Rating: 
Summary: Good but could have been better...
Review: Russo is an artist when it comes to character development, but the story left me weary when I realized Miles was never going to take full responsibility for his life--sometimes I wanted to shake Miles. Scenes and interchanges between Miles and those who populated his life were hysterical at times and predictable at others.All in all, a good read, but the ending was a bit contrived, too tidy. Russo does a good job painting the "regular joe" who takes life as it comes, and doesn't take life by the throat--a fault we all engender at times. I enjoy the way Richard Russo develops his characters and I found myself caring for all of them, not just the "stars", but even the minor characters were well drawn and loveable. It definitely seemed like a slice of small town America. I would definitely recommend the book and I'll read Russo again.
Rating:
Summary: A Comment on the Duality of Man
Review: Russo's characters were fascinating in that they never seemed to leave the reality he established ...They were intriguing and real, not necessarily elegant, refined, or graceful. This roughness around the edges gave certain situations a realness is especially important in a small town setting. Miles' character was particularly well developed, humorous, and had his personal failures intact. I loved the relationship between the apprehensive Miles and his spontaneous father Max. My objection though is to the ending of the novel. The banality of the small town could've held its own with a subtly dramatic ending. The ending felt contrived, or too meaningful, symbolic, preachy, or something. Overall though, definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: American Life in the Heart of Maine
Review: I liked this novel because Russo gives us real people living tough lives in a dying out American town. You wouldn't find the same kind of people in Russia or France or India. These are Americans, most struggling to make ends meet, having higher aspirations, being disappointed, and coming to terms with their pasts. The main character, Miles, is complex, guileless, and loyal to a fault. You have to like him even though his passivity can make you impatient. And you have to appreciate the dynamic forces at work in everyone's lives. Empire Falls is dominated by a single unpleasant woman who controls the economic life blood of the town, as well as the police. One wonders how many towns are really like this.
I liked the technique Russo uses to cut in and out of the past as it sheds light on the character of the present. Although this is a common technique, he does it well.
What I didn't like was the somewhat simplistic nature of some of the characters, their unpleasantness becoming unpleasant for me to constantly encounter in the text. Also, I did think the ending was too abrupt and "easy," as if Russo wanted simply to get out of Empire Falls and move on to the next project. I must admit, I felt like I'd experienced enough of this town by the last page. It was time to move to another location for this reader.
Nonetheless, it was still worth the visit.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulously Written Characters
Review: "Empire Falls" is definitely worth a read, even if it does get a little NBC Friday Night Drama at some points. Russo knows his characters inside and out, and I found myself truly enthralled in their fictional lives. The book is very easy to play out in your head and the images of this sleepy New England town are quite nice. Russo effortlessly switches between character POV, along with very insightful flashbacks that add up to a very bittersweet ending. While some readers may find the ending inevitable and manipulative, I found it, for the most part, pretty satisfying. The book seems to be going nowhere, and it does, but we get to watch all the wonderful characters at their banal best. Miles is a loveable loser while his daughter goes through a highschool experience not too distant from my own. His relationship with his ex-wife and her new husband is very poignant and funny, but what I liked most of all was Miles' relationship with his father, Max, by far the most entertaining character of the book. At about 500 pages, "Empire Falls" reads like a breeze. I recommend this to anybody who likes to read good books about interesting people in your every day trials and tribulations that every John Q. goes through.
Rating:
Summary: Slow-starting, slow-ending; fast-packed in the middle
Review: Empire falls was a book about a man, Miles Roby, who over about half a year's span had to deal with his life now and especially, his life when he was a kid. He discovered that because of his life twenty years ago, he had trouble being content now. He felt like he was the same person back then as he was in the beginning of the book, which was true and helps to show his true evolution as a person.
Empire falls was overall a very good book. It is a fast read once you get through the first 100 pages, which are a bit boring and hard to follow. But at around that mark, there is a chapter that I consider one of the most fascinating I have ever read. I was so happy everything fit together so perfectly that I ran around my house telling everyone how fantastic this book is. I did not end the book with that same enthusiasm, because of a twist in the end that did not fit in smoothly. But Russo's writing ability compensated for the weaknessof the beginning and ending. He is one of the few writers I have read that writes intelligently, making sure that the reader is not lost( good and plentiful character descriptions).
Rating: 
Summary: I wish the empire had fallen in less words!
Review: I love reading, in fact I often write it down as my favorite hobby. The truth is though, no matter how much I love reading I seem to love procrastinating even more! I wasn't surprised (neither was anybody else who knows me) to find that the last week before school I was still not done with this book (sorry Larry). I don't however believe that reading this novel quickly was the reason that I did not find it "enjoyable" to say the least! I felt that becuase of its INCREDIBLE length the actual story ended up drowned under pages of unecessary words. I don't regret it but I don't recommend it either. If nothing else however at least I can say it didn't fail to show me once again that procrastination should really stop being my #1 hobby!
Rating:
Summary: Empire Falls
Review: "Empire Falls", the story of a blue-collar town making a slow and painful decline into nonexistence, centers on Miles Roby -- a smart, middle-aged man who runs the local diner. As the story progresses, we meet many of the people who inhabit the small town of Empire Falls and who play important roles in Miles' life including his teenage daughter, Tick, his frivolous ex-wife, Janine, and the matriarch of the town, Francine Whiting, whose powerful family has presided over Empire Falls for years. It is the development of these characters and the various relationships between them that prove to be the strong point in this novel. Russo is excellent at writing description and at dropping subtle clues as to the workings of this town and to a character's personality, and it's sometimes easy to forget that these characters are fictional. Russo also allows the reader to occasionally break from Miles' point of view and shifts the focus to characters like Janine Roby and Tick, which lets the reader observe the town from a variety of perspectives.
The tone of "Empire Falls" is humorous and satiric at times, poignant and deeply reflective at others. The various themes and moods projected by the characters in the novel - desperation, falsity, self-deception - really draw the reader in and emotionally involve him or her in the events of the story. The book contains many character flashbacks and memories which were always interesting to read, and which provided clues to an entertaining study on how these people got to be the way they are and how the town in which they live has affected their lives. The only disappointing element in this book, to me, was the ending, which seemed abrupt and unsatisfying, like there was more to be said.
It's probably best to set aside a lot of time to read "Empire Falls" - its length and the various subplots in the story call for thoughtfulness and attention. I read this book as part of an assignment for school and initially wasn't thrilled to read it. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could relate to many of the characters and that the book became more of a pleasure rather than a chore to read. Above all, "Empire Falls" is a lengthy read, but an absorbing -- and rewarding --one.
Rating: 
Summary: a chick book for guys
Review: this is an extremely well written book. the prose is excellent and the characters, along with their thoughts, emotions, and actions, are as well understood as they would be if the reader did indeed know them. a guy who likes mystery stories and enjoys more than just a bit of eroticism in those mysteries, and deems himself above watching a chick movie and reading love stories, and family "stuff", I nevertheless enjoyed this non mystery and non erotic book beyond most I have read for a very long time. I have given it to my wife and suspect she will like it as much as did I.
Rating:
Summary: Empire Falls
Review: This was my favorite novel of the summer of 2001. It was funny and thoughtful and surprising. I read it once and listened to it on tape two more times. It gets better and better. The only down side is I have not found a book I like as well this summer.
Rating:
Summary: Elegance in Simplicity
Review: In dire need to catch up on contemporary letters scene, I purchased Russo's rural epic of small town-Maine. Empire Falls is populated by characters you would expect to find in a town like this - underachiving dreamers like Miles Roby, ignorant hicks like James Minty, mystical moguls like Francine Whiting who seem to be pulling the strings of fate for the less fortunate, insecure but precocious girls like Miles's daughter. The seductive, cunningly written text draws the reader into ordinary lives and makes them care about the characters. To achieve this affect, Russo deployed the multi-perspectival third-person omniscient. This allows him to channel his own multi-faceted meditations through the inner voices of people of various ages, genders, and social stations. Externally, the dialogue is well-written: deadpan funny at times, absolutely touching at others. 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. 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.
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