A story of love, loss, disappointments, broken dreams, and murder, in other words, Mohawk is about real life. It could be in any town, USA, the Grouse’s and the Gaffney’s could be your neighbors, and the Mohawk Grill could be your local breakfast spot. And all the crazy that takes place in the town, the abuse, the infidelity, the misunderstandings, could all be part of life as we all know it in a small town where no one is going anywhere or doing anything significant. A story much like the ones I’m interested in writing whose characters are sad living often hopeless lives.

Mohawk represents, for me, the kind of lives we hope we aren’t living. If nothing else it is a novel that should inspire hope and a willingness to find our path and do what only we can do to make us happy. Many of them seem to have fallen into these lives through no fault of their own. Others can’t seem to get out of their own ways and trouble follows them wherever they go. Richard Russo’s first novel, Mohawk, was written in 1986 and is a novel whose characters you will not soon forget.

I rate "Mohawk" 4 out of 5 stars

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