![]() ![]() Russo's Empire Falls is one of those small Maine towns that never recovered from the migration southward of the textile manufacturing jobs that created it. Yet in part thanks to Russo's deft satiric touch - much of the book is laugh-out-loud funny - it never feels too slow or old-fashioned. It's the kind of big, sprawling, leisurely novel, full of subplots and vividly drawn secondary characters, that people are always complaining is an endangered species. Along the way, Russo gives us a panoramic yet nuanced view of the imaginary town of Empire Falls, Maine, showing how the history of one powerful family can become the history of a place. The answer, of course, is not necessarily, and one of Russo's great talents is to make us understand how an intelligent 40-year-old man can fail to recognize his own quiet desperation - and then make us believe that his life can change for the better. "I mean, if I were so unhappy, wouldn't I know?" asks Miles Roby, the hero of "Empire Falls," Richard Russo's fifth and most ambitious novel yet. ![]()
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