Empire Falls by Richard Russo
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Book Reviews of Empire Falls
Book Review: Russo's Finely Woven Tale Of A Community In Turmoil!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a handful of fiction writers that I consider to be old friends in the sense that I know that in picking up one of their works I can feel comfortable putting myself into their very capable hands, trusting full well that I am off on a comfortable and illuminating ride through the world as they most artfully view it. Thus do I willingly surrender to the words of authors like John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, John LeCarre and Richard Russo without a passing thought, and rarely am I disappointed. My latest such enchantment was with Richard Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "Empire Falls". Here, as with his previous novels like "Nobody's Fool" and "Straight Man', Russo demonstrates his unique ability to conjure an utterly believable and yet enchanting microcosm of the world of ordinary people, struggling through what Henry David Thoreau would describe as the "quiet desperation" of trying to live meaningfully and purposefully in a world not congenial to such strivings.
Russo's main coda here regards the futility of our efforts to overcome our own frailties and limitations, as well as our own self-limiting strategies that so often result in attaching us ever more firmly within the mucky mire of flawed and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships. No one can more memorably convey the mixed blessing represented by friends and family than Richard Russo, and the memorable series of heartaches and disappointments that seem to necessarily trail in the wake of such meaningful emotional entanglements. Herein lies the rub for the protagonist of "Empire Falls", one Miles Roby, ex-husband, son, father, brother and proprietor of the Empire Grill, the local hash and coffee joint. Miles wakes up one morning to find himself stuck indeed. Through what Russo might term the usual catastrophe of working class life, he has been compromised, seduced, and led into a dead end job, managing the local restaurant and longing to reclaim his lost life as a would-be scholar far from the confines and constraints of being a native of Empire Falls.
Russo's stories tend to be sagacious sagas that describe and detail the particulars of working class people, people caught up by both their own frailties and the local social circumstances into a web of forces that they can seemingly neither control nor countenance. Yet they struggle mightily to do just that, and this tale of one man becoming unstuck is at once a history of the effects it has on the town, a detailed look at the associated personalities who both propel and are in turn propelled by these events, and finally is a study in the ways in which their various natures, misadventures, and meaningful orientation toward each other alter the course of the events of their contemporary lives in ways that are both unpredictable, unintended and yet quite fateful. This is a wonderful book, one that will survive over the long term, and one that deserves your reading time and some loving attention. Enjoy!
Book Review: A Pleasure to Read
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll get right to it. I enjoyed Empire Falls from start to finish. I was not enthusiastic when I read the synopsis but since it won a Pulitzer, I thought I'd give it a try.
Richard Russo is a much beloved author and this is the first Russo novel that I have read. Many of the poor customer reviews for Empire Falls seem to be from Russo fans who simply thought it wasn't up to previous works like Straight Man and Nobody's Fool. Additionally, other critics thought the characters are cardboard cutouts. I've not read his other work and feel that the supporting characters are what make this novel so powerful.
The main character of the story is Miles Roby, a good man who's well liked because he has truly good heart. Miles has led a life letting others walk over him. He was a very good student with great potential who spent several years at college before coming back to Empire Falls to be with his sick mother. The plan was to temporarily run the Empire Grill, a modest diner, until his mother passed and then return to school. Twenty years have passed, his mother is long dead and he's still running the Empire Grill. Miles is a very complete, sympathetic, imperfect and at times frustrating character.
Miles really is the straight man in the story as he is surrounded by many vibrant and interesting characters. There's Janine, his ex-wife that's lost [...], hooked up with the local health club owner that everyone dislikes. She's done it mostly for good sex and doesn't care that her new man is an ass. There's Miles' father Max, a relatively harmless scoundrel who simply wants to scam enough money from people to keep himself in beer. He's always taking advantage of Miles and others. There are also a host of other intersting characters in this economically depressed place. It's the little stories, the slight quirks of character, the years of history between the people that make this such an interesting story. It's not just quaint rural stories that happen here as ,especially at the end, things come to a head and surprising events unfold.
From relatively mundane lives, there are great stories and Russo's skill at bringing this out is incredible.
A very powerful character in the story who deserves special mention is Mrs. Whiting, the matriarch of the family who owns most of the town. She's mythical in reputation and feared by all. She runs the town like a queen and has a special interest in keeping Miles under her thumb. She's almost like Sauron in Lord of the Rings in that she sees all and knows all in Empire Falls. In a few rare scenes when Miles speaks to her, it's like he's talking to an Oracle. She seems to know his thoughts and all events surrounding his life. She's a very powerful presence and is a core part of the story.
I simply loved this book and if it's not as good as Straight Man or Nobody's Fool then I can't wait to read them.
Book Review: Touching and Poignant--Read it!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Empire Falls is a wonderful book that succeeds on so many levels.
The characters are well-developed and fully fleshed out. Richard Russo does an excellent job of presenting the interior monologue of the various characters. This allows us insight to each character's thinking and motivation. This device has the result of making even the most evil and malicious characters at least understandable, if not sympathetic--at least on some level. As if Russo was conveying that every mean spirited (or worse) action is a reaction to some bad treatment they received in their past. The best examples of this being John Voss and the policeman, James Minty. (I find this very relativistic, very "liberal" very appealing, although, in "red-state crazy 2000's," it sadly seems to be losing its general appeal).
I particularly appreciated Russo's presentation of the internal dialogue of the main character, Miles Robey. Like so many of us, Miles is a troubled soul, chewing over issues from every possible perspective, and finding a reason to blame himself for all of the troubles in the world. From one point of view, this has paralyzed Miles, who finds himself "languishing" in the decaying small town that his dead mother wanted so much for him to escape. On the other hand, Miles' fate reminds me of an insight from the spiritualist, Louise Hay. To paraphrase, Hay says that if you want to know what you truly want in life, just examine your current circumstance--as everyone gets exactly what they truly want in life.
While perhaps the most pedestrian part of this very excellent book, I found the plot to be adequate to provide the canvas for Russo to present the characters, and their internal dialogues. From the perspective of plot, I did enjoy the few instances (particularly the prologue and epilogue) where Russo changed into a narrative style, and discussed events in the life of CB Whiting, the last male member of the Whiting family that historically "ruled" Empire Falls. CB is long dead before the occurrence of the current day events detailed in the main part of the novel. However, CB's comings and doings give the main part of the novel perspective and meaning.
Finally, I enjoyed Russo's witty, intelligent and often sarcastic style of writing. While the bookjacket states that the book "overflows with hilarity", I think that misleading. Its certainly not a funny book in the "ha-ha" sense; but rather, funny in the sense of reading of the same foibles and weaknesses in the characters that we see--and are embarrassed by--in ourselves; and that, god forbid, anyone else should know that we possess.
Its this poignant universality that I believe is the heart and soul of this truly important and valuable work, and the very best reason for giving it the highest rating and my strongest recommendation.
Book Review: Praise for the Prologue
Summary: 5 Stars
The prologue of this book I found laboring and annoying. I almost---almost---put the book down and didn't pick it up. I was in the mood for something with more grab and pizzazz, and Russo was obviously crafting a story built on a foundation of thorough introspection and quiet character study. Bo-o-o-o-ring, I thought.
Lucky me, I kept reading.
Russo's writing is not fancy. It is not gilded or showy or pristine. But, after reading it, one leaves with the impression of having just seen something achingly gorgeous. It is like the point where you grow up, look at your mother, and realize just what it is that makes her beautiful, even if it is not necessarily her appearance.
The story Russo has here, of Miles Roby and the life he leads (or doesn't lead) in Empire Falls, is not exceptional or dull in the way that any middle-class small town life is exceptional or dull. Things happen, things don't, and life goes on. There are a few moments of excitement (perhaps the wrong word for it), but they are rare, and necessary, and afterwards, they seem less exciting than the change they provoke.
Because Falls is a novel about change and about stasis. You might find yourself, as I did (many, many, many times), wishing that Miles Roby would do something. It is a common trend in American Literature to have protagonists who are ineffectual and who do virtually nothing until it is absolutely necessary, and Miles comes dangerously close to this cliche.
But Russo's prose, as it digs into the minds and hearts and responses of the characters, shows us what is actually going on beneath the days and months of inactivity. And, unlike many authors, his in-depth analyses are not tiresome or dull or heavily weighted exposition. In fact, it is hard to describe what they are. It is like looking at the placid, reflective surface of a river, adjusting your eyes, and suddenly seeing the whole other world of activity beneath the ripples.
Many reviewers and even the book jacket itself laud the humor in the story, and to be fair, there is humor there (I laughed out loud several times), but it is rare. This is a story of poignancy, of people, and of (of course) redemption. And as cheesy as that type of description sounds, the book itself never delves into cheesiness.
As for the prologue, I understood, finally, when I read the epilogue, just what it was about. It was almost the whole story itself. It is a testament to Russo's writing that, when you finish reading his book, you feel as if you have just read three. I hesitate to call it a "brilliant" book, but it is "amazing," "fantastic," "absorbing," "a work of art," and it definitely deserved a Pulitzer Prize.
You should read it. And don't skip the prologue.
Book Review: this is a great book
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read three Russo books, and all three of them have left me stunned. This is mainly due to the author's prowess. His strength is in dealing with the intricacies of a complex novel, shifting positions like a prizefighter. If you have taken any literature appreciation class you might have studied Moby Dick. I can't think of a better author to equate Russo's style to than Melville. He shifted from one character to another as well as writing in a shifting manner that is still inspiring today. Russo, from one chapter to the next explores his characters effortlessly in a similar shifting manner that keeps the story constantly fresh. Empire Falls is different than Straight Man or Nobodies Fool, the other two books of his that I have read. With Empire Falls, Russo steps back from his protagonist a little more than in the other two, wrapping the entire town into his tale, including it as if it were a character as well. Also, in comparison to the other two books that I mentioned above, a grand sweeping arc of time is considered in this book, which makes this feel like an epic instead of the intimate nature of the others. What occurs is that the result is nothing other than the author showing his mental muscle. But this is not done in a brash or egotistical manner. He steps into a new cadence, a different sense of humor, and a narration style that is tuned to a perfection not better than, but different than his other works.
From the moment I put down the first of his books that I read a couple of weeks ago, I have been struck by the idea that I have been taken on ride by a master of his craft. Of the thousands of books I have read in my adult years, only a few other authors have maintained such a sure sense of perfection over every work they wrestled with. The only other author that comes to mind with a skill approaching Russo's is John Fante, with who book after book the author will leave you in awe.
I like to find either small or large issues with in a stories plot to quibble with, and in Empire Falls, the only aspects that deign a mention are that the silent character Tick, the daughter of the protagonist, befriends is very underdeveloped, I thought that Russo might have had his reasons for doing so, but that the portrayal of this character in such a manner was underwhelming and safe rout to follow by Russo. The lack of development does make sense in that the character is essential to the surprise in the end, but I feel that this person was very very thin. Also, several plot threads are left ultimately unresolved.
But those are minor quibbles, read this book, enjoy and then relish what a well-crafted novel this is.