Empire Falls

Rating:
Summary: Characters and Setting Ring True
Review: As a central Mainer, I can attest that Russo's setting and characters are the real deal. He captures the dying mill town and social strata perfectly. I couldn't put the book down. I felt like I was reading nonfiction.

Rating:
Summary: Boring--Not nearly up to par with his other books.
Review: I looked forward to reading this book, and I kept waiting for it to get better....it did at page 423 for the next 50 pages only.

Perhaps Russo spoiled me with Sully in Nobody's Fool but the main character in this book, Miles, is everything that Sully isn't.

Rating:
Summary: Russo does it again!
Review: This master of the humorous/dark/blue-collar novel delivers again with a slice-of-life story that introduces some of his finest characters. Russo has a wonderful way of making us hate the bad guys while understanding that they have some little spark of humanity, and loving the good guys even though we see all too clearly their shortcomings! Laugh out loud, and smile with sympathy as you visit EMPIRE FALLS.

Rating:
Summary: lovely, sometimes slow
Review: I agree with the reviewer who said that this is a good book, not a great one. It's sweet and amicable but not always compelling. I'm also in huge agreement with the assessment of Brady Udall's THE MIRACLE LIFE OF EDGAR MINT. Empire Falls reminds me of Udall's book in a lot of ways, but it's not as compelling or heartbreaking or laugh out loud funny. Edgar Mint is character who is indelible, who simply can't be forgotten. Russo characters, while real and loveable and spiteful in their own ways, don't make quite the same impression.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: I am in awe of Richard Russo. Empire Falls is a wonderful novel, brilliantly crafted, yet completely readable. I have always enjoyed his work, but for some reason, I found this one even better than his other novels (which are terrific in their own right). The novel tells the story of Empire Falls, a Maine town that has seen better, much better days, and the people who inhabit it, primarily, Miles Roby, a fortyish man who himself has seen better days. Both Miles and the town of Empire Falls had shown much promise, but things changed. For the town, it was the closing of the textile factories about twenty years earlier. For Miles, it was his return to the town from college, one semester short of his degree. Miles now runs the Empire Diner under the thumb of Mrs. Whiting, a wealthy old woman who apparently owns most of the town. His marriage is almost over, his ex-wife soon to marry the local health club owner. He is trying to salvage his relationship with his teenage daughter, Tick, and save the restaurant he has been managing from financial ruin. He and all the other residents in the town keep trying to get their life back together, trying to find that promise that they all felt their lives once held, back when the mills were still working. What may sound like a depressing tale, actually never is, because the hope really is there and the story is told with much wonderful humor. Most of the characters, and their relationships with each other are funny, not in the Bridget Jones sort of way, but in an everyday sort of way. Miles' ex-wife, Janine, comes up with a funny, yet somehow sad, future of the lives of the Empire Falls High School football players and cheerleaders as she watches the big game from the stands that is devastatingly accurate, but funny just the same.

Empire Falls is truly a fantastic novel. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: a GOOD not GREAT book
Review: I really liked this novel, but it was occasionally slow in some places, contrived in others. Still, it is so much better than 99% of the books being published now. Russo has real heart and real humor. If you want something similar to this, but even stronger, even more touching and more funny and wild and true, pick up Brady Udall's THE MIRACLE LIFE OF EDGAR MINT. It's a truly great book and does all the the things Empire Falls does, only better.

Rating:
Summary: 1st Russo-but not the last!
Review: I really enjoyed Empire Falls. It is the first of his books I have read and will now have to go back and read the others. Having lived in a small town for the last 11yrs I could relate to the tale he told about dreams lost, lost souls and just trying to get along. Each character has his own search for what went wrong and how to try and get it right. I rooted for Miles to speak-up! The characters became a part of my life for a short time and it was a very enjoyable ride.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Such a great read with memorable characters, dialogue that is true to life and often laugh out loud hilarious, and interesting plot lines. Russo casts a wide net and even if everything he trolls for isn't hauled back in, one must envy his catch. The book stirred memories of Irving's Garp, but this book is deeper, wiser, and funnier. Hat's off to Russo, he's one of America's best authors and unfortunately, a bit of a secret.

Rating:
Summary: Great story of ordinary people
Review: This is the first Richard Russo book I have read, but it won't be the last. I got pulled into the beginning chapters and was at first somewhat disappointed by the italics and timeframe changes; however, it all came together. Great characters and some really funny dialogue in the midst of silent tragedy.

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile, but not vintage Russo
Review: After, his delightful hiatus in his lampoon of higher education "Straight Man", Russo has returned to the hardscrabble, blue collar milleu familiar to readers of his earlier works "Risk Pool" and "Mohawk". "Empire Falls" is another example of the author's deft ability to depict the gritty conditions, and resulting personalities and relationships in economically depressed rural towns.

While overall I enjoyed this novel and found it engaging, it was disappointing in the shadow of his earlier works. A work should be totally engrossing to run nearly 500 pages, and at times I felt it dragged; I think editing 100 or so pages would have made it stronger. The plot tended to be somewhat formulaic, with an bitter controlling millionairess ruling the community and having an implausible intimate involvement with all its denizens whose lives she subverts as a manifestation of her own frustration. (She sees them while they're sleeping; she knows when they're awake). It includes a genre type of tragedy/crisis as its acme, and after the 400 preceding pages the novel concludes in an all too tidy fashion with all the bad guys getting their just deserves.