admit it
I’m the first to admit it
But the last one to know
When something goes right
Well, it’s likely to lose me
It’s apt to confuse me
It’s such an unusual sight
I can’t get used to something so right
Something so right”
Reading Richard Russo’s new book, “That Old Cape Magic,” resurrected the chorus of that song for me. It’s just how some of us are. We’re afraid to let our guard down – afraid to allow ourselves to be happy. We’re afraid if we allow ourselves to be happy, it will be taken away from us. But, really, what kind of control do we have? And, putting up walls doesn’t protect us. This personality type applies to the main character Jack Griffin, labeled as “congenitally unhappy” by Joy, his wife of 30 years. He’s been a successful screenwriter in LA and now has a job as an English professor at a liberal arts school in New England. The main part of the story is occurs between two weddings: the first that of his daughter’s best friend Kelsey on Cape Cod and the second his daughter Laura’s on the coast of Maine. Everything should be wonderful, but it’s not because Griffin is haunted by his childhood and the unhappy relationship he’s had with his parents – one of whom is dead before the story starts and the other who dies during the course of the story. Their urns ride around in the trunk of Griffin’s car until he finally disperses the ashes of each on opposite sides of the Cape, finally banishing their ghosts from his life. It is interesting to see how differently Jack and his mother remember one summer vacation when Jack was befriended by Peter Browning, a family vacationing in a cottage nearby at the same time. It highlights the fact that one’s memory is imperfect and subject to revision for self-protection – a theme similar to what Ishiguro’s explores in “Remains of the Day.” The dissimilarities in Jack’s and Joy’s personalities put their marriage on the ropes, and you’ll have to read to the last pages to see what happens. Perhaps not as good as “Empire Falls” or “Bridge of Sighs,” but still a very good book. Russo renders the male mid-life crisis better than anyone. Highly recommended.
“When something goes wrong
I’m the first to admit it
I’m the first to admit it
But the last one to know
When something goes right
Well, it’s likely to lose me
It’s apt to confuse me
It’s such an unusual sight
I can’t get used to something so right
Something so right”
Reading Richard Russo’s new book, “That Old Cape Magic,” resurrected the chorus of that song for me. It’s just how some of us are. We’re afraid to let our guard down – afraid to allow ourselves to be happy. We’re afraid if we allow ourselves to be happy, it will be taken away from us. But, really, what kind of control do we have? And, putting up walls doesn’t protect us. This personality type applies to the main character Jack Griffin, labeled as “congenitally unhappy” by Joy, his wife of 30 years. He’s been a successful screenwriter in LA and now has a job as an English professor at a liberal arts school in New England. The main part of the story is occurs between two weddings: the first that of his daughter’s best friend Kelsey on Cape Cod and the second his daughter Laura’s on the coast of Maine. Everything should be wonderful, but it’s not because Griffin is haunted by his childhood and the unhappy relationship he’s had with his parents – one of whom is dead before the story starts and the other who dies during the course of the story. Their urns ride around in the trunk of Griffin’s car until he finally disperses the ashes of each on opposite sides of the Cape, finally banishing their ghosts from his life. It is interesting to see how differently Jack and his mother remember one summer vacation when Jack was befriended by Peter Browning, a family vacationing in a cottage nearby at the same time. It highlights the fact that one’s memory is imperfect and subject to revision for self-protection – a theme similar to what Ishiguro’s explores in “Remains of the Day.” The dissimilarities in Jack’s and Joy’s personalities put their marriage on the ropes, and you’ll have to read to the last pages to see what happens. Perhaps not as good as “Empire Falls” or “Bridge of Sighs,” but still a very good book. Russo renders the male mid-life crisis better than anyone. Highly recommended.