Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful and moving
Review: Miles Roby is a middle-aged father in the throes of a divorce from his wife of 20 odd years, stuck running a greasy spoon in Empire Falls, Maine. The once-booming company town is now in serious decline, as the company that sustained it has closed the textile mill and related industrial plants. Yet, the widow of C.B. Whiting and heir to the Company fortunes still owns the town and seemingly everyone in it.This novel is about Miles' predicament. He has promised to run the Empire Grill until Mrs. Whiting dies, at which time it will be his. Or will she out-live him? His soon-to-be ex-wife is engaged to be married to an insufferable egotist who is arrogant without cause. He would love to have his daughter, Tick, come live with him, but there is no privacy in the loft above the grill. Meanwhile, Miles is plagued by a neer-do-well father and the unrequited love of Mrs. Whiting's disabled daughter, Cindy. It seems there is no way out for Miles, even though the Grill has begun to show signs of a resurrection due to the ideas of brother, David. Empire Falls is poignant, funny, literate and moving. It is truly an exceptional novel. The characters are beautifully rendered. Protagonist Miles is all too human as are most of us. Even the "villains" possess redeeming human qualities. The story is filled with twists, turns, flashbacks and insights into the human predicament. This it not a thiller or a page turner. It is a meat and potatoes novel that will stay with you long after you have closed the last page.
Rating: 
Summary: It's the Characters
Review: I am shocked to read the negative reviews on this novel. This story is character-driven, while the great majority of today's novels seem plot driven or dependent on the shock of incest, poverty, domestic abuse. What's wonderful is that these are ordinary people in small town America (and not an unusual small town) yet the author is able to make them fascinating. I was disappointed when the novel ended because I wanted to continue observing their lives. This is for readers who are tired of the literary pretentiousness represented by some of today's "in" authors like Jonathan Franzen, for readers who are tired of writers who don't believe in punctuation (as in the Nobel Prize winner BLINDNESS)and writers who can't write dialogue above the bodice ripper level. EMPIRE FALLS is refreshing and fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: Pith and Vinegar
Review: With Empire Falls, Richard Russo traces post-industrial decline in small town America and its resultant elements of disenfranchisement, power abuse, classism and violence. Each character in this small town has a personal struggle against this gradual descent. In effect then, Russo writes the perfect story of both universal and personal entropy. That he can do all that in a way that is compassionate, philosophical and funny makes Empire Falls a great read and a worthy recipient of the Pulitzer.
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!
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