Empire Falls
is another wonderful novel by Richard Russo, author of Nobody’s Fool and
Straight Man, and has recently been made into an HBO film.  The
unabridged audiobook version is masterfully read by Ron McLarty in about 20
hours, and there is an added interview with Russo at the end.  Russo talks
eloquently about his work and reveals how the book is largely about the
relationships between parents and children, partly inspired by his own
experience as a parent of two teenaged girls. 

The main character of Empire
Falls is Miles Roby, the middle aged father of sixteen-year-old Tick. 
Tick used to date Zack Minty, son of Jimmy, a local policeman who Miles has
hated since they were both in high school.  One feature of the novel,
reflecting life in the Maine town Empire Falls, is that everyone knows everyone
else, and nearly all about their family history.  People judge each other in
the context of their family histories, and so town life is a complex web of
relationships.  Zack is on the school football team, and Miles is very relieved
that Tick no longer dates him.  Miles is convinced that Zack is no good, as Jimmy
Minty and Jimmy’s father were also no good.  Miles and Tick have a good
relationship, although he finds it very difficult to get her to talk to him
much of the time.  On the other hand, Tick and her mother have a very hostile
relationship, mostly because Tick’s parents are getting divorced, and Tick’s
mother has left Miles for another man, Walt Como, who calls himself "the
Silver Fox," and has the name printed on the side of his car.  Miles
worries about the safety of his only child, and wishes he could protect her
from the world.  One of the main lessons of the book is that the world is a
dangerous place and parents are sometimes unable to prevent harm from coming to
their children.

At school, Tick has only one
friend.  She lost most of her friends when she split up with Zack.  She eats on
her own, until she is asked by the principal to eat with another boy, John Voss. 
John is bullied by Zack, and never fights back.  The quiet boy is extremely
docile and it turns out that his parents physically abused and neglected him
before leaving him altogether.  Tick establishes some trust between herself and
John, giving him food and trying to get Zack to stop being such a pain in the
neck. 

Miles also spends a good deal of
time with his own father, Max, who is a real character.  The old man has always
been completely self-centered and made his family’s life unhappy.  Miles’
mother died young, at the same age that Miles is now, and she virtually raised
her two sons single-handed, not out of choice but because Max was so
unreliable.  Strangely, Miles does not exhibit any resentment to his father. 

Miles finds himself with demands on
all sides, from his father, brother, soon-to-be-ex-wife and her future husband,
and the owner of the business that Miles runs, The Empire Grill.  Mrs. Whiting
is the richest woman in the area, and she has known Miles all his life.  She
knew his mother too, and employed her to look after her crippled daughter for
many years.  Mrs. Whiting is a powerful and cold woman, and it seems that she
does what she can to make Miles’ life more difficult.  One of the central
mysteries of the novel is what she has in store for Miles, and why she takes
her vindictive attitude towards him.

These are only some of the main
themes of this rich book.  Russo has a magnificent ability to show the
relationships between so many people in a community and give a sense of how
they all fit together.  The plot twist at the end of the novel is especially dramatic,
and one might wonder whether it fits with the rest of the work.  The book ends
soon after, and one might also reasonably feel that Russo doesn’t adequately
follow through on the implications of this major event.  However, arguably he
has given enough detail about the characters and the ways that they cope with
difficulty before this rupture in the fabric of the town that the reader can at
least imagine how it will go.  It is clear from his interview that Russo
conceives of this event not as a convenient way to finish the novel, but rather
as a climactic ending that drives home the central themes.  Russo’s strength as
an author remains in the careful descriptions of people’s thought processes as
he gradually reveals the dark secrets they have kept for years as they go
through their everyday lives, but this new dramatic element in his work does
add some energy to the plot.

Empire Falls is
a major work of contemporary American fiction, and deserves a wide readership. 
The gripping performance by Ron McLarty in the unabridged audiobook makes it
even more accessible.  Highly recommended. 

Link: Review of Straight
Man

© 2005 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.