Interventions

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Overview


In what many perceive as a coldly relentless digital age, Pulitzer-prize winning author Richard Russo has teamed up with his daughter, artist Kate Russo, to present this tribute to the printed book. This handsome and inventive format—four individually bound volumes gathered in a slipcase—combines the previously unpublished novella “Intervention” with three shorter works, two of which have not been published in book form.

The four tales inInterventionscrackle with Russo’s ...

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More About This Book

Overview


In what many perceive as a coldly relentless digital age, Pulitzer-prize winning author Richard Russo has teamed up with his daughter, artist Kate Russo, to present this tribute to the printed book. This handsome and inventive format—four individually bound volumes gathered in a slipcase—combines the previously unpublished novella “Intervention” with three shorter works, two of which have not been published in book form.

The four tales inInterventionscrackle with Russo’s perceptive wit and unwavering compassion for the human condition. In the title novella, self-obsessed realtor Ray must confront his own mortality and doesn’t seem especially interested in winning the battle. A surprising revelation about his father and uncle, however, and his realization of an unlikely friendship lead him to believe he just might like to stick around. “Horseman” explores the complexities of a young professor’s marriage and academic life, and “The Whore’s Child” negotiates the not-always-clear line between fact and fiction. The final piece, “High and Dry,” is Russo’s paean to the heyday of his hometown, Gloversville, New York.

Each of the four volumes is paired with a small, full-color print of a painting by Kate Russo. Printed in the United States on the finest sustainably harvested papers, the set is as much a joy to hold in the hand as it is to read.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
“The finished product is an homage to books, real books. The kind you can hold in your hand, feel the creamy pages in your fingers, smell the pulp and ink and be mesmerized by the intricacies of the artwork.” -- Melanie Plenda, Concord Monitor, 5/24/12

“The real beauty of this volume, of course, transcends its packaging. Russo is an old-fashioned storyteller who builds a narrative piece by piece, allowing characters to discover themselves along the way.”-- Joan Silverman, Portland Press Herald, 5/27/12

“Mr. Russo and his artist daughter, Kate Russo, have created a new work of art…”-- Rachel Hodin, The Local, nytimes.com, 5/30/12

“The presentation is certainly appealing, full of tastefully restrained designs that harmonize with Russo's elegant prose. But the real draw are the tales being told…” --Christian Toto, breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood, 5/30/12

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781608931859
  • Publisher: Down East Books
  • Publication date: 6/16/2012
  • Pages: 196
  • Sales rank: 219,469
  • Product dimensions: 4.70 (w) x 7.80 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

Richard Russo
Richard Russogrew up in Gloversville, New York, and attended the University of Arizona, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree, a Master of Fine Arts, and a PhD. He has taught at Southern Illinois University and Colby College, and is the author of seven novels, includingThat Old Cape Magic, Bridge of Sighs, Straight Man, Nobody’s Fool,andEmpire Falls, which won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. He has also written a collection of short stories and several produced screenplays. He lives in coastal Maine and Boston.

Kate Russowas born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1982, and moved to Maine with her family at the age of nine. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Colby College and a Master of Fine Arts from The Slade School of Fine Art in London, England. She currently lives in Rockland, Maine with her husband, Tom. Her art has been exhibited all over England and recently at Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland, Maine.

Biography

Prizewinning author Richard Russo is regarded by many critics as the best writer about small-town America since Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis. "He doesn't over-sentimentalize [small towns]," said Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for NPR's "Fresh Air." Nor does he belittle the dreams and hardships of his working-class characters. "I come from a blue-collar family myself and I think he gets the class interactions; he just really nails class in his novels," said Corrigan.

When Russo left his own native small town in upstate New York, it was with hopes of becoming a college professor. But during his graduate studies, he began to have second thoughts about the academic life. While finishing up his doctorate, he took a creative writing class; and a new career path opened in front of him.

Russo's first novel set the tone for much of his later work. The story of an ailing industrial town and the interwoven lives of its inhabitants, Mohawk won critical praise for its witty, engaging style. In subsequent books, he has brought us a dazzling cast of characters, mostly working-class men and women who are struggling with the problems of everyday life (poor health, unemployment, mounting bills, failed marriages) in dilapidated, claustrophobic burghs that have -- like their denizens -- seen better days. In 2001, Russo received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, a brilliant, tragicomic set-piece that explores past and present relationships in a once-thriving Maine town whose textile mill and shirt factory have gone bust.

Russo's vision of America would be bleak, except for the wit and optimism he infuses into his stories. Even when his characters are less than lovable, they are funny, rueful, and unfailingly human. "There's a version of myself that I still see in a kind of alternative universe and it's some small town in upstate New York or someplace like that," Russo said in an interview. That ability to envision himself in the bars and diners of small-town America has served him well. "After the last sentence is read, the reader continues to see Russo's tender, messed-up people coming out of doorways, lurching through life," said the fiction writer Annie Proulx. "And keeps on seeing them because they are as real as we are."

Good To Know

In 1994, Russo's book Nobody's Fool was made into a movie starring Paul Newman and Bruce Willis. Newman also starred in the 1998 movie Twilight, for which Russo wrote the screenplay. Russo now divides his time between writing fiction and writing for the movies.

When he wrote his first books, Russo was employed full-time as a college teacher, and would stop at the local diner between classes to work on his novels. After the success of Nobody's Fool (the book and the movie), he was able to quit teaching -- but he still likes to write in spots such as the Camden Deli. It's "a less lonely way to write," he told USA Today. "I'm less self-conscious when it's not so quiet."

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    1. Hometown:
      Gloversville, New York
    1. Date of Birth:
      July 15, 1949
    2. Place of Birth:
      Johnstown, New York
    1. Education:
      B.A., University of Arizona, 1967; Ph.D., University of Arizona, 1979; M.F.A., University of Arizona, 1980

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