Empire Falls

Hugely Enjoyable

This is one of those books that holds your interest because you grow to care about the characters and just can't wait to find out what happens to them.
The reader does a marvelous job.
I took it from the car to the house and back to the car and I wish it had gone on longer.

14 of 14 people found this review helpful

Pulitzer Prize well deserved

Every book written by Richard Russo have been excellent. About simple everyday life, and folks we all recognize, yet every phrase turns your head.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Lives of quiet desperation

When Thoreau observed that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” he may have just passed through Empire Falls and visited the Empire Grill. The inhabitants of this economically depressed town live with the unlikely hope that something good might happen to restore prosperity and jobs that had evaporated with the closing of the mills years before. Miles Roby, manager of the Empire Grill personifies this hope, as he believes that the former owner of the mills, and still owner of the grill, will leave the grill to him upon her death as reward for his two decades of service. This belief is how he justifies the stagnation of his life and his refusal to strive for change. Problem is, this tyrannical woman is of the breed of those who are just too mean to die. Still, he is a good man doing the best he can with a deck stacked against him. Flashbacks reveal a bit at a time how he, and others in his sphere, came to where they are today,creating (if there is such a thing) an intimate saga that covers both a very few months and several decades. Russo explores destiny, sacrifice, and penitence vs power and free will, and how love (in all of its forms) shades the decisions that shape our lives.

Darker than “Nobody’s Fool”, Russo still shows his genius at creating flesh and blood characters that, with few exceptions, are neither cloyingly good nor irredeemably bad, taking time to let us see day by day life from several characters’ POV. Russo’s writing is liberally sprinkled with his ironic humor and plain common sense that lets us see the lighter side of the human condition. Though Miles is the central character, Russo allows the supporting cast just the right amount of “screen time” to fully incorporate them into the bigger picture,

For readers who like quick reads and thrilling action, this may not satisfy. This is not a fast food book, it is a sit down meal, like the good yankee pot roast prepared by the parish priest’s housekeeper. Ron McLarty’s reading adds to the quality of this selection. Well recommended.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Excellent Read!

This is the second time I've read Empire Falls. The first time was several years ago - I'd forgotten what a wonderful story it is. The characters are just like people in the small town where I live. This book is the perfect example of how our choices can make us or break us.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Fine wine for the soul. Savor every word.

Sip swirl and breath. Repeat. Recharge your soul with this as from a glass dark and deep with all the beautiful truths and failures of being human.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Perfect combination of story and narrator

Where does Empire Falls rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It would be among the top ten.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Miles Roby. He was the center of the story. If you didn't like Miles you wouldn't like the story. However his father was great fun and the narrator did a splendid job with him.

Have you listened to any of Ron McLarty’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not, but I will be looking for more narrated by him. He was probably the best narrator I have heard and I have listened to some I thought could not be beat.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Lively narration interesting story woven threads

I like this one a lot. I'm working my way through the pulitzer Prize winners . This a wonderful Vue into the lives of the different characters twisting and turning it's fun

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An absorbing experience

Empire Falls is primarily a character-driven book and the plot, where it becomes important, is more of a let’s-see-what-happens-next variety rather than one where there is a definitive goal or outcome to be achieved. Mostly the story revolves around Miles Roby who is a well-meaning bumbler of a man and while he doesn’t generate any strong emotion for me, he was someone to root for. I didn’t feel strongly about him in any way and it mirrors his own view of himself and his circumstances. Until the very end, Miles never seemed to feel enough about his own life to run it on his own terms. He felt a duty to live for others; his mother, Mrs. Whiting, his daughter and Empire Falls itself.

Besides Miles, another focus character is Tick, his daughter. I liked the way she put her decisions together, admitting that maybe she doesn’t know everything yet, but also is pretty sure of the things she does know. Like many mother-daughter-grandmother relationships, she is closer to the elder of the two and holds her mother in contempt for her relationship with the sliver fox, and can you blame her?, I mean, please. She hasn’t yet recognized her parents as people first, parents second.

At first, the frenetic ending seemed rushed, but then I realized that it was brewing for quite some time. Mrs. Whiting, for me, became harder and harder to like as I at first did, and her heartless treatment of everyone around her got to be disgusting. Janine’s capitulation to what she thinks she really needs turns out to be not so wonderful. Miles gets into it with Jimmy Minty. Tick gets out of it with his son, Zach, but Zach’s athletic career has taken a detour into unsportsmanlike conduct and bad public opinion. The missing grandmother and finally, John’s descent into violence bring the crescendo to a roar. There’s so much more to this novel than what I’ve described here and so I can’t really do it justice. The characters and their situations will remain in my mind for a while yet and that for me, is a mark of a good book and a good reading experience.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good story and well performed

I've spend some time in Maine where this story is based so I decided to listen to it even before I knew if won the Pulitzer. Well written, reearched and performed. Solid book and well worth the time.

Engaging, Absorbing

A great story about a place and time as much as about a person or people. That said, you get to know the main characters very well--and care about them.

The book is more character driven than plot driven but the story it tells is a good one. Russo's writing is clear and descriptive and he displays empathy for the residents of Empire Falls. His fictional world feels real.

Ron McLarty does an exceptional job narrating this book. Each character has a different voice and he rarely stumbles or confuses them. He doesn't necessarily "impersonate" each character, but changes his voice just enough. I especially enjoyed his version of Max Roby.