Sully’s Testament, by Richard Russo: smiling pessimism

It’s not going well. The town of North Bath is more or less bankrupt. It will be encompassed by the neighboring, more prosperous city. There, everyone knows each other. The reader is also on familiar ground, because this Testament closes the trilogy begun by An almost perfect man (1993) et Smart, smart and a half (2016). The ghost of Sully, the hero of the previous two (played on screen by Paul Newman), hovers over the book. At the local bar he has a stool named after him. You only sit there with caution. As soon as a door opens, everyone expects to see him enter the room. When he died, he left his son a list of people to watch over. A heavy task for Peter, who already has his house to renovate in order to sell it and finally leave the place. Raymer, former police chief, is in therapy. An inner voice comments with a sneer on the slightest of his actions. The psychologist asks him a bunch of questions. He wonders if he will succeed in keeping Charice, who was his…