Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Tale of Suppression and Unfufilled Dreams
Review: I just finished reading this book last night and I had trouble falling asleep because I couldn't stop thinking about the characters in this book. What an amazing read! This book is so good I felt voyeuristic at times, as if I were eavesdropping on strangers sitting at the next table at the Empire Grill. This book draws you in from the very beginning. There isn't one character you don't care about and I loved how some of the characters start out unsympathetic but then show a softer side (for example Max Roby, Janine Roby or even Otto Meyer). I also loved the recurrent theme of pent-up or suppressed emotions and unfulfilled dreams and how that can escalate into acts of violence, beginning with the town's river itself, to the actions of Miles Roby against Jimmy Minty and Walt Comeau (loved the in-joke on the name's similarity to Perry Como), John Voss's revenge at the end of the book, and even Tick (the nickname perhaps a reference to Martha's Vineyard and its tick population?) against John Voss. Miles Roby is a brilliant character and one you will definitely want to get to know. I hate saying goodbye to him and wish I knew what happens to him and Tick.
Rating: 
Summary: Peyton Place Redux
Review: Definately a technically well-written and readable book in terms of writing ability which assuredly puts the author's work above the level of pulp fiction. Russo's depiction of small town life is poignant and touching but at the very best, this book comes off as a simplified psychology attempt on good versus bad people. The plot and the sequence of resulting events are so simplistic and predictable that the story line becomes humorous. At best, if this is the only type of tale the author can spin about small town life, I would rather re-read that old 60's favorite, Peyton Place.Most of the male characters in this book are victims in some fashion be they weak, strong, violent or pacifist, while most of the female characters are portrayed as vain, greedy and selfish. There are only two truly well-rounded characters in this novel. One is Max Roby, the father of the central figure Miles Roby, who is a lovable old rogue with a real zest for living and who will do anything to attain his own goals for happiness. The other is a Cat,(yes a Cat), Timmy owned by the town matriarch and Miles Roby's employer, Mrs. Francine Whiting who mischievously takes delight in preying on Miles during his visits to Mrs. Whiting. I hesitate to say it but I do hope the movie's story line turns out better than the books or that too will be a real yawner. Sorry Time Magazine, I wouldn't even begin to consider this one the best book of the Year. My vote goes to Jonathan Frantzen and his book "The Corrections" if you want to deal with dysfunction on a grand and cerebral scale.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant midbrow novel
Review: I genuinely enjoyed Empire Falls and thought much of it was entertaining with many likable characters and interesting situations. I also thought the ending (the catastrophe at the end) was a terrible novel-writing decision -- such an event is the focus of the plot, not some ancillary byproduct that helps to resolve the situation. It's really more of a midbrow novel -- some serious themes mixed in with easy-to-digest writing and colorful characters -- not that there is anything wrong with that! Also, proves the Pullitzer is a purely political award, since there is no way this decent book would have won it other than through lobbying. In sum, I would actually recommend it but lower your expectations and you will be rewarded.
Rating: 
Summary: Life in a mill town in Maine
Review: This town with its polluted river, its decaying main street and declining businesses is all too familiar to this reader. I grew up in just such a town although the high school scenes are obviously drawn from the present--even down to the horrific climax that has become too familiar in our own times. Russo does know that generation very well, as far as I can tell.
Miles Roby is too much of the anti-hero, the loser, but the reader never loses sympathy for Miles even when he seems to be his own worst enemy (not counting Mrs. Whiting). At first he makes the ex-wife despicable, but Russo manages to show even her complexities.
I would give it five stars, except that the author seems to muddy the religious theme, especially when John Voss is suggested as a Christ figure, who seemed to be at the center of the trouble and then mysteriously disappeared. Jesus did not decide to take violent revenge on his enemies.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant, but ultimately flawed
Review: I wanted to like this book; I really did. In fact, until the last fourth of the book I was telling my fellow book lovers what a great book it was and how I couldn't put it down. Russo deserves credit for a strong talent with characterization; Miles is one of the best-drawn and most likeable protagonists I've read in years, and his father Max is like no other personality I've ever read about; he is a scene stealer despite being so loathsome it almost turns your stomach; he is so bad he's good, if not great. The plot is quite flawed at the end, though, with all of the storylines so rushed and squeezed for every drop of emotion that it became paradoxically anticlimactic and melodramatic at the same time. I got the impression that Russo ran out of steam or enthusiasm for the book and just wanted it to be over or else his agent was standing over him with a stopwatch. I could not believe that such a carefully contructed plot could unravel so completely. Having enjoyed the rest of the book so much, however, I will probably read his other works to see if this is a chronic problem or just a slip.
Rating:
Summary: A Return To Great Story-Telling
Review: I closed this book thinking how much some of my old college professors would hate it because it was such a return to traditional storytelling, lacking all of those post-modern gaps and ambiguities that contemporary literature is supposed to have. I, however, absolutely love this book. A good book for me is guaged, among other things, of course, by how likable the characters are. Some books you get to the end, and say, "So what?" Not with Empire Falls
Rating: 
Summary: John Irving Lite
Review: Russo gets credit for being a brillaint writer. 'Straight Man' and 'Nobody's Fool' were excellent novels, creating characters and worlds i still recall fondly.
But let's face it, this is a beach read.
An Oprah book.
The problem is, Oprah's book club is out of business.
russo aspires to the dizzying heights of a John Irving novel. A small town, quirky characters. Ah, yes, but Irving novels (when good) have deeper meaning. (Is Owen Meany God? Does feminism destroy women? Is abortion ethical?)
This novel's meaning is sadly trite: small town life is disintigrating--but it can be SAVED BY A CREDIT CARD COMPANY?
I'm not sure Russo even sees the irony in his own Hollywood ending. These are the same comapnies who lay off his characters by the tens of thousands in real life.
Its sad. The characters are well rounded but we've met them all before.
If this were a first novel, it would have been edited to ribbons.
Rating:
Summary: Uneven Tempo over brilliant writing
Review: I would not recommend this novel to readers who have limited time or attention to devote to fiction. For people who generally expect the hype to match the payoff, this book will not do it. ... This was a patchy achievement.
The characters are well-conceived, certain, if not enduring. There are some exceptions, both good and not so good. Russo delivers people true to their pasts; i.e. attempting, as all of us, to outwit their sufferings. This, we are reminded, always involves some degree of inflicting pain, on the self, on loved ones, or, in the catastrophic souls, in depersonalized horror.
Boredom is the dream thief, as are all the manifestations of lives lived in the past doomed to resurface into the present and often the future. It is the pacing, not the characters, or the story, that diminishes the novel. 200 plodding pages ignite into a frenzied conclusion, that cannot merge without a sense of false fittings.
The occassional surprises were highly predictable- the clues overly generous. Still the book is a study of the achievement of human beings to be catapulted through hard times by love and a simple compassion. It touches upon religious meaning in both spriritual and secular lives and very lightly keeps a silent vigil over a homosexual flame, that may ignite a fire of destruction. That is a cautionary theme that intrigues, and then just flutters away, not to be resurrected.
The author has a conservative yet highly polished writing style that, were it better served with a more even application of suspense would be quite remarkable. He does not pontificate, allows as to ambiguity in good and evil, but is concerned with it, as mentioned above, as a seeker inclined toward forgiving.
Russo, is a contemplative, peering into diners in the barren towns of New England, bringing them from their marginality into the consciousness of the rest of us, and he does this well. He finds those lives rich fodder for his imagination, and for many, there is a satisfaction in the resulting tale. Be advised, this book was praised by many. I respect the intent and his talent, this however was accomplished writing, with an abiding moral theme that lingered too long outpaced by my need for more action, only to be left in the dust of the accelerated end.
Rating:
Summary: Detailed, humane and flawed
Review: In his attempt to be the Chekov of blue-collar America, Mr Russo gets several things right -- Empire Falls displays a keen eye for detail, an unhurried pace, a humane investigation of characters in action and an ability to mimic the rhythms of life itself. The book, however, is flawed on at least two counts. First, the prose is little more than workmanlike. One expected more polish, more craftsmanship, at this level. And second, the narrative drive necessary to sustain a novel of such length is sorely missing. The characters have desires and drives, yes, but the action is strangely muted and bloodless -- making the book somewhat tedious to plough through. These two drawbacks make Empire Falls less than a triumph. Not deserving of the Pulitzer, in my humble opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I just finished reading _Empire Falls_ (my first Russo work), and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I cherished every page. *Enough humor to buoy up life's hard truths chronicled in this masterful work.
*Loveable characters each and every one.
*Four-dimensional characters that _believably_ change through the course of the book. Mr. Russo possesses a singular sense of human nature. Read this book.
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