Plot summary, “The Risk Pool” by Richard Russo in 4 Minutes - Book Review

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Published on July 8, 2025 10:00:09 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BuFZSbaPbg

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Richard Russo’s The Risk Pool (1988) is a coming-of-age novel set in the fictional blue-collar town of Mohawk, New York. It follows Ned Hall, a boy raised amid the dysfunction of his hard-drinking, unreliable father Sam and his mentally fragile mother Jenny. Divided into four seasonal sections—Fourth of July, Mohawk Fair, Eat the Bird, and Winter—the novel charts Ned’s chaotic upbringing, adolescence spent in bars and gambling halls, and eventual escape to adulthood as a book editor in Manhattan. Darkly comic and emotionally resonant, the story explores family, responsibility, and the long shadow of a troubled childhood.