A Small Good Thing

Sometimes a book does not have to have bombs bursting and wars breaking out and bad guys lurking at every turn. Sometimes the story of an everyday life is satisfying and spellbinding. The story of the man who runs the corner store or the woman who has too many kids can help us to remember that everyone, no matter how seemingly mundane their life, has a story.

I just finished reading Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. While there are a few fist fights and dramatic scenes, the story focuses mostly on the very quiet lives of the Lynch family. Lou and his son, the unfortunately nicknamed, Lucy, are large men who see the world as a good place. For Lou, a successful man must be a man that is well liked. When bad things happen he contiunually repeats, "I just don't understand". The Lynch men marry women who have a less favorable view of humanity, yet they stay with these optimistic men no matter how exasperating that may be.

Richard Russo writes so beautifully of small town life. He knows the towns that are teetering on the edge of extinction due to the closure of a factory. He knows the divisions between the classes and the races. Russo writes almost tenderly of these fallible, very human people. You come away from reading his books with the feeling that you would know his characters if you met them on the street. And seeing inside a character so deeply, is for me, a small good thing.