Empire Falls by Richard Russo

It took me a long time to finish this book—I’ve been working on it since my last book review and, for maybe the first time in my life, I haven’t been reading any other books simultaneously. But my slowness in finishing has nothing to do with the length of the book or the quality of the read. Had it been Christmas break, I think I would have devoured the 483 pages in a matter of days; it sucked me in from the very first page, and I’ve been reading bits and pieces in all the little spare moments I can get. Last night I had an early bedtime goal after a week’s worth of late nights, but I was 60 pages from the end, and ten pages in I found that I couldn’t put it down.

What I loved most about this book was the character development. The novel itself was not entirely character-driven—there was definitely a story, though I’d be hard pressed to tell it back to you. Things happened, and everything that happened was important to the story (though you didn’t necessarily see it at the time), and all the events rolled forward to a natural, but not necessarily expected, conclusion. But the characters did drive the plot, and Russo’s handling of the characters is what makes the book what it is.

Miles Roby is at the center of the novel, a middle-aged man who has spent most of his life in the struggling Maine town of Empire Falls where he now runs the local diner. But although the story is ostensibly about Miles, the character development radiates outward to his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Janine, and daughter, Tick, who Russo paints almost as clearly as Miles himself, and then from there to everyone else who plays a role, any role, in Miles’ story. It’s not just that we meet these characters, it’s that they all have their own story, and as the reader we are able to see a little bit of each of their stories. Russo’s strength is that he allows us not just to see the characters, but to know them—the minor ones as well as the major ones, the unlikeable as well as the likeable. And he doesn’t just take the time to tell us about the characters—we get inside their heads, even if it’s just for a chapter or two, and see how they understand the world and why they do what they do.

I have to give credit to Eric for this one—he’s been trying to get me to read a Richard Russo novel for awhile, and the copy of Empire Falls that I read was his (which means I don’t have the satisfaction of sliding it into place on my bookshelf). And I’m glad he recommended it—it’s the kind of book that makes me hesitant to pick up my next read because I know it just won’t quite live up.