I finished Richard Russo's Pulitzer-prize winning novel, Empire Falls, last night.  Or this morning, rather.  I couldn't put the fat book down so I ended up reading it until five o'clock in the morning.  Russo has an immensely readable style and his dialogue is as good as any I've ever read. The way he tricked me, though, was that he put the kinds of barely-foreshadowed twists and turns in the novel that kept me reading chapter after chapter.  What happened in the backyard?  I wondered, trying to flip through enough pages to find the answer.  My search was futile, so, in the end, I just had to read until I finished.

Empire Falls tells the story of Miles Roby, a thwarted academic and college professor, who by circumstances beyond his control, takes the helm of the Empire Grill in his hometown of Empire Falls.  The Grill, like much of the real estate in Empire Falls the book tells us about a million times, is owned by Francine Whiting, the widow of a factory magnet. The factory, which provided many of the jobs in the town, is now closed and Empire Falls has fallen into a decline from which it is unlikely to recover. Miles and his wife, Janine, are in the process of divorcing and their daughter, a sophomore in high school named Tick, is none too happy about it. 

Richard Russo is supposed to be one of the best writers on the dwindling small town.  He certainly knows Maine, where Empire Falls is set, intimately well.  He has a Doctorate in English and he used to teach university English, but now he has retired to write his books on small-town life in Camden, Maine.

Russo knows Maine, but he also knows how the small town has fallen into almost disrepair over the last 50 years.  The town of Empire Falls is what gives the novel its life, though. The cast of characters is very small--along with the characters I have described, there are few others, save a couple of priests, some educators, a policeman and Miles' smelly father, Max. Still, the crux of the book is surely the code of conduct required for these people.  The set-up of Empire Falls, as Russo describes it, is almost feudal in nature with Mrs. Whiting, the richest woman in town, as the landowner. Her minions control her "peasants'" lives and ultimately, their decisions.

Miles' mother wanted him to leave Empire Falls, but he never did, seemingly compelled by some sort of obligation to Mrs. Whiting that he cannot explain.  Miles' struggle with weakness and making his own decision is the most poignant of the story and Russo does a masterful job in creating the adult Miles' temperament from boyhood on.  That said, Russo's ending gives Miles very little of his own agency, which is what he is trying to find thoughout the book. You're rooting for Miles to make his own choices--to get out of Empire Falls with his daughter--but in the end, every choice is made for him. Again.  Where did he come in the course of the novel? Miles doesn't develop as a character in this respect.

Also, I don't know what to think of the female characters in the novel. Like all the women who marry Whiting men, Francine Whiting is a supreme bitch who seems to have little motivation to ruin her husband and the town itself except for her own obsession with power.  Miles' ex-wife Janine is a lamely drawn character, only interested in sex and looking sexy with her new husband in tow. It's so tired to portray female sexuality being solely controlled by the hands of men and at his lame repetition that Janine's new husband could find her "spot" instantly, I felt sorry for Russo's inadequate grasp on women's sexual competency.  Janine surely could have found it herself, regardless of a man's sexual finesse.

Criticisms aside, the book is an excellent one.  I'm not entirely sure that it should have won the Pulitzer Prize (it should not have won the Pulitzer Prize), but it is certainly an immensely readable book that doesn't require a lot of brain-tiring interpretation.