That old Russo magic

Suddenly it was as if his dead parent, his living one, his old profession and his boyhood self were all clamoring for attention.

Richard Russo, That Old Cape Magic

Never mind not being able to go home again, there are so many of us who are unable to ever leave home in the first place. Or perhaps more accurately, our childhood home, our parents, our youthful experiences (especially the more traumatic ones) never leave us.

Such is the case with 57-year-old Griffin, the central character in Richard Russo's 2009 novel That Old Cape Magic. His life is in a state of upheaval. He is separated from his wife, his daughter is getting married and he has yet to decide what he really wants to be when he grows up. Does he prefer to be a Hollywood screenwriter, less secure but more exciting, or a college professor like his parents?

Even after death, his parents seem to want to dominate his life. For a long time he carries his father's ashes in the trunk of his car, then his mother dies and her ashes join them. Both wanted their ashes spread on Cape Cod, though in separate locations, but Griffin can never seem to find the right spots for them. Perhaps, despite spending his entire adult life trying to stay away from them, he doesn't really want to part with them.

His snobbish parents both taught at a college in Indiana, but each summer they would take their son to Cape Cod, where they could pretend to possess a higher social status than they ever actually achieved. His mother in particular thought they deserved to be professors at some Ivy League school, or almost any college on the East Coast. Being stuck in Indiana seemed shameful to her. But at least they could vacation on Cape Cod and enjoy what they called "That Old Cape Magic."

Does the Cape have any magic left for Griffin? Can he leave his parents behind, both literally and figuratively, and confront his current problems as a grownup?

Russo, as usual, uses wit to address serious human issues, making a reader laugh between the tears, or cry between the laughs, whichever the case. There's a wedding rehearsal dinner that turns into a disaster worthy of a Laurel and Hardy movie. His various characters are wonderfully drawn, so real you can almost see them. This is a novel that itself contains a bit of magic.