In the last part of his trilogy, the American writer continues a portrait of a small town.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday. For three long days, in a town in New York State, we meet, we love each other, we hate ourselves. The modest North Bath will be annexed by the rich Schuyler Springs. In “Le Testament de Sully”, everything starts from a corpse discovered in an abandoned hotel on Saturday, at the edge of the two American cities. The investigation begins. Doug Raymer, a former North Bath police chief, was replaced by his partner: Charice Bond became the first black woman led a police station in Schuyler, north of Albany. The place where everyone crosses is the decati coffee of the Horse, in North Bath. Sully Sullivan, now dead, occupied a stool there. “The Testament of Sully”, the third part of a trilogy on deep America, takes over “an almost perfect man” (1995) and “in Malin, Malin and a half” (2016). Richard Russo, born in 1949 in the United States, talks about transmission.
Peter Sullivan, the son of Sully, is a university professor. He is back in North Bath to manage the heritage of his dead father: a house to renovate to resell it, savings, a list of people on which you have to watch. The unworthy son wishes to leave as quickly as possible to resume the course of his life, far from the Moribonde North Bath. We will manage without him. He remembers that Toby Roebuck had supported his blood red nail on his heart to question him: were there feelings in there? One day, Thomas Sullivan, the son of Peter, reappears, like Peter Sullivan, the son of Sully, had resurfaced one day. Fathers and sons have accounts to settle. Because their links are marked by resentment, broken homes, abandonment. Peter Sullivan did not see Thomas Grandir. The drifting boy was raised in Virginia-Western by his mother.
Richard Russo excels in dialogues
Portrait of a small working -class town in free fall. The author of the “decline of the Whiting Empire” (2002, Pulitzer Prize) recounts gentrification, racism and misogyny, modernization. Richard Russo excels in dialogues, human interactions, secrets. The emotion manifests itself by tiny sharp spikes, immediately disappearing in the fog of the landscapes. A man alone in a cafeteria realizes that we can live with doubts, but not with certainties. The different characters understand each other mirrored each other. In a short scene, we discover that Sully Sullivan told each of his relatives, before dying, a list of people to protect. His son, Peter, appears on one of them. Time has done his work. If a lot has disappeared, there remains a lot to rebuild. The novels of Richard Russo all evoke, in one way or another, which remains to be repaired.
Are there feelings in there? When young Thomas Sullivan smiled, a black tooth had appeared. A fleeting vision. The father had a broken heart. “The testament of Sully” revolves around the idea of inheritance: debts, guilt, donations, repairs. What owns the living to the dead? Live. Sully Sullivan was used to saying, “Do something, anything. If it doesn’t work, try something else. He had fought during the war and he learned that indecision is the worst thing. The return of peace had strengthened his philosophy made of actions, errors, attempts, start -ups. He despised “chair theories”. Only one way seemed to him worthy of being taken: the experience of life.
“The Testament of Sully”
© DR
“The testament of Sully”, by Richard Russo, ed. The round table, 550 pages, 24 euros.
