Another 5 star book from Russo! He is truly the master of creating characters within a small town setting. The characters he crafts are so vivid and engaging that they draw people in and refuse to let go until their story is fully told. It's as if they come to life right before your eyes.

This book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2002, makes it extremely easy to understand why. The depth and complexity of the characters, along with the rich and detailed small town backdrop, combine to create a literary masterpiece.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good character-driven story! It will keep you hooked from the very first page until the last, and leave you with a sense of satisfaction and a deeper understanding of the human condition.

The small Maine town of Empire Falls has seen better days.

The local and once booming timber and textile industries have run their course. All that remains is the abandoned and decrepit real estate of what once was.

The blue collar workers of this small New England community struggle to find the few jobs remaining. They hope to keep the wolf at the door and food on the table, always hopeful of revitalized opportunities.

And it is here that we meet Miles Roby, the manager of The Empire Grill. Miles is a good and decent man. He didn't always dream of flipping burgers and taking care of the grill. In fact, at one time, he had promising opportunities for his future. But then life bit back. He answered an urgent call to return home from college and help care for his ailing mother.

The vast majority of the real estate and, by extension, the job opportunities in Empire Falls are owned and controlled by the Whiting family, or more precisely, Francine Whiting.

This really isn't a plot-driven novel. The real bounty lies in the character development of the residents of Empire Falls, which we largely come to know through Miles Roby. And what a treasure trove of characters they are! So real and flawed, everyday folk, fleshed out so well by Russo's pen that you may find yourself recognizing a few of them within your own circle of associates, friends, and family. Seriously, I am so astounded by the raw talent on display here. These people walk, talk, breathe, stagger, and stink all over these pages. And such a wide cast of people, each with their own histories, beliefs, resentments, weaknesses, dreams, strengths, and real-life struggles. I feel like I know them all intimately.

When you get to know people that well, for better or worse, you care about what happens to them. And there is a lot going on here. Miles is on the cusp of a divorce, and his ex's future husband loves to hang around and taunt him. His brother is a recovering addict, and Miles just can't be sure he won't fall off the wagon. Then there is his teenage daughter Tick, who is spreading her own wings while coping with the ruins of her parents' marriage. His employer, the stoic Francine, maintains a strange hold over Miles, and his father is the most colorful, odiferous vagrant you are ever likely to meet. And so many more.

What Russo has accomplished here in Empire Falls is nothing short of masterful. It is a social novel on a grand scale that reflects real life issues with all the inherent joys and sorrows, beauty and blisters. This is epic storytelling that will extend its gracious arms in welcome and bruise your battered, hopeful heart.

This novel has all the right cards to fit perfectly into my gratitude, and indeed I am completely satisfied with this reading.

Moreover, it has reminded me a bit of Franzen (lately he is my favorite author), both in terms of settings and themes and in part in terms of style.

I add that in the last period I am surprising myself by loving and choosing as readings, very many books set in what I call the "true" contemporary USA, small towns prostrated by the economic crisis, where the characters have to come to terms with disillusionment and the collapse of the American dream, with all the consequences that this entails.

This book is no exception: the story takes place in a not famous Maine (the one not on the sea, to be clear) in a small town where almost everyone was employed in the various Whiting companies, until the greed of the last remaining Whiting, together with globalization, ate up the entire productive sector, creating unemployment, alcoholism and a whole other series of human miseries.

For many, many pages, it seems that at the plot level nothing spectacular happens. Personally, I really like to read the accounts of the normal lives of normal people, slices of society of my own age, but I realize that many readers like more engaging stories, so I warn that it could seem a bit slow, even though the protagonists are perfectly delineated at the psychological level and the book is really well written in terms of prose and readability.

However, as I went on, I realized that in fact a lot was happening, slowly, until arriving at the great finale (crazy and touching), where all the open questions in the novel are clarified.

A remarkable book that I will not forget very soon.

Rewritten and Expanded Article:

Richard Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Empire Falls, offers a profound exploration of the meandering human condition. The engineers explain that water's natural inclination is to flow downhill by the straightest possible route, but meandering occurs when its best intentions are thwarted. Similarly, the lives of the characters in Empire Falls take unexpected turns and twists.

Russo takes the reader on a captivating journey through the town and the lives of its inhabitants. A meander on a river is a place where it shifts, turns, bends, or curves due to erosion. In this story, the lives and events of two major families are connected through generations, revealing their best intentions, secrets, and how easily they can be trapped by the past.

Empire Falls, Maine, was once a prosperous town due to the Whiting family's paper mill and shirt factory. However, it is now a dying small town with empty buildings serving as a constant reminder of its lost glory. The remaining residents hold onto the hope that the town will one day regain its former prosperity.

The Whitings have been the wealthy owners of much of the town. The Whiting men, despite their prosperity, are flawed and share the common trait of marrying women who make their lives miserable. Mrs. Whiting, formerly Francine Robideaux, is a ruthless and power-hungry woman who sold off the factories but still owns half the real estate in town, including the Empire Grill.

Miles Roby, who runs the Empire Grill, grew up in Empire Falls. He went to college at his mother's urging but returned home when she was dying. Years later, his marriage is over, and his life's goals are obsolete. He is a decent and moral man who loves his daughter, Tick, but is also very passive and tolerant to a fault, always taking the middle road.

Russo expertly weaves the complex story of Empire Falls and its two major families. His writing is precise and deliberate, and the pacing is perfect. The long list of characters and the intricate details of their lives add depth and richness to the story. He not only conveys the hardships of a blue-collar town but also provides humor and promise, showing that lives are like rivers that ultimately lead to one destination.

“What water wanted to do, the engineers explained, was flow downhill by the straightest possible route. Meandering was what happened when a river’s best intentions were somehow thwarted.”

“After all, what was the whole wide world but a place for people to yearn for their hearts’ desires, for those desires to become entrenched in defiance of logic, plausibility, and even the passage of time.”

“Lives are rivers. We imagine we can direct their paths, though in the end there’s but one destination.”

I really enjoy reading Richard Russo, as much as I have come to enjoy Yates or some of Oates' novels. My congratulations to the jury that awarded him the Pulitzer in 2002 for this novel.

I am amazed at all he is able to draw from anonymous lives, seemingly uninteresting. The way he delves into the world those people configure with their parents and children, friends and not-so-friends, with their loves, whether reciprocated, platonic or little more than erotic-festive. His wonderful dialogues, his humor, his acuity convince me. I like how he gradually reveals the secrets of his protagonists and in particular that transcendental fact in their lives that will lead them to discover aspects of themselves they were unaware of or refused to admit.

All of this is present in this novel that is read with the same ease with which one is wrongly tempted to rate his writing. A writing that catches with the softness of its good manners, with its elegant and ironic tone of sad comedy, with the love for his characters that the author manages to convey so fabulously, with the intelligence and the rhythm with which he weaves the threads of the colorful plot of relationships that form this small community in which each individual adds to his personal conflicts those inherited from parents and grandparents.

Although it is not the only one, far from it, the fundamental theme of this novel of losers, set in Empire Falls, a small town in Maine that lived better times and that represents a way of life in clear decline, is found in the very prologue: someone intent on the useless task of changing the course of a river.

Can it be changed? To what extent are we determined by inheritance, education, our own and family past, the actions of others? Can one feel virtuous or just lucky? "The truth does not serve as a substitute for a good answer", no matter how many times reality denies it? The answer to these questions is what the story of Miles Roby's life seems to want to find, a boring guy, a fondón Jimmy Stewart, unable to feel comfortable with himself despite being the nicest and kindest person in all of Empire Falls, something that everyone takes advantage of, including his father who so much reminds of the ineffable Frank Gallagher of the fantastic series Shameless and who is in charge of showing us, in addition to possibly the funniest moments of the novel and some not so didactic things, the importance of accepting oneself even in defeat. Or his wife Janine, who, tired of the sadness of her marriage to Miles, thinks she can change the course of her life by the side of the man who discovered the paradise of orgasm for her and who will have to face a few not very pleasant surprises.

Very, very recommended.

Russo masterfully intertwines the tales of the inhabitants of a diminutive town in Maine as they grapple with the hardships of economic recessions. His characters are richly complex, each with their own unique set of flaws and virtues. The prose he employs is warm and inviting, drawing the reader in and making them feel as if they are part of the town. The plot is captivating, filled with twists and turns that keep the reader on the edge of their seat without becoming overly convoluted or pretentious. This book is truly one of the finest I have ever had the pleasure of reading. In fact, for two days after finishing it, I simply could not bring myself to pick up any other book. It had such a profound impact on me that I was completely沉浸 in its world and reluctant to leave.

3 and a half stars.

I truly relished reading this book. As I have a deep penchant for character-driven narratives, this one really appealed to me. At least until the end (which I shall not disclose to you, but about which I do have some reservations), it is all about the characters. In fact, not a great deal occurs throughout the book. Instead, what we receive is the characters' stories told from their own points of view. This is quite evenly distributed among them, although it all seems to revolve around Miles, for better or for worse. There are flashbacks that assist us in understanding the characters in the novel more comprehensively. In fact, something that transpired in the past is of utmost importance in the way the current events are unfolding.

For a story where at times very little seems to be happening, the pacing is not sluggish, and the book does not drag as I had feared it might. My only minor complaint is the ending. It all occurred too rapidly (contrary to how things had been progressing up to that moment) and too conveniently. However, it managed to win the Pulitzer for fiction in 2002, so who am I to pass judgment?

This is a remarkable American novel that I would recommend to all those who have a penchant for character-driven stories. If you prefer your books to be filled with action and breathtaking pacing, then it would be advisable to stay away from it.

This is an amazing piece of storytelling. It is filled with juicy, funny, and sad subplots and characters that truly bring the story to life. The writing is just plain crazy good, with a style that is both engaging and captivating.

At first, it took me a while to really get into the story. But once I did, I was hooked. I found myself unable to put the book down and had to finish the whole thing in a weekend.

The theme of the rust belt blues adds an interesting layer to the story. It explores the struggles and hardships of those living in the rust belt, while also highlighting the beauty and resilience that can be found in even the most difficult of circumstances.

Overall, this is a must-read book for anyone who loves great storytelling and engaging characters. It will take you on an emotional journey that you won't soon forget.

What I found to be truly remarkable about this book is its ending. It's not because it's filled with non-stop action (especially when compared to the rest of the book), but rather because the sense of foreboding in the reader builds so subtly throughout.

Actually, the entire book could serve as a study in subtlety. The nuances of each character are so delicately illustrated that they catch the unsuspecting reader off guard. This is mainly due to the slow revelations to the main character, Miles Roby. Even readers who typically skim (and this is a fairly large novel, so skimming is inevitable for some) can pick up on subtle hints. For example, they can figure out who Charlie Mayne really is and who Charlene's lover is. Luckily, Miles eventually figures this out (at the very end of the book, of course) and more, so one can't be completely frustrated by his seemingly selective understanding of the events around him.

Also, very few loose ends are left at the novel's conclusion, which is what I prefer when reading a stand-alone book. I'm curious to know if Miles really did inherit the Empire Grill, but in the end, it doesn't matter much. I also wish I knew if Tick ever had contact again with her summer love interest since her scheduled meeting couldn't be kept. We do find out who was responsible for Cindy Whiting's accident and exactly what was wrong with John Voss and why he acted so strangely all the time. (His story is the most tragic on several levels and incredibly disturbing, so we had to know that his disappearance wouldn't last, leaving the reader unresolved about his fate.)

The book ends rather abruptly and perhaps too happily (if that's the right way to describe it). Innocents had to be sacrificed to show the randomness of some violence, but it seems almost too convenient that Tick gets out alive. The Catholic dependency is also dropped perhaps too quickly, considering how strongly Miles holds onto it in the first three parts of the novel. However, the shifting perspective throughout the novel is essential for the reader to understand the motivations of other characters (more quickly than Miles can, at least). Near the end, though, we are so far removed from Miles that getting back into his head seems forced, just to bring the novel to a conclusion.

Still, this is an amazing book overall because of its accurate portrayal of the pros and cons of small-town life. It doesn't have to be about a specific Maine city to resonate with those who have experienced such an environment where everyone knows everyone else. It gains intensity as the end approaches and becomes increasingly difficult to put down.

Richard Russo’s Empire Falls brought to my mind John Edward Williams’s Stoner in multiple aspects. While they are about different events, have distinct narrative structures, and are written in different styles, both ultimately tell the tale of an unlucky, lost hero who makes no effort to escape his fate and whose sense of responsibility has somehow become excessive. Moreover, both novels have ingeniously deceiving titles based on wordplay. “Stoner” is not a state of mind or body but simply the hero’s name, and “Empire Falls” is not a historical evocation of a falling civilization but the name of the town where the action occurs. In other words, grammatically speaking, “stoner” is not a common noun, and “falls” is not a verb.

Nonetheless, Empire Falls is an epic name for an epic story, but not in the sense the title initially tricks us into thinking. A posteriori, one can always find a similarity between the fall of empires and the fall of lives. From this perspective, the obscure New England town is as small as a village and as big as a country – a microcosm revealing the macrocosm. It is a town where nothing seems to happen yet everything does, with its share of good and bad, boring or interesting people, and is under the protection of a malevolent god, Francine Whiting. The narrative, using the alternation of past and present, is constructed in a plain, classical way, devoid of any technique that could confuse the reader. The past is written in italics, perhaps to emphasize that it is a story, while the present is an event that may someday be translated into a story too.

In fact, this seemingly basic design has hidden depths. I fully agree with A. O. Scott’s opinion that the author’s “manner is so unassuming that his mastery is easy to miss”. The novel consists of 32 chapters divided into four parts, a prologue, and an epilogue. The Prologue sketches the portraits of two destructive characters, Francine Whiting and her husband C.B. Whiting. Although the Prologue ends with a foreshadowing suggesting the present will begin with C.B. Whiting’s death, the actual time jump is about another thirty years, and his death becomes the intersection point of the two temporal lines. The story then goes back and forth in time, with various jumps in different chapters. In the end, the narrative buttons up like a well-tailored suit or, to use a more appropriate aquatic comparison, returns like a river to its bed. The decision C.B. Whiting made to deviate The Knox had far-reaching consequences, from his impulse to marry Francine out of guilt to her death in the same river. The last image of the book is both glorious and cruel, with the dead body of Francine, along with her cat, being carried away by the angry waters, like an idol ritualistically offered to more powerful gods.

The last fifty pages gave this novel its second and third stars.

Before that, it was a monotonous and dull description of a declining American town, its unfortunate people, and a bloodstained garden that had reigned over them for decades.

I assume that the marginal, in places blatantly bad translation into Bulgarian doesn't help either. Just like the printing errors, a trademark preserved by the publisher Siela.

I have no words to describe this novel. Whatever I might say, it would be far too little. It has penetrated my soul and will remain there.

Thank you, Richard Russo.

P.S. For more information about the book (what it is like and, most importantly, how it feels), I highly recommend the wonderful review by Algernon (the one who always has the right words at his disposal :)).

This novel is truly a masterpiece. It weaves a story that is both captivating and profound, drawing the reader in from the very first page. The characters are so vividly portrayed that they seem to come to life before your eyes.

Richard Russo has a remarkable talent for creating a world that feels real and believable. The emotions and experiences of the characters are so relatable that you can't help but become invested in their lives.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is a must-read for anyone who loves great literature.