That Old Cape Magic
Wry humor and middle-aged meditation give flavor to Richard Russo鈥檚 novel about two beach-side weddings.
Encountering Richard Russo at the beach is like finding a moose sunning himself in the tropics. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author (鈥淏ridge of Sighs鈥�) has become synonymous with dying Northeastern towns, such as those chronicled in his novels 鈥淣obody鈥檚 Fool鈥� and 鈥淓mpire Falls.鈥�
And yet, as That Old Cape Magic opens, hack-screenwriter-turned-颅college-professor Jack Griffin is heading across the Sagamore Bridge. As he journeys to a wedding, Griffin remembers other summers as the only child of warring English professors, for whom their vacations symbolized the life they were supposed to be leading.
Instead of fighting over Jack, his parents 鈥� who were candid about their dislike of kids 鈥� fought for sole possession of Cape Cod. Griffin tried to fashion a life as far from their ideal as possible (hence the Hollywood screen gig), but his wife, Joy, points out that he鈥檚 nonetheless managed to pick up the worst traits of each of his parents 鈥� both of whom remain close at hand.
His mother, a virago seething with enough vitality to take over the novel, calls him constantly. 鈥淎ttempting to corner her was like trying to put a cat in a bag; there was lways an arm left over and, at the end of it, claws.鈥� And his dad is a passenger in his car. At least his remains are: Jack鈥檚 had his urn rattling around in his trunk for almost a year. (Apparently, metaphorical baggage is no longer enough.)
The plot unfolds at two weddings: one on the Cape; the other at a seaside town in Maine. But most of the novel takes place inside Griffin鈥檚 head, and the tone is caught somewhere between comedy and tragedy 鈥� rather like middle age itself.
Griffin is like a less- accident-prone version of Hank Deveraux Jr., the English professor in Russo鈥檚 academic comedy, 鈥淪traight Man.鈥� (I鈥檝e always had a soft spot for the novel, in which, while in pursuit of anarchy, Hank manages to embroil himself in disasters involving ceilings, spiral-bound notebooks, and a duck.) Both men are completely blind to their own motivations, and neither functions very well without his wife. While 鈥淭hat Old Cape Magic鈥� lacks the farcical energy of 鈥淪traight Man,鈥� Russo still manages to get in a few set pieces, such as Griffin鈥檚 aborted attempt to scatter his dad鈥檚 ashes at sea and a wedding fiasco involving a wheelchair-bound guest and a yew hedge.
Few novelists exude as much wry compassion as Russo. That 鈥� as well as his dependably elegant writing 鈥� should carry fans past some of Griffin鈥檚 navel-gazing. 鈥淟ate middle age, he was coming to understand, was a time of life when everything was predictable and yet somehow you failed to see any of it coming.鈥�
Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor.