Life and Art Audiobook By Richard Russo cover art

Life and Art

Essays

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Life and Art

By: Richard Russo
Narrated by: Richard Russo
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About this listen

A marvelous new essay collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Somebody's Fool and The Destiny Thief

Life and Art—these are the twin subjects considered in Richard Russo’s twelve masterful new essays—how they inform each other and how the stories we tell ourselves about both shape our understanding of the world around us. In “The Lives of Others,” he reflects on the implacable fact that writers use people, insisting that what matters, in the end, is how and for what purpose. How do you bridge the gap between what you know and what you don’t, and sometimes can’t, know? Why tell a story in the first place? What we don’t understand, Russo opines, is in fact the very thing that beckons to us. In “Stiff Neck,” he writes of the exasperating fault lines exposed within his own family as his wife’s sister and her husband—proudly unvaccinated—develop COVID. In “Triage,” he details with heartbreaking vividness the terror of seeing his seven-year-old grandson in critical condition. And in “Ghosts,” he revisits Gloversville, the town that gave rise to the now-legendary fictional town of North Bath, and confronts the specter of its richly populated past and its ghostly present.

Sharp, tender, extraordinarily intimate reflections on work, culture, love, and family from one of the great writers of our time.

©2025 Richard Russo (P)2025 Random House Audio
Art & Literature Authors Essays Haunted Ghost Marriage
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I have enjoyed every thing I’ve ever read by Richard Russo, and these essays do not disappoint. Thoughtful, insightful , funny and heartwarming… he definitely hits all the bases. I absolutely promise, you will love them as much as I did. I don’t often read things twice, but this I know I will…

Phenomenal writing!

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Russo is among my favorite novelists. He shines less brightly as an essayist. When discussing his life, he is repetitive and he perseverates. He is pedantic and a little bit simplistic when discussing art. Nonetheless, there are some gems here that kept me coming back to listen after I took breaks. I still respect Russo and revisit his novels quite often.

Appreciate Russ so as a novelist

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