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Russo's chronicle of lost hearts and lost dreams in Empire Falls
Date of Review: Jun 6, 2005
The Bottom Line: This one picked up a Pulitzer Prize for best novel. Excellent storytelling, characters that remain with you.
I tend to avoid the mainstream bestsellers, but I had heard so many good comments about Richard Russo's Empire Falls, that when the time was right, I settled in to take it all in, and found myself immersed into the cares of a small town in Maine that is crumbling into extinction. Little tensions and feuds start to hit the breaking point in this novel, slowly twisting along for years of dormancy, until it all comes apart one afternoon.
Miles Roby, a man who is possibly too good for this world, struggles along. He runs the Empire Grill for old Mrs. Whiting, surely one of the most malignant people in literature, relying on her promise to eventually turn the Grill over to him at some point in the future. Like an mirage, Miles keeps himself firmly focused on that, but inside, in his heart, he knows that it may come to nothing. Right now, he's not only keeping the Grill alive, he's coping with his teenaged daughter Tick, the impending divorce from his wife Janine, the fact that his brother Dave may have a thriving marijuana farm, and his deadbeat, ghastly father, Max.
And that's only one little cross-section of Empire Falls. There are others, such as the legendary Whitings, from C.B., the richest man in central Maine, who blew his brains out, his widow, Francine, who manipulates the town to serve her own, mysterious ends, and their child, Cindy, crippled in an accident in childhood. Then there is the rest of the families -- from a lost boy who somehow becomes Tick's accquaintance, despite her best efforts not to. And Walt Comeau, the Silver Fox, and who has stolen Janine away from Miles, who seems to take special delight in tormenting Miles in his restaurant. Bea, the one business owner who hasn't it seems, come under the spell and pocketbook of Mrs. Whiting, and who happens to be Miles' mother-in-law. Some of the characters I just plain loathed from the start, especially Max, who boozes, whines and begs his way along, the art teacher who seems to be intent on crushing Tick's ambitions, and thought that Miles was a true weakling for caving in to everyone -- that is, until I started to get to know them all.
And that's when I started to really like Miles. He copes with his difficulties with a brave and calm demenour that looks to be passive and non-confrontational, but inside he's looking at things in an objective way. If something can be done, he does it -- and if he can't, he learns how to deal with it. His memories of childhood, of a vacation that he spent with his mother on Martha's Vinyard, and which forms the unseen vortex that the story turns around are very descriptive and beautifully written. Another very engaging character is his daughter, Tick, who is surviving the hellish world of high school and her mother's remarriage in usual teenage fashion. She's got a sharp tongue, and a ready wit, but she isn't callous or a mean person as so many of her classmates are. For nothing else, this novel is worth reading for these two characters.
On the other hand, there're the very dislikable characters of Mrs. Whiting and her evil cat-familiar, and Max, Miles' father. These two are such one notes that I couldn't find anything redeemable or likeable about either one. Max does improve by the end of the novel, but he's such a whining, drunken bum that I just wished that he would go and vanish under a rock someplace. Unfortunately, Russo reveals Mrs. Whiting's character and nature right from the start, so there isn't any sort of growth or evolution for the character for the reader, which makes it rather disappointing. Every bad person has some good to them, and vice versa, and it's up to the author to reveal that to the reader in gradual stages, otherwise it's just a one-note person that isn't very pleasant to read about, no matter how good they might be.
By telling the stories of all these people in an ever-shifting pattern that takes both the past and present, Russo creates a thriving story of a forgotten America. The people in this book reminded me a great deal of the small towns that I've lived in as a child, but Russo also removes any sort of nostalgic gloss from the story, presenting a carefully crafted vision of real people and real situations. The characters speak with real voices, real problems, and if we may not be in a similar situations as the citizens of Empire Falls, I suspect that we know someone who is.
This is one of the more enjoyable novels that I've read this year, and it is easy to see how it has gathered up the accolades for best fiction. The narrative style shifts from a story-telling mode, the present day, to active voice, revealing a little at a time the tangled and at times, painful, lives of the characters. It's a very useful technique, and while some of the actions may seem contrived and a little impossible, it's not so farfetched either.
Another point that I liked was the imagry in this one, Russo does it so well and seamlessly, I did not have any difficulty in seeing the town and it's characters in my head, including the most toxic cat in the world, Timmy.
For those who are tired of some of the more popular fiction out there, I do recommend Empire Falls for an excursion into blue-collar life, where the miracles are small, but changing, and justice eventually comes to everyone. It's a lively read, full of dark humor, but also hope, and makes a very satisfying read.
Empire Falls
Richard Russo
2001; Vintage Books
ISBN 0-375-72640-3
