NObody's Fool

Oh, this was such a good book. It helps that I saw this movie with Paul Newman about 20 years ago. He played Sully, Don Sullivan, a 60 year old man with a bad knee. Does that sound familiar, or what? He is haunted by a horrible childhood and bad decisions that he made ever after, based on that childhood. That part is not similar to me, but the book is so well written that I could still feel his pain.

It's just a slice of life in a upstate New York town. I read some of the reviews in Amazon. One said that this is a dying town where people go "through the motions of life." Isn't that an odd statement? They seem to be doing all the things that we people who are living in towns that aren't dying do. They love, they die, they work, they try to get out of work. They enjoy each other's company, they have pasts that haunt them, they have futures that seem bleak or promising. The thing about this book is that the characters and locale are so well drawn that you know these people. You actually know more about them than the guy at the next desk whom you've known for the 30 years you sat at your desk.

I wonder if the writer envisioned a Sully as beautiful as Paul Newman. I think so. Everybody is charmed by him. He does pretty stupid things, and they still love him. He rents an apartment in the home of his old school teacher and has for the past 20 years. She was played by Jessica Tandy, just before Ms. Tandy died. There are probably a dozen central characters whom you get to know very well. The time period of the book is pretty brief. It starts at Thanksgiving and ends on New Year's Day. In a town where people are making the motions of living, a lot happens in such a short period of time. As a different Amazon review rightly says, this is more character-driven than plot-driven. There are very interesting characters driving this book. I don't think I'll miss them, but I'm glad to have been with them for a while.