Rating: 
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!
Rating:
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.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Stuff
Review: Richard Russo has drawn a real life picture of a dying town in Maine that owes its existence to a textile mill, now departed. His ability to draw his characters with real life hopes and dreams draws the reader into an intimate relationship with people that everyone knows. The universal neighborhood. A really captivating and thoroughly enjoyable look at small town America where life goes on whether we are ready or not. When the reader finishes he knows the characters as well as his friends and neighbors in any town. Five stars to Russo.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story and wonderful characters
Review: This was the first of Russo's books I have read. His writing style agreed with me, it was easy flowing without being too simplistic. He weaves a captivating story, combining past and present events appropriately. The characters are some of the best I've come across, I knew them so well. A bit of humor here and there was also fun. While the beginning may have been a bit slow at times, it was worth it to learn about the characters and the town, and prepare me for the shocking ending. I would definitely recomend this book as being worth the time it takes to read.
Rating: 
Summary: needed an objective eye before publication
Review: After "Straight Man" this was a decided disappointment. It had its high points, but I kept tripping up against minor but still relevant questions. If a woman (Charlene Gardner) is a knockout wouldn't she do anything BUT shrivel a man's private parts? Same with some of the high school details. Everyone I knew stopped wearing unicorn shirts after they hit puberty, regardless of their clique. And I just couldn't buy that Tick didn't already have email considering how much of today's teens' social life revolves around the computer. Okay, enough fixation on small flaws. EF reminded me of "I Know This Much is True." But the hero of the latter earned his insights and carthasis through painful therapy, whereas Miles Roby just seemed to bump along his disintegrating life with as much insight into where he was going and how he got that way as a canoe. He was annoyingly inert. He only changed when Russo wanted to nudge the plot along. Last, having been greatly entertained by Tick's perception of high school, I was disappointed that we didn't really get her verdict on the final tragedy - especially considering that she was the heroine.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed, but worthy of our attention
Review: Russo's latest isn't nearly as bad as some people will try to tell you; by the same token, it's not a classic, and it certainly isn't the author's best work, critically speaking. I totally agree with the other reviewer who said Russo seems to be struggling between a third-person omniscient and third-person limited perspective -- this is most blatant in the chapters that delve into the Zack and Jimmy Minty characters, but it's a problem that surfaces here and there throughout the book. The overall effect is one of narrative incongruity and even sloppiness that seems to get worse about halfway through the story. I also found much of what happened in the last several chapters rushed and improbable, as yet another reviewer commented. That said, I don't believe anyone has commented on the most interesting and instructive aspects of this novel, at least not that I'm aware of. "Empire Falls," intended or not, is something of a treatise on the rotten core of so-called small town American family values. This is a novel populated with disaffected teen misfits (Candace, John Voss); sadistic jocks (Zack); insipid, uncaring, and dangerously incompetent teachers (Tick's art teacher and Miles' drivers's ed instructor); corrupt law enforcers (Jimmy Minty); mean-spirited clergy (Father Tom); and a whole host of anti-intellectuals, rednecks, racists, misogynists, and homophobes. While it's the wonderfully messed-up heroes and heroines of "Empire Falls" that warm our hearts and keep us turning the pages, we really should be paying attention to the marginal characters if we want to understand what's wrong with small-town America and society at large. P.S. I hope Richard Russo considers writing another novel set entirely within the public school system. His dead-on insight into this environment is truly uncanny, and the high-school experiences of both Miles and Tick were, for me, some of the highlights of the book. (Doris Roderigue, Tick's narrow-minded, religiously conservative, corrupt, uninspired, incredibly stupid art teacher is so accurately portrayed it made me want to scream.)
Rating:
Summary: Involving but unoriginal
Review: There is no denying that I was caught up in the lives of these characters and I read through the book fairly quickly so I would say that it will keep your interest. I could'nt shake the idea that the whole thing seemed just too familiar though.The downtrodden protagonist,the all powerful villian controlling the entire town. Now that I think about it lets see--the hero has to come home from college and afterwards can't escape his small town,he has to battle evil in the form of the towns richest person--should'nt the name of this be Bedford Falls? While it is a good read and not as upbeat as "It's A Wonderful Life" this is clearly not an original story. More likely a case of someone getting lazy and recycling a story he's heard before. Maybe that could slip by if you don't pick a story everyone in the world is familiar with.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant portrait of small town life
Review: I read several other reviews on Amazon lamenting that this latest Russo novel reads like a screenplay. So ...it's a ... fine screenplay. To me, a good book is one that stays with you when you put it down. Miles Roby, his daughter Tick, Mrs. Whiting, and all the other Empire Falls characters seemed real to me; I found myself thinking about their respective plights every time I had to set the book down, and even now that I've finished it. This novel was the perfect mixture of poignancy and humor. It wasn't pretentious in the least, or over-the-top, like some books by other modern-day male authors.... If you can put your cynicism aside, I think you'll be swept away by Empire Falls.
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