Miles Roby is a soon-to-be divorced father who seems to have lost all passion for life. He has been working at the same restaurant, the Empire Grill, for twenty years. He suffers through constant, obnoxious reminders that his wife is marrying someone else as soon as his divorce from her is final. He tolerates a mischievous, thieving father who is always telling him how not to be a loser. He squirms under the thumb of a woman who has ruled him, his family and the entire town of Empire Falls for generations. Miles's only solace is in his daughter, Christina (Tick, as she is affectionately known by everyone). Despite everything Miles has going against him throughout the story he remains a graceful, if not tragic, hero.
Even though Miles Roby is the main protagonist of Empire Falls the entire town comes alive by Richard Russo's artistic and skillful writing. Like any small community Empire Falls has its fair share of quirky people and Miles Roby's personal life is not only know by everyone else, but is commented and cared about by all. ( )

Miles Roby lives in the small town of Empire Falls, Maine. Once a thriving textile mill town, Empire Falls now suffers from lack of economic development. Miles runs the Empire Grill, a job he has held since leaving college to care for his dying mother. He is separated from his wife Janine, who is about to remarry. Miles and Janine share responsibility for their teenage daughter Tick (a nickname for Christina), who is having a hard time with Janine's new relationship. Miles' elderly father, Max, is a ne'er-do-well who rarely has two pennies to rub together and is always looking to Miles for a handout.

The Empire Grill is actually owned by Francine Whiting, wealthy widow of textile magnate C.B. Whiting. Francine holds a strange power of Miles, having made vague promises that the grill would become his upon her death. And it turns out Mrs. Whiting has exerted power of Miles most of his life. Why would Mrs. Whiting care about Miles? How did their lives become intertwined? As Miles goes about his daily routine, the answers to these questions gradually become clear.

The novel unfolds at a slow pace, with Russo first painting detailed portraits of all the major characters. Then there are occasional chapters in which Miles remembers events from his past. These episodes are retold from Miles' point of view at the time. Memories of a childhood vacation, or of learning to drive, are described with the perspective of a child, who may not always understand the intricacies of adult relationships or of "real life." Yet it's through these episodes that the reader begins to see how and why the Roby and Whiting families have become intertwined.

While Miles' relationship with Mrs. Whiting provides the central tension in the novel, there are several equally rich sub-plots that are explored in similar depth. The residents of Empire Falls have grown up there together; high school friendships and rivalries play out in adulthood. And for Tick, that cycle is only just beginning, as she learns to navigate the sometimes painful paths of adolescent relationships.

Reading Empire Falls, I began to feel as if I knew these people. I found myself thinking about them when I wasn't reading; they were very real to me and will likely linger in my memory for some time. ( )

Nice story. One of those 'feel good' reads. ( )

I'm ambivalent about this book, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction for 2002. On the one hand the writing is skillful & has a rambling, easy quality that's admirable & a pleasure to read. On the other hand not a lot happens until the final 50 pages of the book when the author unaccountably (& almost literally) blows everything up for no apparent reason. On the one hand there are some wonderfully written characters here, particularly Tick - one of the most effective portraits of an adolescent that I've read in recent fiction. On the other hand there are also some dreadfully caricatured people who never rise beyond their cardboard cutout outlines - Janine, Tick's mother comes immediately to mind.

This book is deeply satisfying when Russo focuses on his characters & their relationship to each other & to this dying small town & its history. It is deeply disappointing when he strays into sensationalist ripped from the headlines territory. The ways that it is deeply satisfying make the ways that it disappoints that much more disappointing, of course.

Having said all of that, I'm glad I read it & I enjoyed large chunks of this enormously. I'll definitely look for more of his work. ( )

The story of Miles Roby and his daughter, Tick, the Whiting family, and the decline of the town of Empire Falls.

After finishing the book, I thought it would make an excellent book for a compare and contrast paper for school. Nearly any two people in the book could be taken together and compared or contrasted or both on their points of view, personalities, and themes in the book. Another paper could be written on the power each character has and how it affects their positions relative to one another. One could also write about the town of Empire Falls, which is almost a character itself in the book. The descriptions decline of the structures and characters during their slowly detailed lives were immersive. I felted like I could stand in Empire Falls as much the same as any abandoned mill town on a river in New England. ( )