Everybody’s Fool

It has been a trade mark of Richard Russo that he starts a story from an everyday incident taking a man from the ordinary and then with a masterly paint brush brushes fiction heard never before. Sully comes closer to his death this time and decides that he cannot hide this important event from all the people who are nearest and dearest to him. He does not want to end up being a mystery for everyone, thus he starts disclosing the secret of his heart issue to the people around him.

He has only two months to live thus the time is short, he does not want to announce the whole thing publicly because this would make a drama of his remaining life. He also wants to feel the family love and the love of his friends in these last days not the neighborhood condoling. Ruth is the first one to get the news because he thinks that she should know so that she can plan for her own future as she has been with him for years now. Then comes the turn of the Rub Squeers his best friend that he wants to keep and lastly the news is conveyed to his son and grandson.

The writer has very aptly described the reaction of different people as how they feel at the death of a friend, some them feel sad but most of them are perhaps grieved because their fortune is attached to the man. Thus your relations are not what they usually seem to you. We have seen that in Chances Are… and Nobody’s Fool as well. But the good thing is that the writer is always describing these things in a funny way. There is funny drama of any sort and the people are not quite grieved to the core. Mark Bramhall too uses a lighter way in narration to make the things less corrosive and more appealing.