Richard Russo sounds like a Mainer as he tells the story of a northern mill and lumber town fallen on hard times largely in the phlegmatic voice of Miles Roby, who came home from college to take care of his dying mother and was persuaded to stay on as manager of a grill owned by the widow of the town’s largest property owner.
Slow to act, Miles is also slow to perceive that he is being manipulated, as was his mother, by the vindictive Mrs. Whiting, whose husband once loved Miles’ mother, and by his father, a shrewd self-serving parasitic drunkard.
The story gradually reveals to Miles secrets probably known to others in his town and to his brother. There is a dramatic retribution in the end that almost destroys his daughter but results in a healthier relationship of Miles and his family and for the town, long subjected to a wealthy woman’s domination.
Leave a Reply