Rating: 
Summary: intimate look at life in a small town....
Review: Empire Falls is a factory town that is struggling just to survive. It is populated with a complete cast of individuals that Richard Russo has created in intimate detail. The people are so well defined and at the same time, so far "out there" that they are fascinating to watch as they bob and weave through their lives. It is a challenging look at the manner in which people approach life. Some embrace everything as an opportunity and delight in it all, others embrace everything and yet are constantly dissapointed. For some, happiness is a simple life and for some, they are so busy grabbing anything in reach, that they can not even identify what it is that they are really searching for. A few grab at nothing, assuming that life has nothing to offer and therefore they make no effort at all. Russo delves into the importance of identifying what it is people want to achieve and why, and then setting real goals. Russo also displays an amazing ability to create the realistic, rough, give and take of emerging relationships, particularly between teenagers and parents, as the teenager stretches toward adulthood. The effects of parents on their children's future, the influence they inadvertently wield, even when they don't intend too is all too revealing.
Russo creates an intimate look into the lives of those in a small town who believe that their choices are limited or non-existent and balances these against those people who find a true joy in life, no matter the circumstances.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and overwritten
Review: This book has some memorable characters, but suffers from repetitive writing and awkward metaphors.
The main character, Miles, is forgettable, but his daughter, Tick, and mother, Grace, steal the show. A late-developing plot about an antisocial classmate of Tick's seems like it comes from another book, admittedly, a book where something actually happens instead of people sitting around talking and whining about their lost opportunities in life. And it's never hinted at why Miles married his wife or why his mother married his father.
Rating: 
Summary: Best book in a long time
Review: This was the best book I've read in a long time. I loved the story, the characters, the humor. Actually, I really loved everything about it and I was sorry when I finished it. Athough it was a little slow, it was well worth it. I look forward to reading Russo's other books.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully crafted, great reading
Review: After I finished this novel I realized that the plot wasn't really much at all, but the characters were woven together with plot so beautifully that the more I got into it, the more I cared. There is at least one stand-alone part (you'll recognize it when you get there) that is so laugh-out-loud funny you'll want to share it with others. More important, this is a story made up of people who seem real. You care about them. You want to know what happens to them. I really enjoyed them. I'm glad it won the Pullitzer. Richly deserved. Prizes might put some people off, but this is not a critic's novel, this is a reader's novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Story, Movingly Told
Review: I find myself wondering what I can add, considering there have already been more than 250 customer reviews for this book in its various editions. I'm a confirmed fan of Richard Russo's and had read all his books but this one, even including the newer collection of stories, 'The Whore's Child'; yet somehow this one had passed me by. It was only when I posted my review of the story collection that I realized I'd missed one - and a Pulitzer prize-winner at that! I wish to make only three points about this book, and about Russo; obviously there is little else I could add to the previous reviews: 1. Russo is a master plot constructor and this is very much in evidence here. All the pieces fall together and one realizes only afterwards that some odd little observations or passing comments turn out to be important to the plot. I like it when a writer can sow tiny seeds of plot that later come into full flower. 2. Russo is also a master at character description and development. I won't elaborate except to say that there are, by my quick count, at least ten characters in this book that are original, fully rounded and instantly recognizable as real and true to life. Even his minor characters - the reporter for the Empire Falls paper, for instance, or the principal of the high school - are not stereotypes. A major factor in this is Russo's great heart. He loves his characters, even the 'bad' ones. 3. Russo is a perceptive psychologist. The motivations and actions growing out of his characters' experiences and inner lives seem true, even inevitable, and I say this as a psychiatrist with almost forty years experience of listening to people's secrets. This book will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: this book is outstanding. to begin with, it is one of the best descriptions of small town life that you can come across. the myriad array of characters is sometimes difficult to keep up with, but the way they all have past grudges with one another and are unable to stay out of each other lives is spot on. also, the double meaning implicit in the title is present throughout book. russo manages to make day-to-day interactions carry a symbolic weight that leaves you mulling over dozens of passages. it also makes you laugh out loud because of the hilarious back-and-forth banter. it begins with an opening anecdote, twinged with a cynical sense of humor, about the manufacturing magnate whiting family who opened a textile mill in empire falls, maine in the 19th century. the story itself takes place after the decline of the mills leaves the city almost abandoned (hence the title), but the tortured whitings end up playing a key role in the events of story, making a suspenseful novel out of boring, sleepy town. the conclusion artistically ties it all together. don't miss this book, a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult to get into
Review: This novel is about the hopes, dreams, and desires of people who are trapped in a small town. Like other reviewers, it took me a while to get into this novel because not much happens. This novel is more of a psychological examination of the people living in a small town than it is a plot-driven thriller. My biggest problem with the story is that it lacks strong characters that you would want to root for. The protaganist is Miles Roby, who at age 42, foresakes his dreams of a better life elsewhere and stays in charge of Empire Grill, hoping that some day, it will be bequeath to him. Miles attempts to rationalize the reasons he stayed in Empire Falls even when he's unhappy doing what he does. Along the way, he helps paint a church, got into disagreements with his estranged father, finalized a divorce, took care of his daughter, reminicsed about his childhood and dead mother, and got into fights with his childhood nemesis. There isn't much action to speak off until the last 50 pages where I thought it took blatant advantage of recent events that were infesting schools in America. I won't give away the ending, but read this novel if you enjoy excellent prose and learning about how lives are lived in a small town.
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Summary: Couldn't put this down.....
Review: This book was recommended by a friend. I will love her forever!The characters, especially Miles, could be in any small town in America, and Empire Falls could be any small town. They, the characters, are very real. The situations the characters found themselves in seem so true-to-life that I found myself laughing aloud many times. I read Russo's "Nobody's Fool" and this is far and away a better read. I was genuinely sorry to see it end.
Rating:
Summary: Charming but a bit slow moving...
Review: I am not one to keep reading a book that has lost my interest, and I almost stopped reading "Empire Falls" because, it certainly isn't action packed. But based on the reviews I read here I kept at it. The pace did quicken about 1/3 way through, and I started to enjoy the "Northern Exposure"-esque quirky characters and dialog. But the tragic twist near the end just put me off. There's too much of THAT kind of violence in reality (I won't give it away but the other readers will know what I'm referring to) and it just didn't seem to fit with the 80% of the story I had previously read. Anyway, it wasn't a waste of time but it wasn't that great either. I appreciate Russo's style but the story just wasn't that enjoyable for me.
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Summary: More, Please, Mr. Russo
Review: What a wonderful book with wonderful character development. It is easy to feel for almost all of these characters, even the antagonists, on some level. The character of John Voss is exteremely timely in today's worlld...we see far too many children like Voss who don't snap; yet some do, as we all know too well. Another reader called us "misled" by his character, but isn't that the way it really is? Don't we always hear just that "he was a quiet boy who got picked on a lot?" Russo is a fabulous writer. This is the first book of his that I have read, and I will start "Straight Man" next.
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