Book Review: Empire Falls -- Richard Russo

If you ever wanted to see your small town pictured in prose, Empire Falls is the book you want to read. Richard Russo collects a blue-collar crowd, throws in a rich family, hard times, and dreams both awakening and shattered to bring this picturesque Maine town into being, making it into Everytown, USA.

The lead protagonist is everyman Miles Roby, a man who visits his old dream in the persons of his married former college classmates every year at Martha's vineyard but always returns to his life of running a small diner owned by the town's richest person, Francine Whiting. He is trying to deal with potential ownership, his daughter's teenage years, his own aging, his soon-to-be ex-wife, the lovestruck (for Miles) daughter of the restaurant's owner, and his unfulfilled true love of his one and only waitress, Charlene. Besides the daughter and ex-wife, Miles is struggling with the death of his mother, who wanted him to go to college and leave Empire Falls. He is also struggling to deal with his much-alive father, a general rascal and town scamp. And then there is his brother, a dreamer who wants and sees a lot more than Miles. And his daughter's quiet young friend Miles has hired to help at the diner...

Miles is easygoing. Everyone likes him. But, lord, does he have problems. And it seems like everyone in Empire Falls, a town that has seen better days, is making them just a little harder to deal with. That and the fact that Francine Whiting has control over the town, including Miles himself. Life has become burdensome for Miles Roby.

The novel goes back and forth between the present and Miles' memories of personally important events. It twists and turns beautifully, like a well-tended road through a scenic forest. And there is the mystery of it all, the little questions left unanswered that lead to important discoveries later when certain answers are revealed. And underlying it all is the one question: Why?

Richard Russo has crafted a brilliant novel in Empire Falls. It is as realistic a fictional account as can possibly be assigned to paper. The characters are amazingly revealing and familiar.

Russo deserved the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls. Good thing he won it.

In fact, the HBO mini-series Empire Falls was nominated in eleven categories at the 2006 Emmy Awards. Ed Harris was nominated for best lead actor for his role as Miles Roby. Paul Newman won for best supporting actor for his portrayal of his skinflint father. Paul Newman also won the Golden Globe for the same role. The miniseries won a Golden Globe as well for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. But I digress...

Empire Falls is an amazing work. Like Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a bunch of old Texas Rangers, Empire Falls captures the spirit of its characters and brings them to life with a vividness and timelessness rarely achieved. It is simple storytelling at its detailed best.

Source:

"Empire Falls," IMDb.com