Empire Falls by Richard Russo Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Empire Falls
Book Review: 60 Is No Magic Number
Summary: 5 Stars
Russo achieves rare depth of character in "Empire Falls." His depictions are so vivid that soon you feel Empire Falls is your own hometown--one you need to get out of. His candid portraits zero in on humanity's frailties and strengths. After a couple of hundred pages, I started to worry that Russo was offering random vignettes as he switched from the daughter to the high school principal to the neighborhood priest and back to Miles, the main character. But Russo writes disciplined fiction which is very much on purpose. Each character's viewpoint is a necessary contribution to the whole. The novel is so beautifully crafted that even when it needed to end, I didn't want it too. Special highlights include Miles' driving lessons (my own were only slightly less traumatic) and Janine's growing disillusionment with her husband-to-be, who is much older than he leads her to believe.Book Review: 85% Wonderful
Summary: 4 Stars
Empire Falls is a nearly wonderful book, a meaty, character-rich novel of the sort it's frequently claims nobody writes (or possibly buys) anymore. The writing is not elegant and occasionally even clumsy, but the book's depth of feeling and sharp, astringent humor more than make up for it.Russo manages the rare trick of making an appealing lead out of a passive character in put-upon Empire Diner proprietor Miles Roby, but even more impressive are Miles' irresponsible father, Max, and soon to be ex-wife Janine. Singularly unpleasant individuals, Russo manages to nonetheless dig deep into each, making their interior lives so vivid that both become nearly appealing. And wrapped abount the town's comings and goings are the machinations of wealthy Francine Whiting, providing a fairy-tale backdrop to the otherwise realistic, slice of life story.
All of this is compulsively readable and tremendously appealing, until a wind-up worthy of an underachieving TV movie. The book here jumps the rails into lurid melodrama, cheapening its characters and their world in an apparent reach for some kind of big finish. All it feels is false.
Empire Falls is a novel well worth reading, but has the author been watching too much cable?
Book Review: A Big Drama for a Small Town
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Russo prepares the reader for what is to be an indepth expoloration of the characters in Empire Falls in the prologue as Francine Robidoux, the intended bride, changes Charles Beaumont Whiting, third generation heir to the textile mill, shirt factory, and seemingly most of the rest of the community into "Charlie" in a heartbeat. Mild-mannered Miles Roby is the main protagonist in this richly crafted tale of life in a small town which has fallen onto perpetual hard economic times. The characters range from the manipulative Francine Whiting, to the hoplessly outlandish drifter Max Roby, father to Miles. Other richly crafted characters are woven into this multilayered story of intrigue, love, and tragedy. As in any good drama there are lightheated comic moments which contrast with the darker forboding and heart rendering moments. The Pulitzer Prize committee did well to pick this story for the 2002 winner.Book Review: A Book For The Times
Summary: 4 Stars
Empire Falls is very much a book of the moment. It has the issues of small town disintegration with the closing of the mill. Divorce and and the choices we make for our children and the horrors and consequences of high school bullying. I liked Richard Russo's writing style but I had a hard time liking the main character Miles Roby who seemed like such a fearful and pitiful creature that it was difficult to sympathize with him. I found myself reading on just for those pages involving Max Roby, Miles' father, who had me laughing out loud. However, the last third of the book was fascinating as many of the book's characters reach a breaking point culminating in a tension filled climax. A nice slice of New England Americana, I give it 3 1/2 out of 5.Book Review: A Breathtaking Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Empire Falls is a superior example of modern American literature not because it delivers a surprising or even unique story, but because it captures so elegantly (albeit dramatically) the tragic sustenance of a collapsed mill town. Russo weaves a web of contemporary issues that strike close to home through a cast of realistic (they don't all have to be likeable) characters. This book is worth any serious readers' immediate attention.