Richard Russo (1993)
While composing last year’s Best Books list, I was in the middle of reading this book and predicted that it would make the cut for my ’95 list. I was right. Even if you’ve seen the film starring Paul Newman, I highly recommend that you revisit Sully and his buddies in the snowy cold of Upstate New York. Sully is not much of a father, a building contractor or an upstanding citizen, but somehow everyone he knows comes to rely on him. The character, as written in Russo’s wonderfully entertaining style, rings true and the situations that he, his dimwitted best friend and his newly rediscovered grandson get into are laugh-out-loud-funny.
2 Things @ Once 
I too enjoyed _Nobody’s Fool_. As I was reading it, I couldn’t help but picture Jack Nicholson playing the part of Sully. In fact, to me, the rascally Sully *was* Jack Nicholson. This idea popped into my mind, spontaneously and unbidden. In fact, I expected everyone who read the book to have the same idea. A short survey proved me wrong. That puzzled me because I was convinced that the choice of Nicholson would be obvious to everyone. So I was a bit disappointed when Paul Newman was chosen to play Sully in the movie. Even though I love Paul Newman, it seemed to me that he portrayed Sully in a quiet, low-key manner. I had pictured Sully as more of a lively and lovable rascal. To this day, I wish that I could see how Jack Nicholson would play Sully. I’m still looking for someone to agree with me. (g) -Terry