It's always good to return to good novels. Russo's novels are re-re-readable. I live in this tribal America and as it stands the loudest voices right now also happen to be the least nuanced, so when I need to think ethically and morally and, may the feckless gods of Olympus help me, deeply, I turn, without hesitation, to the novelist. Our politicians, the lot of them, I turn for comedic relief.
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It's as much about mental illness, the effects of divorce on children, as it is about guns. Both the left and the right don't want much discussion on these. But we should.
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It will take more than nineteen minutes. Ask the novelist Jodi Picoult who wrote the best selling 'Nineteen Minutes' about what can happen.
You can color your hair, or bake scones; you can get a tooth filled, or fold laundry for a family of five...in nineteen minutes your community can be shattered by an act of violence when a student starts shooting his teachers and classmates.
A raw and honest work, it raises some important questions of can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society, and is it ever okay for a victim to strike back?
With thoughts of the victims and their families in Oakland Park, there are not always easy ways to answer simple questions of these tragedies, but it has impacted on our country as a whole, and we care.
Keep writing, Mr. Russo. The pen may be mightier than the sword at the end of the day and some of us were taught in school how to read.
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Mr. Russo,
What about the middle schooler who was being bullied? Did you just sit and watch a kid get bullied?
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I'm pretty sure what you're implying-- that his moral character is suspect because he did nothing in that situation. Of course there's the possibility, too, that a stranger's intervention could have made the situation worse for the poor kid.
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Fascinating essay, thank you. Food for thought. Has America really changed???
(I was greatly shaken by a novel some years ago by Lynn-Sharon Schwartz about a school-bus crash that kills a child, and its aftermath on the family. A very powerful and insightful novel.
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What about Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin?
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This is why Richard Russo is someone to read, to follow, to believe. His depth and candor never fail to give me hope.
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Beautiful. Stephen King must have had a similar experience with his novel Rage.
What a beautiful essay this is! I set out to praise it in my comment here, and the word that came to mind is magnanimous. But today it is not possible to use a word like that unless it is qualified by cynicism. There are no good men or women today. Sorry Mr. Russo, you tried to reach me but you failed.
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Dear Richard Russo,
I've read some of your books but haven't read Empire Falls. I don't know how that happens to be, as it was also an HBO mini-series. After reading this heartfelt piece, I will definitely read it.
I am an Indie author who has long been troubled by school shootings and America's gun problem. I had wanted to write a novel about this subject for a very long time, and I did. I self-published it on Amazon last Fall 2017.
One of the very first book events I held was in Charlotte, NC the day after the Las Vegas shooting took place. I had always been concerned about the reaction of readers who may have lost loved ones at the wrong end of a gun. But I too felt "How could I not write this book?"
But the concerns were still there and without the help of a big time publisher, I struggled with how to promote this book, Under the Same Sun, without experiencing backlash for taking advantage of these tragedies.
Almost a year later, I have received some very positive reviews. The novel is set in 2016, the year leading up to the election, and ends in September, before the characters know what lies ahead.
These lines of yours spoke to me:
"A 2018 “Empire Falls” would have to be set in a tribal America that has stopped listening, that may have little interest in a novelist’s musings. Even more dispiritingly, it’s also an America that has mostly lost our previous generations’ faith that things both large and small can be fixed."
Thank you for this. ~ Sheila
A wonderful essay, especially the observation that we’ve come to value guns more than our children.
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As always, Mr. Russo, you write with poignancy and clarity. I had forgotten the school shooting in Empire Falls. You did conjure the common thread of many if not most of these now frequent horror shows. An alienated angry young man who sees no future. Whether he joins ISIS or acts out in his hometown, it's a too familiar story.
My broken record after these events is always, "Until America loves its children more than its guns, nothing will change." As you say here, we are not there even yet.
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Thank you for the thoughtful essay. I just read Empire Falls this past year and was struck about the innocent perspective in light of Parklands and the many other mass shootings. Sadly, it was a nostalgic trip to a time when people felt there was some opportunity to understand and perhaps impact the senseless violence. Thank you Mr. Russo for your wonderful books. Having started with Empire Falls, I am now reading all of them.
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Thanks to Richard Russo who has a powerful voice but it will take 100 or 1000 powerful voices speaking together to get people to listen. We need a movement of writers, musicians and other celebrities to band together to speak truth, power and character to the people.
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