Country: USA
Pages: 483
Not giving a shit, she decided, is like the defrost option on a car's heater that miraculously unfogs the windshield, allowing you to see where you're headed.
I was longing for a novel like this, so bad. My curiosity with Richard Russo's EMPIRE FALLS comes from many positive reviews, a HBO mini-series adaptation and from Russo's reputation, sure. But there's a single fact that made me walk to the bookstore and buy the book. It beat Jonathan Franzen's THE CORRECTIONS for the Pulizter Prize in 2002. I went absolutely bananas over Franzen's book and even elected it Best Literary Novel of my 2011 reading year. So Russo's book beat it (by a nose, I'm sure), so I HAD to read it. How well did it held up to Franzen's crushing juggernaut? Pretty well, I have to say. It's not as dark and merciless, but it's a quite an achievement in story structure. Reading EMPIRE FALLS, you will think it's going all over the place, but it's not. It's going over one place. A small, fictional mill town in Maine...
EMPIRE FALLS is the story of Miles Roby's complicated life. He's been managing the Empire Grill for twenty years and has found himself at the center of Empire Falls' heart. The grill is struggling, like the whole community is, but they are closing in on the place, making in the official hang-around place in town. Miles is struggling with his wife Janine, who is about to divorce him to marry a vapid fitness center owner, so he's trying to juggle this, the upbringing of his brilliant teenager daughter Tick (a nickname for Christine or Christina, I don't remember) and his relationship to Francine Whiting, the heiress of the Whiting family, who owns half of the real estate in town, including the Empire Grill. Miles is trying to handle the situation being his passive self he perceives to be "a model of tolerance", but the truth is that Miles has absolutely zero self-respect.
To his surprise, she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, a kiss so full of affection that it dispelled the awkwardness, even as it caused Miles' heart to plummet, because all kisses are calibrated, and this one revealed the great chasm between affection and love.
The breathtaking beauty of Miles Roby's story (because I did found it breathtaking) is that his life is an allegory for Empire Falls, which is an example of the casualties of the shift in values in America. Richard Russo hides his in plain sight with so much subtly, sews every narrative threads together with invisible strings, he makes it such a pleasure to read. What makes this allegory so brilliant is that it's not so subtle. Miles is directly implicated in the municipal life of Empire Falls and whatever he does has implications on the others, like per se, hiring bullied kid John Voss to work for him. But his family life also reflects the passage of time and the really quick changes of early twenty-first century America. His wife Janine leaves him and everything that defined who she was before for a new image of herself. Now she finds herself beautiful, has a passionate sex life, but doesn't have much of an identity or any feeling of belonging. That made her my favorite character of the novel and her face-offs with her mother Bea were my favorite passages.
Some short stories can be perfect, but very few niovels are and the longer your book is, the more you expose yourself to potential critics. EMPIRE FALLS is a tremendous work of storytelling, but it can get coarse at times. Everyday life is not always exciting, especially in an economically struggling town. But when you read the last page, what you will remember is how Russo beautifully wrapped it up. It's of equal scope and ambition than THE CORRECTIONS, but it's also a lot more tender.Where Franzen just wants you to read the truth about an American family, Russo is trying to make you see the beauty in the bigger picture. It's sometimes very grim in Empire Falls, but from the stance it's written, you can't help but to think it's inevitable and that's how you decide to live with dramas like this that will make the different. I can understand why a jury would have chosen it over THE CORRECTIONS. I'm not sure I would agree, but it's easy to compare both works. Whichever is your favorite is up to you to decide. A beautiful novel that will keep you warm this winter.
Some short stories can be perfect, but very few niovels are and the longer your book is, the more you expose yourself to potential critics. EMPIRE FALLS is a tremendous work of storytelling, but it can get coarse at times. Everyday life is not always exciting, especially in an economically struggling town. But when you read the last page, what you will remember is how Russo beautifully wrapped it up. It's of equal scope and ambition than THE CORRECTIONS, but it's also a lot more tender.Where Franzen just wants you to read the truth about an American family, Russo is trying to make you see the beauty in the bigger picture. It's sometimes very grim in Empire Falls, but from the stance it's written, you can't help but to think it's inevitable and that's how you decide to live with dramas like this that will make the different. I can understand why a jury would have chosen it over THE CORRECTIONS. I'm not sure I would agree, but it's easy to compare both works. Whichever is your favorite is up to you to decide. A beautiful novel that will keep you warm this winter.