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Title: A fan disappointed
Review: I came to "Mohawk" after reading two other Russo books, "Straight Man" and "Nobody's Fool", both of which I enjoyed tremendously. I truly admire his sardonic wit, sense of the absurd and insightful prose. That said, I found this book, his first, to be a disappointment. Russo's storytelling abilities were not yet as strong, his characterizations weak. In fact, all of the people who populate the town of Mohawk seem to be more archtypes than fully realized individuals. The book is divided in two parts, with a jump in five years, leading to abrupt shifts in focus, inconsistency in character development and some hasty and murky plotting. The second half was just not as interesting to me as the first, and almost seemed like a different book. Russo's rapier-sharp wit is in short supply, as well, which is one of his strongest assets as a writer. Any Russo is better than none, but if you haven't read him, I would stick to the other two aforementioned books.
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