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Amazon.co.uk Review
Like most of Richard Russo's earlier novels, Empire Falls is a tale of blue-collar life, which increasingly resembles a kind of high-wire act performed without the benefit of any middle-class safety nets. This time, though, the author has widened his scope, producing a comic and compelling ensemble piece. There is, to be sure, a protagonist: fortysomething Miles Robey, proprietor of the local greasy spoon and the recently divorced father of a teenage daughter. But Russo sets in motion a large cast of secondary characters, drawn from every social stratum of his depressed New England mill town. We meet his ex-wife Janine, his father Max (another of Russo's cantankerous layabouts), and a host of Empire Grill regulars. We're also introduced to Francine Whiting, a manipulative widow who owns half the town--and who takes a perverse pleasure in pointing out Miles' psychological defects.
Miles does indeed have a tendency to take it on the chin. And his role as Mr Nice Guy thrusts him into all sorts of clashes with his not-so-nice contemporaries, even as the reader patiently waits for him to blow his top. It would be impossible to summarise Russo's multiple plot lines here. Suffice it to say that he touches on love and marriage, lust and loss and small-town economics, with more than a soupcon of class resentment stirred into the broth. This is, in a sense, an epic of small and large frustrations: "After all, what was the whole wide world but a place for people to yearn for their heart's impossible desires, for those desires to become entrenched in defiance of logic, plausibility and even the passage of time, as eternal as polished marble?" Yet Russo's comedic timing keeps the novel from collapsing into an orgy of breast-beating, and his dialogue--snappy and natural and efficiently poignant--is itself sufficient cause to put Empire Falls on the map. --Bob Brandeis, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
" Rich, humorous, elegantly constructed . . . Easily Mr. Russo' s most seductive book thus far." - "The New York Times"
" Russo writes with a warm, vibrant humanity.... A stirring mix of poignancy, drama and comedy." "-- The Washington Post"
" Russo is one of the best novelists around." - "The New York Times Book Review"
" The history of American literature may show that Richard Russo wrote the last great novel of the 20th century." - "Christian Science Monitor"
" Nobody does small-town life better than Richard Russo." "- Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
" Russo writes with a warm, vibrant humanity.... A stirring mix of poignancy, drama and comedy." "-- The Washington Post"
" Russo is one of the best novelists around." - "The New York Times Book Review"
" The history of American literature may show that Richard Russo wrote the last great novel of the 20th century." - "Christian Science Monitor"
" Nobody does small-town life better than Richard Russo." "- Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A hugely satisfying read,
By
This review is from: Empire Falls (Paperback)
This was the first book I've read by Richard Russo, but I'm determined it won't be my last. I savoured every moment of it - some parts I even read twice. For the most part, the book carries the reader along out of curiosity: the characters are somehow real, whole, familiar. I kept reading about their everyday life just because I felt I wanted to know what would happen between them all. I wasn't gripped by the storyline, I was gripped by the characters and the atmosphere, it felt like I was there with them. It's only in the final chapters of the novel that the storyline takes a huge leap into the dramatic, and suddenly you realise that Russo had been building to this all along. There is nothing predictable about this book. It is beautifully engineered and satisfying to read - and entirely worthy of the Pulitzer Prize it won. Really, really recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget the plot and enjoy the details,
By A Customer
This review is from: Empire Falls (Paperback)
Russo excels in two areas: characterization and dialogue. The plot itself is almost incidental, and when the climax comes and all the loose ends are tied up and god gets out of his machine, you realise that it is not the story that is so interesting as the ensemble that Russo has put together. It is very rare that I have read a novel where I dont care what happens, just so long as these people get together and talk to each other or past each other, or reflect on their situation, and worry about whatever it is they are worried about. A real pleasure of a read!
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Empire Falls (Paperback)
Having read several prize winning books this year, I was very keen to partake of the Pulitzer Prize Winner. It does not disappoint. An outstanding book, that provides a wonderful insight into many of the characters in the book, and not just the focal character, by allowing the narrator to speak for each of them individually. By getting in the heads of other individuals, you begin to get a better understanding of why people do what they do, when it is not always totally logical to you why they do. You will experience every emotion as you read the book, including, but not limited to; happiness, sadness, sympathy and empathy. A great book which is accessible to all types of readers.
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