Thirty years ago and full of hope, on their Cape Cod honeymoon, Jack and Joy Griffin drafted the Great Truro Accord, a plan for their future that's now thirty years old and has largely come true. At the time they were living in Los Angeles, where Griffin wrote scripts that were already losing his interest. He left all that behind for a family life and to teach at the sort of New England college his parents had aspired to. Now the two of them are back on the Cape - where Jack also spent childhood vacations which still cast a long shadow - to celebrate the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. Things look good, even if cracks are beginning to show… Jack’s been driving around with his father’s ashes in an urn in the boot of his car, though his mother’s very much alive and often on his mobile. Laura’s boyfriend seems promising - but be careful what you wish for, especially if there's a chance it could come true. A year later, at her wedding, Jack has a second urn in the car, and his life is starting to unravel. Full of every family feeling imaginable, painfully comic and profoundly involving, That Old Cape Magic is surprising, uplifting and unlike anything this Pulitzer Prize winner has ever written.
That Old Cape Magic
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Review
`the remarkable thing about this novel is its resemblance to real life...superb'
-- The Times
a midlife romcom, written with humour and assurance --Guardian
-- The Times
a midlife romcom, written with humour and assurance --Guardian
Book Description
A wonderful, bittersweet novel about two weddings and a divorce, about parents and the unreliability of family myth and memory, about marriage and the scripts we make of our lives.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A Russo fan for many years i was just a little disappointed by his last "Bridge of Sighs", but "That Old Cape Magic" is a Russo masterpiece; certainly in my top three books of 2009.
Here he excels at what he does best:describing the complex humorous and at times sad inter-relationships of mature highly intelligent, well educated , but like the rest of us sometimes confused folk ; often getting it wrong when it is important to get it right. Any man can not help an outflow of empathy and any woman a similar outflow of sympathy for the leading man, Jack. As i read on i desperately wanted his life to turn out right. This is the brilliance of Russo. In an understated ,softly ,softly way he engrosses the reader in his characters' lives.
Again Richard Russo populates his work with accurate descriptions of fully developed believable people from the highbrow low income academic parents to the endearing ,but not very bright Marguerite [whenever she appeared i could only picture a brighter version of Rose from The Golden Girls]
Cape Cod has and continues to play a huge part in Jack's life as he returns twice in a year under very different circumstances . These two Cape visits are like bookends holding between them a damn fine story of love in several forms, failure and success.
This is a must for Russo fans and would be a fine introduction for newcomers to his work.
Here he excels at what he does best:describing the complex humorous and at times sad inter-relationships of mature highly intelligent, well educated , but like the rest of us sometimes confused folk ; often getting it wrong when it is important to get it right. Any man can not help an outflow of empathy and any woman a similar outflow of sympathy for the leading man, Jack. As i read on i desperately wanted his life to turn out right. This is the brilliance of Russo. In an understated ,softly ,softly way he engrosses the reader in his characters' lives.
Again Richard Russo populates his work with accurate descriptions of fully developed believable people from the highbrow low income academic parents to the endearing ,but not very bright Marguerite [whenever she appeared i could only picture a brighter version of Rose from The Golden Girls]
Cape Cod has and continues to play a huge part in Jack's life as he returns twice in a year under very different circumstances . These two Cape visits are like bookends holding between them a damn fine story of love in several forms, failure and success.
This is a must for Russo fans and would be a fine introduction for newcomers to his work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Russo creates such believable characters, I just love reading his books and sometimes make myself wait to read his books as I know I'm going to love them. This book starts slowy and builds to hilarious set pieces and genuinely moving scenes. I could not put this book down, my only complaint would be it wasn't long enough and I do have a bit of thing about authors who create main characters who are authors (maybe it's just me?).
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By taurus
Format:Paperback
Is Richard Russo capable of writing a book not worth reading? I doubt it. After reading such titles as "Straight Man", "Empire Falls" and "Bridge of Sighs" I am a confirmed fan of this guy. His characterisations are superb with main characters being presented in a slightly flawed state - the type of people you suspect your neighbours to be. The prose is terrific and the storeyline moves like a slow flowing river. No bayou swamps here. Just middle America - more "quiet american" than "ugly american" - presented in a highly readable package.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very enjoyable read
I came across Russo through a Kindle offer of the story Nate in Venice, which I enjoyed very much. Both stories contain just the right amount of literary reference, middle age... Read more
Published 1 month ago by gradese
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it.
This is my second Richard Russo book and I loved it as much as the first (Empire Falls). The characters are rich and wonderful and you honestly can't believe that they are not real... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Varied Read
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cape crisis
The book's title is a twist on the old song `That Old Black Magic'. Whether the fact that Sinatra also performed it as `That Old Jack Magic' at JFK's inauguration, and the novel... Read more
Published 11 months ago by read.heard.seen.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mid-life crisis
Previous Russo novels have taken me into a world in which the 'hero' (for want of a better word) has been fully realised in reference to his personal history and the community in... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Alison McVey
4.0 out of 5 stars
Russo Magic
We used to holiday in Cape Cod when we lived as Brit expats in Montreal so I have an emotional tie to the area. Read more
Published 19 months ago by nickyb
3.0 out of 5 stars
Off his game?
Like at least one other reviewer, I have been a fan of Richard Russo for years. But since Nobody's Fool, each succeeding novel has disappointed me just a little more and I'm sorry... Read more
Published 20 months ago by jannywanny
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very funny novel about late middle age
Intrigued by Richard Russo's memoir in Granta about growing up in New England I went onto read this very funny comic novel set in Cape Cod, California and Maine. Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2010 by J. H. Bretts
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking For That "Happy" Place
I would like to think of Russo as being one of my favorite authors but don't feel qualified to make that statement since this is only the third book I've read by him.... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2009 by Nancy Martin
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