While I haven’t read all of Richard Russo’s works, I’ve read quite a few of them, and although this collection of essays is worth reading, it feels like it was written only for those who have read his work already. I thought the first half of the book, with essays on “Life,” was much stronger than the second half on “Art.” I appreciated learning even more about Russo’s parents and grandparents and how his relationships with them shaped his life and his writing. The second half felt disjointed and rambling. Also, perhaps it is just me, but it feels too soon to write about COVID and especially about Trump’s first term in office while we are currently living through his second.

Instead of reading these essays about Russo’s books and screenplays, your time would be much better spent actually reading those books and watching those movies.

Thank you to Net Galley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Russo, as he always does, encapsulates what many believe about life and society. A great collection of essays!

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor - Knopf for this advance copy of a collection of essays written in a time of great change for this country, trying to understand the present while looking to the past, and finding only more questions, along with an understanding why the author writes the works that he does.

I read a lot, and it was only a few years ago that i figured out why. Human beings are a mystery to me. My feelings as a child were always that adults knew what was right, what was wrong and had things figured out. As I aged I realized this was not so, and that people are just as messy, weird, strange and in some ways beaten down, just like some of the students I knew in school. The past makes the person, and pasts are not easily forgotten. As a person who has dome things that made sense at the time, things that I am still in way dealing with, humans can explain away their mistakes, usually by blaming others. The those people who have become the bogeyman of everything gone wrong. So I read, not as much fiction as I used to, as fiction lies to much. Life doesn't have morals, the bad guys seem to win constantly. Stupid is as stupid does, and stupid seems to be winning the race. The race to what I have no idea. Extinction probably. On certain days that probably is changed to hopefully. Writers write for the same reason. To make sense of the senseless, the failures of people, even those close to them. To share stories of people, funny moments, or moments full of emotion and fear, moments writers hide like currency, saving them for writing days. These moments are at the heart of this new collection by novelist, educator and essayist Richard Russo. In Life and Art: Essays Russo looks to the past to make sense of the present we find ourselves in, and finding out that the past never really is the past, but something that makes what we are, how we think, feel and create.

Twelve essays make up this book, most written in the times of COVID, and what came after. The book begins with Russo mad that members of his extended family are anti-vaccination, and of course have come down with COVID, blaming everyone but themselves for their life. This reminds Russo of his father, a man who couldn't see a doctor working 6 days a week during the spring and summer, on unemployment in the fall and winter and his ideas about health. Ignore it until it went away, or find a way to deal with it. A pain was treated with horse medicine, until a simple ache turned out to be lung cancer. Russo looks back at the past, his family divorced early, his Mom's issues with mental health, and his fathers addictive personality especially when it came to gambling and liquor. Russo sees these moments shaping his writing, and with his Mother's need for reinvention his career. There is a bit of sadness, a lot of wondering about what secrets were never told, along with how writers take what the hear, feel and put down on paper. Not to hurt, nor to embarrass, but to understand others, and maybe oneself.

I have read quite a few of Russo's novels, most set in a slowly dying town in Upstate New York, even seen a few movies based on his work. I believe this is the first time I have read his nonfiction and I think I enjoyed this even more. Russo has an honesty, telling tales a writer shouldn't tell, about using others stories, about memorizing his own fear and pains to share with readers later. The past is never dead with Russo, he writes about his father and his friends, his mother, even his grandparents. The fears the woman had, the broken bodies and heavy cost the man had from war, from failing, and never getting ahead. Russo is a very good writer, able to hope from friends to family, the past, to post-vaccine life quite easily. I learned a lot about the writing mindset here. How to use what one sees, and what one has seen happen to others. To not be mean when writing. Every one has failed, made mistakes, that's the easy part. What happiness after is the life lived.

A very interesting collection of essays, from the world today, to biographical, history, and even about writing. Also about observing. Even more, about not letting it crush you. I think I might have a better idea about humans now, and I thank Richard Russo for the lesson.

"Life and Art" is something unique among non-fiction by novelists. It's neither a memoir (some of the essays herein are on topics covered in the author's "Elsewhere"), nor is it a collection of essays or reviews published elsewhere.

Rather, it's the author's COVID-era meditations on his childhood (the first half of the book is primarily about his parents and grandparents), adulthood and then what it means to be an artist (the second part.) For example, one chapter begins on his relationship with Jennifer Finney Boylan, and whether he could or would write a trans character or a Black character. This segues into a discussion of whether older white male writers have the right to write such characters. He also covers film/TV adaptations of his work and what his rights are vs the writers/producers of the adaptations.

Throughout the book, he brings up how COVID has given him the time to think; and to reckon with George Floyd and how his life relates.

I won't call this "The Writer as Lion in Winter," since I hope he has several more novels in him. I'll just call "The Lion in Autumn."

This honest review was given in exchange for an advanced reader copy from #Net Galley and Alfred A. Knopf.

I am a huge fan of Richard Russo, so when I saw his book on NetGalley, I immediately requested it; I didn’t even read the description. I was treated to a book of essays that were wonderful! My favorite parts were reading about his parents and the essay about his novel “Straight Man,” which is a favorite book of mine. I was left wishing he could have been one of my professors! He is wise, eloquent, and compassionate. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Another engaging collection of essays from one of the best American authors living today. Reading Russo in nonfiction can sometimes feel more rewarding than his fiction.

Richard Russo's new collection of essays touches on topics ranging from the pandemic to his childhood in upstate New York. He reflects on how his life experience shaped some of his novels and shares some insight related to film adaptations of his work, too. My favorite pieces here address his later-in-life understanding of his parents and grandparents and their shortcomings and ambitions. Russo also treats the reader to a couple of pieces of literary analysis, including an interesting essay in which he zooms in on Townes Van Zandt's song "Poncho and Lefty." If you haven't read much of Russo's work, this collection may not resonate with you. But for longtime fans, this slim volume has lots to offer.

Richard Russo is one of those rare writers who amazingly still produces incredible books into his 70s. The first half of the book ("Life") spends a lot of time reflecting on his parents' influence on him. The two had differing ideas about the American Dream--his Dad pessimistic, his Mom optimistic. Russo comes to the realization that each probably died thinking Richard had adapted the other one's belief, but, of course, in reality Richard arrived at a composite of the two philosophies. Lots of interesting writing about how his Mom desperately wanted him to get away from the dying town he grew up in, but even though he left, Richard spent most of his career writing about that very town.

The second half is comprised of reflections on Art. He has an intriguing chapter about the writing of "Pancho and Lefty" that gives me a completely new view of a song I've heard dozens of times. Another highlight is a chapter illustrating his unique thoughts about "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

Like almost anything Russo writes, I highly recommend this wonderful book.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I have read everything Richard Russa has written ever since I was one of his creative writing students at Colby College. (not from a wealthy family as he implies we all were). This essay certainly exhibits Russo's skill as a writer and will probably appeal to those of us who have read much of what he is written, but I do not think it will have a much wider reach. While Russo's insight into recent history is interesting and aligns well with my own, his twists and turns through his own life and through literature make for a disjointed narrative.