SOURCE: Montgomery, M. R. “The Brains behind Nobody's Fool.” Boston Globe (26 January 1995): 49, 52.

In the following essay, Montgomery provides an overview of Russo's life, career, and literary concerns and discusses Russo's work on the film adaptation of Nobody's Fool.

Richard Russo, novelist (three published to glowing reviews), educator (much-admired teacher of creative writing at Colby College) and seriously competitive racquetball player at the Waterville Downtown Athletic Club in Maine, is becoming a Famous Writer thanks to a movie. Thanks to the Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy movie, Nobody's Fool, now showing at your local theater and already the subject of Oscar rumors.

One of the burdens of fame is the interview and The Standard Question, which, if you write fiction, is about the similarity between the book and your own life. Recently, at WBZ-TV's cavernous studios on Soldiers Field Road, John Henning of The News at Noon asked The...