Rating: 
Summary: How On Earth Did This Book Win The Pulitzer?
Review: I just finished reading this novel and I am mystified by all of the acclaim it has received. Far from being an accurate depiction of small-town life, it is a dull, mind-numbing work populated by repulsive characters who resemble redneck cartoons more than flesh and blood human beings. Many times I wanted to fling the book across the room out of frustration with its snail-like pacing and terminally unhappy characters. If you're looking for a realistic portrait of life in rural Maine, try anything by Cathie Pelletier - particularly her Mattagash trilogy. These books offer everything - humor, heart, emotion - that EMPIRE FALLS fails to deliver.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a Joy to Read
Review: As I devoured Empire Falls, I could not help being reminded of Larry McMurtry books, such as the Last Picture Show trilogy, or his various novels concerning Houston. To me, the similarities come from an artful narrative that has a sure grasp of time and place and feels like daily observation, rather than rote narration. By the time I (reluctantly) finished the book, I also found myself thinking of Dickens. (If Francine Whiting isn't a Ms. Havisham stand-in, I don't know who is). But whether you want to spend time marveling at the art of the writing or just enjoy being in the company of the characters, this is truly a must read. Now, if only Richard Russo would write a sequel, so that I can find out what happens to the characters next.
Rating:
Summary: Worth buying!
Review: EMPIRE FALLS is the story of Miles Roby, an intelligent, sensitive man whose quiet, academic ambitions were interrupted when his mother fell ill with terminal cancer. Miles quit college halfway through his final year to come back and care for her, and after her death, because of one complication after another, finds himself still managing the Empire Grille, a run-down cafe, in Empire falls, a run-down, economically deteriorating town. Miles himself feels both trapped and helpless to either help change his life or those of his loved ones. He continually struggles between the loyalty he feels towards his boss and a longing to do more and be more in his life. It's not a book that shocks you or really changes a life. Instead it's beautifully constructed and written -- a flowing, poignant novel that brings with it peace and satisfaction. Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating: 
Summary: Captivating But Culturally Vapid
Review: I am delighted to discover Richard Russo, and can't wait to read his other works. Frankly, I was surprised to find myself enjoying Empire Falls, given that: A) it was written within the last 10 years, and B) it won the Pulitzer Prize. Both of these features would normally mark the novel as an apathetic paean to "post-modern" America. And there's certainly a heavy dose of mindless "Lord loves a workin' man" Nor'eastern rust-belt liberalism. Russo's characters are, in hindsight, elaborate and complex caricatures drawn upon "tolerant & diverse" sensibilities. The most notable examples are the Catholic priests. There is the contrast: the young, vibrant, tolerant empathetic gay priest against the old, hateful orthodox priest whose senility reveals his true depraved character. Such cartoons are what I would expect from Pulitzer prize winners, and mark a certain level of self-bigotry in Russo - a term that must be coined to describe Northeastern Catholics (that is, I presume Russo is Catholic - if he's not, then strike the "self" off of the above appellation). Still, Russo brings a dashing style to his writing that lets him get away with the tolerant prejudices. The plot is fairly engaging, and the aspect most greatly to Russo's credit is that he avoided the nihlism that seemed to permeate the action. Unfortunately, the climax was just too simple. I find myself agreeing with other reviewers that Russo seemed to have written himself into a corner. Personally, I would have been more satisfied with the novel had nothing of consequence ever happened, despite my sympathies for Miles Roby & the town of Empire Falls. I can't avoid a reference to the pun or double entendre of the title. Such things, though trite, always amuse me ("Moving Pictures" by Rush being my favorite for its several implications). Readers who have been exposed to Walker Percy will find much to consider in the contrast with Russo: Southern Catholic vs. Yankee Catholic, 60's nihlist vs. 90's relativist, Story as Metaphor vs. Metaphor as Story, etc., etc. Whether it is just the "abandoned by wife" starting point or not, the comparison of Dr. Tom Moore of "Love In the Ruins" and Miles Roby of "Empire Falls" is intriguing. In summary, Empire Falls is a good book, well written, from a gifted author, but recycling a little too much NBC Evening News pandering for my tastes.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read Overall....3.5 to 4 stars
Review: I had a hard time getting through some parts of this book. It just felt like it was dragging at some points. After reading 300-and-something pages I took a break from it. I finally picked up again after 2 weeks and finished the book. And I have to be honest I breezed through to the end! So if you choose to read this book...you may find a lul -just set it down for a while, read something else (I did!), and come back to it. In the end it's worth it!
Rating:
Summary: A most important American Novel
Review: I loved this book for so many reasons and have thought long and hard about how I could possibly do it justice in the space available for a review here at Amazon. Instead of writing a review, I think I will do something unconventional and post an excerpt from an e-mail conversation I am currently having with my mother (I'm 31, she's 56) regarding this book. This, I think, says a lot about why I enjoyed this book so much, so give it a chance ...
____________________________________ I am thrilled that you are enjoying Empire Falls. I haven't always had the best of luck when recommending authors to you (remembers Thomas Pynchon and The Crying of Lot 49) and when you said that the book was longer than you might have liked that made me a little nervous too. I am glad it has grabbed you so strongly! You said you identified with Miles in Empire Falls and asked if I did to. You bet I did, on a number of levels. He is a very 3 dimensional character, and definitely dynamic as well, and I think lots of people can identify with him too. He is wonderfully realized by Russo, I think.
One of the things I love about Russo's style is that he is so vivid, and brilliant images (or drab, I suppose, shabby, in this case) pop so readily into your mind. I feel like I have been to all the places he describes. You mentioned how sad it is seeing a small town from afar, and how Russo magnifies that sensation. Kelli comes from a small town, that I think strongly resembles Empire Falls, though in a much more Midwestern model. Forest City is dominated by two powerful companies, most heavily by Winnebago which is headquartered there, and to a less extent by 3M which has a major distribution center there as well (incidentally that is where Kelli's dad Rick works, and where her mom Kim worked for most of Kelli's childhood). Much of Forest City seems to have been built by or funded by Winnebago ... they built the "airport," the major park and seem to have their hands in most public improvement in the last quarter of the 20th century. Yet the 80's were a very hard decade of Winnebago, and like Empire Falls, the fortunes of the city ebb and flow with the fortunes of its leading industry. So Forest City has a deteriorating downtown where at least a third of the businesses are boarded up, and I find driving through the town very sad. This is a town that had a heyday, in the 1950's it appears, and its remnants are everywhere. Kelli hates it when I say things like that because she feels like I am running down her town. I don't have a frame of reference, having no place to consider "home" in that sense. I definitely agree with you that Empire Falls has a double meaning. And the "Empire" falls hard in several ways. More than that I won't say, not knowing how far you are into the book.
You mentioned feeling at first that it was a book intended for juveniles. He is much like Hemmingway, I think, in how the latent simplicity of his writing belies much deeper and more complex subtexts. Russo's writing is very rich. This was one of the books I discovered while looking at the Pulitzer Prize winners of the last 50 years.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful!
Review: I have never read a book in which each character deserves the fate that the universe has handed them. I tried...really tried to enjoy this book, but it just become insufferable after a while. The only way to improve this book is to give it to Philip Roth, and have him rewrite the story, and redact the story by about 125 pages. I'm pglad that I read it so that I can serve as a warning to others.
Rating:
Summary: An insightful look into small town life
Review: Anyone who's ever lived in a small town can relate to the rich, colorful characters Richard Russo creates in "Empire Falls." The people in this novel, from the delightfully cranky Max Roby and his long-suffering son Miles to the imperious policeman Jimmy Minty and the obnoxious health club owner Walt Comeau, these are the kind of people you run into at the post office or the local diner. Russo never fails to find the extraordinary in everyday people and events. The action centers around the small Maine town of Empire Falls. The name is no coincidence, as the town is slowly being run into the ground, with industries crumbling and locals fleeing to more promising locales. Like many small towns, years of one family's misguided control of Empire Falls has led to its decay, though one suspects that this empire's fall will not inspire much interest. It's a poignant, realistic look at the plight of many small American towns, and Russo focuses on those who choose to stay behind, or because of circumstances, are forced to. Their lives aren't filled with adventure, but their emotions are just as real and secrets just as deep. It's a mostly satisfying book, filled with canny observations and wisdom about even the most mundane things, and Russo's simple prose makes for an enjoyable read. The main problem is the ending. Russo spends over 400 pages developing characters, unfurling the narrative at a deliberate pace, laying down personal histories, and building toward what one expects to be a whopper of a climax, with years of secrets and lies coming to light at last. They do, but in a most anti-climactic way, and Russo speedily wraps up the novel in 25 pages or less after that. It's a jarring ending, a surprising misstep on Russo's part, that may leave the reader feeling cheated. The simple beauty of the preceding chapters make up for it in part, but you'll also put this book down wondering what the book might have been like, if Russo had been inclined to spend a little more time on the final part of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: a rich, passionate bear hug of a book
Review: There's something about meaty books, books that surpass the average in both length and scope, that comment on the minutiae of their characters' lives without losing the focus and power of their larger themes. This is a meaty book, and serious, and very passionate. It's sad at times, frightening, occasionally uplifting, and always absorbing. Most of all, it's passionate. The prose is written in an omniscient voice that clings to, rather than distancing itself from, the characters, and the story itself is about passion - the passion of love and the passion of loss and, most of all, the passionate desire of each of the characters to become their "own best self". Set in a small town in Maine, "Empire Falls" traverses several seasons in the life of Miles Roby, working-class proprieter of the local grill. Miles is the nominal protagonist, but the story encompasses a number of other characters almost as fully: family, friends, small-town enemies, and the local family of robber barons. It encompasses more than just the time in which it is set, providing unusually entertaining flashbacks to illuminate Miles' childhood and the town's history. The book's flaw is its ending, which is more suprising than it should be; it lacks a sense of inevitability, even in retrospect. It's a well-written conclusion, but seems to be poorly aligned with the rest of the book. Still, the book is well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Please don't read this book.
Review: I've never been moved to write such a negative review for what is certainly the result of a tremendous amount of effort and thought on the part of a very gifted writer, but this book is just god awful. And although it's unfair to say so, the fact that it was tagged with the Pulitzer makes it an ever bigger disappointment. To be fair, the Pulitzer isn't exactly a serious award these days, but there may be some prestige left on its dusty shoulders. Or maybe not. There are many problems with this book from a literary standpoint, and it's fairly pointless to discuss those, but my main beef is that the thing is just not entertaining or insightful in the least, and the depths of these deficiencies are more embarrassing as the book goes on, eventually culminating in an "ending" that is not only unimaginitive (a school shooting? what?) but poorly conceived, awkwardly handled, and mawkishly presented. And if you do choose to wade through this thing, be prepared to flip through 300-odd pages before the stubborn plot decides to move a step and watch the whole damn thing wrap up in about a half dozen pages that would make Nick Hornby look like Nabokov. It's as if Russo has decided to coast on his reputation here, and that's totally cool...as long as the next book brings him back to some of the form that "Nobody's Fool" displayed. Or, maybe he's just written himself into this cliched small-town, gee-whiz, "there's gotta be some humanity lurking beneath" atmosphere and he has no idea how to get himself out of it. One of the biggest problems here is that I fear Russo discovered that Max, who should be the main character, is so similar to the main character in "Nobody's Fool" that he lost his nerve to provide him with a more prominent and overtly centering role that was sorely needed. Too bad. Repeating your own efforts is not necessarily bad, especially when those creations were so good the first time around. Darn, but I wanted to like and enjoy this book. This quote appeared in the NY Times this week in a story about the new Martin Amis book: "The way British publishing works, you go from not being published no matter how good you are to being published no matter how bad you are." That feels like the best thing I can say about "Empire Falls." I'll look forward to the next effort and hope that it falls into the hands of a capable editor with the courage to shape this excellent writer's work into something that deserves his name below the title.
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