Empire Falls by Richard Russo
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Book Reviews of Empire Falls
Book Review: This is a truly awsome book.
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Russo has evolved into our greatest living American novelist because his books speak to a deep human longing for stories. He writes the kinds of books that you simply cannot put down. Russo's books are compulsively readable. He writes very big books that that read like small books. You keep telling yourself as you read "just one more chapter" only to reach its end and be driven on, "just one more." Soon you've read roughly 500 pages and realize you haven't slept in two days.Russo is a master at weaving a portrait of blighted small-town life, his aim is much deeper-especially in this novel as compared to earlier works. "Empire Falls," like Russo's earlier novels, is about a small-town blue-collar world, where people are left trying to make a life out of just getting by. "Empire Falls" Is not nearly as funny as his last book, "The Straight Man" (which page for page may well beat "Catch-22" for laughs and manic intensity), or as idiosyncratic as, say, "Risk Pool" or "Nobody's Fool" but "Empire Falls" penetrates deeper than any of Russo's previous novels.
Miles Roby is at the heart of this intricately told tale. Miles is a genuinely good guy, too good, at times, for his own good. Miles left college after his second year to care for his ailing mother, but never returned. Against everything she wanted for him he remained in Empire Falls, ultimately running the Empire Grill -- a greasy spoon that serves as a window into life in the town. His main goal at this point it to do for his daughter what his mother wasn't able to convince him to do-get out of town in one piece to create a new future elsewhere, beyond the overwhelming, entrapping influence of Empire Falls.
The characters that move in and out of the Empire Grill are reminiscent of Russo's earlier characters, especially the ne'er-do-well but amusing father, a staple of his fiction. The troubles, hopes, and joys are those of small town life, by turns hilarious, disappointing, and downright sad. This is far and away Russo's best piece from an ensemble point of view-all of the secondry characters benefit from extraordinarily rich character development and, obviously, were drawn with real affection and feeling on Russo's part.
Miles is living a dutiful life that is not of his own choosing. Busy being the good son, brother, husband, father, employee and friend, Miles' life has ineluctably been driven on by other people's demands, even by their hopes and dreams. It's not just the bittersweet recognition that life doesn't turn out as we imagine it; it's that Miles can't quite remember what he once imagined, what his longings once were.
Russo's story, dipping into the past to illuminate the present, is Miles' search for the truth writ small -- in the details of his own life, in the history of Empire Falls, in his own wry, intricate, often hilarious musings about his life in particular on Empire Falls in general. It is truth on a small scale, which is the kind of truth in the end that matters most to us as individuals. It shapes our lives and gives them meaning.
Russo shows us a world where the good guys don't always win, where the petty slights of life reek destruction in cruelty and meanness. It's a palpable reminder that we are capable of evil. But it is just as surely a reminder that we are capable of goodness. In Russo's able hands, the achingly personal becomes deft social commentary. That's an all the more astonishing achievement, because it reads, purely and simply, like a good story.
This is a truly awesome book.
Book Review: Epic Book on A Small Town Scale
Summary: 5 Stars
Words that describe the book: Small town life
3 Settings where it took place or characters you met:
1. Setting: Empire Falls, Maine, not too long ago but not present day
2. Miles Roby--The quintessential "nice guy," Miles has been working at the Empire Grill for more than 20 years--a fact that would have killed his mother Grace if she hadn't died of cancer years before. Divorced and still pining for his long ago crush, Miles's life centers around his daughter Tick, whose passage through high school is anything but easy.
3. Francine Whiting--The richest woman in town, Francine Whiting seemingly controls every aspect of town life. Yet her interest in Miles seems to go beyond casual--causing Miles to look to his past to find out what binds the Roby and Whiting families together.
4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:
1. I liked how Russo takes his time developing the characters. Although the story is told primarily through Miles's eyes, we also get to know his ex-wife Janine, Tick, his brother David, his father Max, his neighbor and nemesis Jimmy Minty and a host of other residents who populate the town. My personal favorite was Miles's father Max, who was so laughably awful and foul and direct that you just gotta love him.
2. I liked how Russo lets the story develop slowly before letting it rip loose. At points, I wasn't sure if anything was going to happen or if the book was simply a portrait of small town America. In many ways, the book was like a roller coaster. There is a slow steady upward climb until you reach the top of the hill and come flying down the other side, dizzy from the speed and twists and turns.
3. I liked how Russo weaves several plot lines together to create a rich tapestry of stories. We explore Miles's childhood and his mother's secrets, Tick's difficulties at school and her attempt to reach out to a troubled boy, and the tragic story of Francine Whiting's daughter Cindy. Interwoven with these primary story lines are countless little moments that bring into focus the other residents of the town.
4. I liked the depth and breadth of the book. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002, and I think it is worthy of the honor. In many ways, it is an "epic" novel that keeps it focus tightly on one little town while demonstrating that every small town and every regular person has a story worth telling.
5 Stars or less for your rating?
I'm giving the book 4.5 stars. Give yourself time to read this book; it isn't a book to be rushed through. Be patient as you get to know the residents of Empire Falls and learn their stories. You'll find the the characters will stay with you long after reading. And unlike many "important" prize-winning books, Empire Falls is very readable, accessible and understandable. It is filled with sadness, humor, love, passion, hate, selfishness and all the other emotions that make up all of our lives. The fact that I can recall almost all of the characters names and the plot lines without looking them up even though I read the book at the beginning of January should tell you something!
Book Review: This is Dreiser-like pictorial of Americana [P]
Summary: 5 Stars
Only an author who does extensive writing, and rewriting, mixed with thorough research and has a flare for impressive dialogue could make an account of rust-belt-like environment of the bitterly cold small town northeast seem like an idyllic place for modern fiction. And, Russo has made a living making such novels with great success over the past decade or two.
Among the novels, most critics consider Empire Falls to be best. After all, it won the Pulitzer and achieved the name recognition status for the author which the other novels did not. And, after reading this book, I would have to assume the others could not reach the heights met in this novel - but this is mere conjecture by someone who has not read the "other" novels.
Children in this book are deemed cute little monsters who not too coincidentally mimic the character of their parents and grandparents, who everyone in the tiny town of Empire knows as generations upon generations have maintained residence in the Maine habitat where the shirt factory and other established factories assured income for their parents and grandparents. Now, times are different, and maybe the children are as well.
Americana -- the essence of this novel, is not all about the great American dream. Well outnumbering those dreams are nightmares. Only the tip of the iceberg of the population sees the roads paved with gold. That was taught to us by Theodore Dreiser, and we are reminded of the same by Russo in this and other novels dealing with towns living through the closing of the town's industry.
In the middle, we are somewhat forewarned of the dirty faces of the children: "The woman made no secret of her opinion that teenagers belonged in institutions for the criminally insane, from which they should not be released until the word `cool' had been purged from their vocabulary." In fact, one teenager in the book should have been imprisoned in such fashion, but little else will be said as that can only ruin the potential reader's element of surprise.
The detail in the paragraphs is indicative of the extremely structured regimen the author encounters daily: write a few pages, revise a few pages - all after morning coffee and maybe breakfast (in a place like the diner in this book) after a short walk. The tightly knit literature displayed here is thorough but not excessive. It is complete, without wasting letters for such detail. This is why it won the Pulitzer.
After having lived in such an environment, I would only relay that the vast majority of teenagers sought to get away from the imprisonment and stifling air created by factory employment. But, ultimately, to stay near family and friends, and being a small town person from the start, one has little other opportunities. In the end, the majority have their lives gravitate to such companies, and when the same close, the result is to have the familial relationship endure or all else becomes suddenly hopeless. To an extent, that is precisely what is displayed in this book.
Book Review: A most important American Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book for so many reasons and have thought long and hard about how I could possibly do it justice in the space available for a review here at Amazon. Instead of writing a review, I think I will do something unconventional and post an excerpt from an e-mail conversation I am currently having with my mother (I'm 31, she's 56) regarding this book. This, I think, says a lot about why I enjoyed this book so much, so give it a chance ...am thrilled that you are enjoying Empire Falls. I haven't always had the best of luck when recommending authors to you (remembers Thomas Pynchon and The Crying of Lot 49) and when you said that the book was longer than you might have liked that made me a little nervous too. I am glad it has grabbed you so strongly!
You said you identified with Miles in Empire Falls and asked if I did to. You bet I did, on a number of levels. He is a very 3 dimensional character, and definitely dynamic as well, and I think lots of people can identify with him too. He is wonderfully realized by Russo, I think.
One of the things I love about Russo's style is that he is so vivid, and brilliant images (or drab, I suppose, shabby, in this case) pop so readily into your mind. I feel like I have been to all the places he describes. You mentioned how sad it is seeing a small town from afar, and how Russo magnifies that sensation. Kelli comes from a small town, that I think strongly resembles Empire Falls, though in a much more Midwestern model. Forest City is dominated by two powerful companies, most heavily by Winnebago which is headquartered there, and to a less extent by 3M which has a major distribution center there as well (incidentally that is where Kelli's dad Rick works, and where her mom Kim worked for most of Kelli's childhood). Much of Forest City seems to have been built by or funded by Winnebago ... they built the "airport," the major park and seem to have their hands in most public improvement in the last quarter of the 20th century. Yet the 80's were a very hard decade of Winnebago, and like Empire Falls, the fortunes of the city ebb and flow with the fortunes of its leading industry. So Forest City has a deteriorating downtown where at least a third of the businesses are boarded up, and I find driving through the town very sad. This is a town that had a heyday, in the 1950's it appears, and its remnants are everywhere. Kelli hates it when I say things like that because she feels like I am running down her town. I don't have a frame of reference, having no place to consider "home" in that sense.
I definitely agree with you that Empire Falls has a double meaning. And the "Empire" falls hard in several ways. More than that I won't say, not knowing how far you are into the book.
You mentioned feeling at first that it was a book intended for juveniles. He is much like Hemmingway, I think, in how the latent simplicity of his writing belies much deeper and more complex subtexts. Russo's writing is very rich. This was one of the books I discovered while looking at the Pulitzer Prize winners of the last 50 years.
Book Review: Write Locally, Think Universally.
Summary: 5 Stars
Empire Falls is a wonderful book I had purchased because I was completely in the dark on contemporary literature. Going low-risk, I bought into its Pulitzer Prize Hype. The prose is pure and extremely seductive in its simplicity; this is one of the most facile yet shrewd narratives that I have ever read.The story is a provincial epic of Empire Falls, a small Maine town full of people you'd be likely to find in such a town. Promising but underachieving romantics like Miles Roby, a grill manager who never quite made it out. Thrash like Jimmy Minty, a corrupt cop and a bully, perpetuating the cycle of stubborn male ignorance in his family. Mystical blue-blood puppermasters like Francine Whiting, an aging woman whose power and life energy seem to be eternal. Tick Roby, a precocious but insecure teenage daughter of Miles. And many, many more in this ensemble piece.
Reviews of this book have described the prose as 'deceptive.' Not a bad descriptor considering what Russo manages to do: deliver a life's worth of his own meditations and concerns through characters of various genders, age groups, and social statuses. By employing his third-person omniscient in a multi-perspectival flow, Russo gives us a deeper understanding of the often exploited supporting casts. Consequently, we get a better idea of how people become (or remain) who they are, what motivates them to change, and the limitations of human capacity for self-improvement.
Who we are is decided not only by our own will-power, but by other people: young, dear, rich, old, powerful, hateful, debased. It is also decided by circumstances, birth, religion, and social attitudes.
One deep theme in the book is the passive personal perdition that gets lost in the sands of time. Things like ambition, love, and happiness are forgotten somewhere along the line when individually mild, but ultimately consequential compomises are made. Russo explores the human basics - spirituality, lust, envy, fear, anger, irrationality, failure, impotence, frustration, greed, power, hate, insecurity, et al. He is interested in what makes us who we are and memory - omniscient introspective chapters figure into the narrative between the progressing plot.
Russo's literary touch is grounded in realism, and he is masterful in alternating between deapan conversational humor and touching affection in relationships. Russo's narrator is obsessed with memory and the past, moving carefully between memory and unfolding life, properly quoting Fitzgerald and closing with something of a tribute to the great author. He tackles family ties, love, parenthood, faith, ambition, cruelty, greed, anger and angst with the help of his colorful crowd of townspeople. Russo proves that some authors have not lost the ability to be simple and profound.
The conclusion, perhaps striving for a neorealist unreconcilability, is somewhat unwieldy considering the gargantuan effort the author put into his buildup and characterizations. Overall, however, this book stands out as proof that simple stories are richer for good writing. The mighty pen exalts the unexceptional.