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Summary: COME VISIT EMPIRE FALLS
Review: THIS WAS A GREAT BOOK.... LIFE IN EMPIRE FALLS AT TIMES COULD BE VERY SAD, AND THEN VERY QUICKLY IT COULD BE LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY. RICHARD RUSSO'S CHARACTERS CUT RIGHT TO THE HEART...WELL WORTH READING....
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Summary: Empire falls
Review: Empire Falls by Rich Russo is great book about the struggles of present day characters in a decayed mill town in Maine. Russo does a fine job bringing the reader into the tone and texture of each. Descriptions of conversations between Miles, the main character -owner/manager/cook at the empire grill and each of his customers strikes you as real enough to smell the bacon and want to slap the local deputy, Mr. Minty smack across his chops. Miles is the anti-hero, everyday smo, seemingly stepped on by the grills and Mills owner, rich Ms. Whiting, his ex-wife - Janine, his Dad -Max and just about everybody else. Like that character George Bailey in the old film "It's a wonderful life", things seem to get worse every page for old Miles until an absolute catastrophe effects and will absolve all the trivial things he has experienced in life to date. Featuring great character development and dialog Empire Falls is worth a weekend read but don't give in three forths of the way through as this book has a killer ending. It leaves you hoping that more of those mill towns had or have heroes like Miles, eccentrics like his Dad and masterful if not outright diabolical women like Mrs. Whiting.
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Summary: Like a Letter from Home
Review: If you're a fan of Russo--which means if you're a fan of childhood angst, parental squabbling, remarkably colorful characters who happen to hang around diners, taverns, and, in this case, "rectums" (the church rectory)--then you're back home with one of America's best teller of tales. To read Russo is to get that proverbial Letter from Home. Does he take the reader where the reader's never been? Probably not, some will think, because many of the characters and settings are oh-so-familiar. But don't be nobody's fool here..there is enough humor, enough insight, and enough pathos to keep you turning page-after-page. This is a great read. And you can almost see the Hollywood guys casting this film ...
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Summary: Classic Russo--small town, complete characters
Review: I loved this book tremendously until the last 50-100 pages. The end seemed rushed to me, as if he had an editor that was after him to "wrap it up." Beyond that, the characters, in my opinion, were fully realized and intersting. That is, after all, the trademark of a Richard Russo novel. I loved Tick and her dead-on descriptions of high school. Miles was great, and I found his indecision or inaction to be so typical of people I have known. I even loved Janine, the ex-wife, so determined to have her life her way that she seems insensitive to everyone else. Everyone has good and bad points to them; hence they are real. Having grown up in an area similar to the description of Empire Falls back East, I always relate to the settings in Russo's novels, and this one was no exception. I thoroughtly enjoyed the book.
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Summary: I'm glad for this book
Review: Straight Man was not Richard Russo's novel. The characters were funny, but you could tell the book was written out of some dark place, without the affection and respect for characters that we've seen in Mohawk, The Risk Pool, and Nobody's Fool. I'm glad to be back on familiar ground, no matter how dingy and sad, where Russo can show us something noble and real while setting up some of the most funny situations in today's literature. This book is one of those that you wish would never end (though, you might wish it didn't end the way it does, even if it couldn't end any other way). I'm looking forward to 4 or 5 years from now when Russo puts out his next one. I just hope it's one about people he respects and even admires like those who live in Empire Falls. I know that he's working more in Hollywood these days, and it would be a shame if he instead wrote another Straight Man, dealing this time with directors, producers, and stars, rather than the people who really deserve his attention.
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Summary: Plodding disappointment from a great writer.
Review: I thought Straight Man was one of the best books I had read, so I had high hopes for Empire Falls. But here the subtlety is gone.
Whereas in Straight Man, Russo could fit three meanings into one sentence, here he needs four sentences for one minor point.
After a marvelous prologue, the book moves into an omniscient narrator for each of the characters, and Russo just doesn't have the same deft touch with it as he had with the brilliant first person in Straight Man.
It's never clear whether the narrator is adopting the point of view of the subject character or keeping a distance. I doubt that these characters are this literary, and make such broad philosophical and psychological conclusions at the rate Russo has them thinking. But the best word I can think of is "clunky."
Here's one example. After establishing that the restaurant is serving Hoisin sauce on Chinese night, Russo talks about the previous owner of the restaurant:
"It was also his firm conviction that there wasn't much point in fighting a world war if you were going to come home and start serving things in hoisin sauce -- whatever that was. That was the sort of thing you'd do if you lost the damn war. (Roger would never have made the distinction between the Japanese, with whom we'd been engaged in armed conflict, and the Chinese, with whom we had not.)"
I think the joke is clear by the first sentence, but it is certainly clear by the second. This happens throughout and really slows the enjoyment. Perhaps Russo's too ambitious, and had too many characters and character nuances to point out. He certainly wasn't patient enough to let the nuances reveal themselves.
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Summary: Empire Falls is definitely worth a visit!
Review: Frequently books get written that one can admire from various perspectives and yet one has difficulty reading either because of a ponderous writing style or a lack of humanity of the characters. Russo has written a book that is both beautifully written and tremendously entertaining. Each page is a delight because the author knows how to weave interesting and textured characters with humor and genuine emotions. You care about his characters whether they be the rich town matriarch or the many down-on-their-luck townspeople of Empire Falls. Although economic times are tough in this town, somehow you get to feel that there is an absolute richness to living there. It's definitely worth a visit!
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Summary: Rising from Empire Falls
Review: The fiction was well constructed and kept my interest for the entire book. The characters continued to be developed throughout the novel. I loved the style of the author utilizing both present and past time narratives. This is a story of self discovery through the eyes of a middle aged male.
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Summary: Enter the World of Empire Falls
Review: Empire Falls is a wonderfully engaging book, one of my alltime favorites. Richard Russo puts the reader squarely in this town that time has passed by. All the characters are fully developed and very real. It is almost impossible to set the book down once begun.
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Summary: Another Russo Classic
Review: Russo's latest novel, Empire Falls, is another master mosaic of small town life reminiscent of Nobody's Fool. After he punched out the very funny, obligatory Straight Man (it seems like most authors who teach on the side at one time are compelled to write an academic satire, a la Wonder Boys by Chabon and Moo by Smiley), Russo here returns to the small diners, old taverns and fading churches he depicted so well in Nobody's Fool and The Risk Pool. In fact this new novel reminded me so much of Nobody's Fool at times, I was expecting to encounter Hattie at the Empire Grill, or see Sully, Rub and Wirf sitting on barstools at Bea's bar. Having just finished this novel and having read some accolades in the New York Times and elsewhere, I am somewhat puzzled as to the lukewarm response given this book by Amazon readers. Narrations problems? rushed ending? in my humble opinion this novel was sweeping in saga, offering glimpses into infidelity,father-daugher relationships, family breakdowns, parental abuse, adolescence, the oppresive weight of lofty expectations and the guilt felt by Miles Roby knowing that he did exactly what his dying mother dreaded he would do, namely leave college and return to his hometown to work for old Mrs. Whiting. As in all Russo novels, he paints a picture of small town life with a very keen and detailed eye. The dialogue is pitch-perfect, and even the most minor characters are ingrained in your memory as real people, not just names on a page. You can picture Horace with the fibroid tumor protruding from his forehead, or ridiculous "silver fox" Walt Comeau in his muscle t-shirt, playing gin and forever asking Miles to arm wrestle him while he overtly takes Miles' wife and wonders why anyone would let her get away. Russo seems to understand exactly how priests, old men, teenagers, and concerned parents feel, and so his writing about these characters always has a ring of truth about it. Every now and then a scene unfolds, such as a high school football game in which Miles encounters an old pal who still lived in town and they wonder why they didn't stay in touch, and you just marvel at Russo's subtlety and his insight into human nature. If you are expecting another satire/spoof along the lines of Straight Man, you might be disappointed. There is humor in Empire Falls, but it is not laugh out loud funny. However if you are interested in a sweeping, well-written novel which explores relationships with genuine emotion, set in a realistic small town in Maine, you'll enjoy Empire Falls immensely. I hope we don't have to wait many years for Russo's next creation.
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