The Whore’s Child by Richard Russo May 30, 2007
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(reading in progress, I’ve just finished The Joy Ride)
It’s been a while since my last attempt at a short stories collection. So, after a series of Jodi Picoult’s novels I decided to read Richard Russo’s “The Whore’s Child”.
Richard Russo attracted me to his writing primarily by Nobody’s Fool and Empire Falls. I also read his Straight Man, but I was not that much impressed. The Whore’s Child provides mixed entertainment–there are stories I could not finish, and some were really grabbing my attention. Monhegan Light is the one I just dropped after a few pages, while The Farther You Go I really liked.
(BTW, didn’t the motif of a daughter copying the parents’ house design already appear in Straight Man? I don’t remember, do you?)
Obvious topics Russo favors:
- marital problems
- mother taking a son along for a “joy ride”
Broken marriages (or relationships) are present practically in every book and story. The trips a son takes with his mother are in both Empire Falls and The Joy Ride.
