MOHAWK by Richard Russo

Annie is a divorced thirty-something in the small town of Mohawk, NY.  Her son Randall is as smart as a whip but finds that he is more popular if he doesn’t make straight A’s.  In a town where mediocrity is obviously prized, Annie’s father, Mather Grouse, is one of the few denizens who values integrity.  Annie’s ex, Dallas, is a personable guy but totally unreliable, and Annie is in love with her cousin’s husband Dan, who is in a wheelchair.  There are some villains as well, mostly in the person of Rory Gaffney, but a small town novel would not be complete without some school bullies.  This novel is basically a character study of people who wish their lives had taken a different path, except for Dallas, who contentedly wears shirts with someone else’s name that he accidentally retrieves from the laundromat dryer.  A plot finally develops in the last 100 pages or so, but it was almost too little too late.  The writing is superb, and the characters are vivid, but except for a nearly lethal building demolition, nothing much happens for around 300 pages.  I can survive on sparkling dialog for only so long.  The final quarter of the book does make it worth reading, but I think Russo’s more recent stuff may be a better use of my time.