Rating: 
Summary: An English viewpoint
Review: As a follower of literary prizes I was eager to read Russo's book - the winner of a Pulitzer. I have to say that it seems like an strange choice. The prose is pretty unremarkable and Russo takes five pages where one would do! Once I got the idea that nothing was going to happen, that the past was more important to Empire Falls, I enjoyed it.After all, Henry James was the master of that approach (not that Russo can hold a candle to James; then again, not many can). Ironically, it was only when the action began to pick up that the novel came across as false...
Rating:
Summary: The Empire Strikes Out.
Review: At the outset, let me get one thing perfectly clear, Richard Russo is great. Admittedly, his writing style isn't much more than "workmanlike" as previously reviewed - but then again, I'm not expecting high-end, top-shelf, capitol "L" literature every time I crack a spine of a book. I'm genuinely surprised at some of the comments I've read here.That being said, I really wanted to like this book. I really enjoyed "Straightman" despite the problems everyone has mentioned regarding that book's ending. I had hoped that he had learned his lesson, but I was wrong. Nonetheless, I made my way through "Empire". For the most part I really liked this book. The characters are unique and have a great voice. The scenery is as accurate as I can imagine. There are some neat little subplots (if you can call them that), but the ending is near drivel. Fustrating. Shameful. Lousy. I'm left with a mixed review. Had the ending provided me with something substantial - or even if Russo had maintained the status quo with the characters without trying to resolve every last detail - I would have been raving about this book. As it stands, unfortunately, it ends up pretty mediocre....
Rating:
Summary: The jury is out...
Review: On the whole, I found Empire Falls to be an enjoyable book with believably drawn characters, a tangible sense of place, and a delicately woven narrative. On the other hand, I felt that Russo introduced several interesting threads of plot that promised to be insightful, but then let them drift into nothingness without development. There was an incredible amount of conflict jammed into this novel, and while it helped keep the pace in the latter half of the book up to breakneck speed, some of the finer, more delicate points in the story were glossed over. I haven't had this much trouble deciding exactly what I think of a book in a good while, so I credit Russo with writing a thought-provoking, albeit noticeably flawed, work of fiction. I highly recommend the book for group discussion, as there is a ton of material from which to develop thoughts and opinions. While I may have had some issues with the storytelling in general, the characters were absolute jewels. Even those written to be outlandishly annoying had redeeming qualities, and I found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions. I look forward to reading more of Russo's work and would urge booklovers to pick up Empire Falls and decide for themselves exactly what they think.
Rating: 
Summary: Great plot, exquisitely written & every bit a prize winner
Review: "Empire Falls (EF)" deserves to win this year Pulitzer Prize simply because it is so exquisitely written. It isn't particularly deep or weighty in content. Neither does it pretend to offer any profound insights into our human condition. What it does offer is great storytelling on which Richard Russo gets to display the virtues of his craft as a novelist. EF - the title, if you get it, has a double meaning - is full of thwarted and unfulfilled people. People whose lives are filled with regret and compromise because they didn't have the courage to follow their destinies, people who feel they deserve better. This condition doesn't just afflict the struggling or the down and out. Even the Whitings who own half the town cannot escape this curse. Protagonist Miles lusts hopelessly after waitress Charlene but finds himself playing good Samaritan to poor crippled rich girl Cindy who is love with him due to guilt and conditioning by his once-fallen-but-otherwise-saintly mother Grace. Wife Janine wrecklessly risks all for a second chance with Walt, who is long on promise but short on delivery, in retaliation against her dead marriage to Miles whom she despises and regards as a pathetic wimp. Unhappy daughter Tick is saddled with school outcast John when she secretly longs to rekindle a relationship with some boy she met briefly at Martha's Vineyard one summer. Corrupt cop with a complex Jimmy Minty goes out of his way to be hateful to Miles because deep deep down inside he craves Miles' acceptance....and it is this way with the other characters in the novel, except for the unapolegetically bad and incorrigible Max. He would be played by Jack Nicolson in a movie adaptation of EF. The story could easily have degenerated into farce or cheap melodrama. In Russo's expert hands, it is transformed into a tightly structured and compelling tale of human folly that's anchored by equal measures of poignance, humour and truth. Strong characterisation also makes us care deeply about their fate. The novel may be downbeat but never depressing. Russo isn't a pessimist. Even Francine Whiting, the town's black widow, reveals a side to herself nobody would have foreseen. EF is a big novel but you when it ends, you feel you haven't had enough of it. One of the best novels this season and every bit a prize winner !
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book was so good. I had no idea what it was about when I bought it, and once I started, I could not put it down. If you are looking for a really good book to read, then I suggest this one.
Rating:
Summary: A rich novel deserving all its accolades
Review: Richard Russo has written nothing short of a classic. He proves many literary pundids incorrect in the assumption that one cannot have plot and character develoment. Mr. Russo draws the reader into each of his very well thought out characters and the town of Empire Falls, Maine. One thing the author does remarkable well is to make the reader empathize with his characters as each has been well conceived and constructed. His central plot moves along with good pace and the sub-plots are both interesting and, at time, very amusing. The novel's denoument is surprising yet quite believable and ties together an already well woven structure. This is the type of novel that comes along all too infrequently but, once read, will stay with the reader forever. Empire Falls is simply a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent family and small town saga.
Review: This story drew me in from the first page and continued to weave a wonderful story about the human condition, the demise of small town American and fathers and daughter and relationships. Wonderful!
Rating: 
Summary: Russo Falls
Review: I am truly shocked that this book won a Pulitzer Prize. It gives the prestigious award a bad name to be associated with such poor and heavy-handed writing. Russo's style rarely rises above that of a marginally talented high school student, complete with enough melodrama and cliches to make me wince. The title alone says it all - Gee, what is that, some kind of metaphor? Russo's writing is just BAD, it's awkward, it's predictable. Characters are always "suddenly realizing that they had known this all along." He also loves the phrase "it wouldn't occur to X until later that . . . " His characters are one dimensional and uninteresting. The big plot twist shocker is about as hard to spot as a piano falling on your head - I read the whole book hoping that there was something more, that SOMETHING more interesting would lay behind all this tripe. But alas no. If you want to read something witty, but actually clever and well written, try A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Try God of Small Things. Or Jonathan Franzen's brilliant Corrections. For just plain hilarious, Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. But Empire Falls is a waste of time and a waste of a once-respected national award.
Rating:
Summary: A deserving winner of the Pulitzer
Review: When asked what this book was about, I was left describing a very generic storyline about the lives of severl people in a blue collar town in Maine. This book is so much more than that. I couldn't do the book any justice by trying to describe it in a sentence or two. Empire Falls is simply one of the most touching human dramas I have ever read. This book works on so many different levels, it's easy to see why it won the Pulitzer. Some of the many sub-plots include: the heartwarming story of a father's relationship with his teenage daughter and his heartfelt desire for her to have a better life; a mother experiencing a mid-life crisis and trying to recapture a youth she never experienced in the first place; a years-long, unspoken and unrequited love between co-workers; and the ever-maddening, often comic, always tragic relationship between Miles Roby and Mrs. Whiting. At times, the stories Russo relates about these characters made me laugh out loud. A truly spectacular book, one which will forever be one of my favorites of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Nice prose and animal cruelty
Review: I started this book and couldn't put it down but I will never ever read this author again. I felt a little as if I had fallen in the river described in the story and was being carried along. The Pulitzer committee was no doubt themselves swept along by the prose - the writing is mostly wonderful - complex and layered, poetic and thoughtful - what a writer! And were it not for 'scenes' of cruelty to animals & children, I would be a fan of this author. I would be one of those readers waiting to buy and read the next book. But the animal and child cruelty is unnecessary to the story really I think - this writer is so good - as beautifully complex as the other parts of the story are - he could have found other ways (justifications, plot devices)to tell this story. The animal cruelty and the child cruelty were too easy for this author - basically a cop-out. Warning: a chained-up dog is beaten to death, a cat (who has been demonized - pleeez demonizing cats is so predictable) is ultimately stranded in a flood riding on a corpse, drug addict parents leave a child hanging on a door in a bag as a form of babysitting. Ugh. No thanks. Fan of the writing, but won't buy or read - won't spend an evening and afternoon with - this author ever again.
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