Reading Order
Empire Falls Reading Order
Empire Falls (2001) by Richard Russo is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Miles Roby, the manager of the Empire Grill in Empire Falls, Maine — a dying mill town whose fate was decided when the Whiting family closed the textile mill that was the town's economic foundation. Miles has been waiting for something for twenty years: he is waiting for the widow Francine Whiting to give him the restaurant she has promised, waiting for his daughter Tick to grow up, waiting for his life to become what he half-believes it could be. In the meantime, he runs the grill, tolerates his ex-wife Janine's new husband Walt, and takes care of everyone who needs taking care of. Empire Falls is Russo's most ambitious and most accomplished novel — the fullest realization of his great subject, which is the working-class, small-town Northeast, the communities built around industries that have closed, and the people who stay behind. The novel is both comic (Russo has a gift for the comedy of working-class speech and social life) and tragic (the novel ends with a devastating act of violence), and it is a Dickensian in its breadth — the cast of Empire Falls is large and each character is given his or her due. The novel was adapted into a 2005 HBO miniseries with Paul Newman, Ed Harris, and Joanne Woodward that is one of the best American television adaptations of a literary novel.
Where to start
Empire Falls — any Vintage paperback. Long but reads quickly because of Russo's comic drive. Nobody's Fool (1993) is the companion novel in the same world and is equally good; most readers encounter Empire Falls first because of the Pulitzer.
Complete Empire Falls Book List
- 1Buy
Empire Falls
Richard Russo·2001·The novel — Miles Roby managing the Empire Grill in dying Empire Falls, Maine; Francine Whiting's promises, Tick's adolescence, Walt and Janine's marriage; the Pulitzer Prize winner and Russo's fullest realization of his great subject. - 2Buy
Nobody's Fool
Richard Russo·1993·The companion novel — Sully Sullivan in North Bath, New York, another dying New England mill town; the more comic, tighter companion to Empire Falls; if Empire Falls is Russo's War and Peace, Nobody's Fool is his The Pickwick Papers. - 3Buy
Straight Man
Richard Russo·1997·Russo's most purely comic novel — Hank Devereaux at a small Pennsylvania university; the academic companion to his small-town fiction; between Nobody's Fool and Empire Falls in his career and the one most likely to make the reader laugh out loud. - 4Buy
Bridge of Sighs
Richard Russo·2007·Russo's most ambitious novel after Empire Falls — Lou Lynch in Thomaston, New York, across fifty years; the companion in his Upstate New York fiction, more meditative and less comic than Empire Falls. - 5Buy
The Risk Pool
Richard Russo·1988·Russo's second novel — Ned Hall and his feckless father Sam in the fictional Mohawk, New York; the companion in his Upstate New York fiction, the earlier and more autobiographical version of the world Empire Falls inhabits. - 6Buy
Plainsong
Kent Haruf·1999·Haruf's novel about a small Colorado plains town — the companion in the tradition of American fiction that finds dignity and meaning in ordinary lives in specific American places; Holt, Colorado's people are the western plains version of Empire Falls's people. - 7Buy
A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving·1989·Irving's great New England novel — the companion in the tradition of American fiction set in specific small New England communities; Gravesend, New Hampshire is the earlier, more fantastical version of the dying New England mill towns Russo writes about. - 8Buy
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout·2008·Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in stories — the Maine coastal companion; Crosby, Maine's people are the next generation of the small Maine community tradition that includes Empire Falls's Empire Falls, Maine.
Empire Falls — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Empire Falls about?
Empire Falls is set in Empire Falls, Maine, a dying textile mill town. Miles Roby manages the Empire Grill, a diner owned by the widow Francine Whiting, who has promised to give it to Miles someday. Miles is in his 40s, recently divorced from Janine (who is now with the fitness-obsessed Walt Comeau), and the primary parent to his teenage daughter Tick, who is having a hard time at school. The novel also follows Miles's ex-wife Janine, his father Max (a scoundrel who appears and disappears), and the town's working-class community, all of whom are shaped by the Whiting family's decision to close the mill years ago. The novel builds slowly and then accelerates to a devastating act of violence in its final section.
Why is Empire Falls considered Russo's best novel?
Empire Falls is considered Russo's best novel because it combines his greatest strengths at their fullest development: the comedy of working-class New England speech and social life, the tragedy of communities whose economic foundations have been removed, the Dickensian breadth of characterization that gives every person in the novel a full interior life, and the ability to manage a large cast and a long narrative without losing momentum. It is also Russo's most fully realized statement about his great subject — the dying Northeast mill town — and the one in which his comedy and his tragedy are most successfully integrated: the novel is very funny and very sad, often in the same scene.
Who are the Whitings and why do they matter?
The Whitings are the family that owned the textile mill that was Empire Falls's economic foundation. C.B. Whiting closed the mill and took the machinery to Mexico in search of cheaper labor, destroying the town's economic base. His widow, Francine Whiting, owns most of what's left — the river frontage, the restaurant, the property — and manages the town's decline from her position as its largest landowner. The Whitings matter because they represent the specific American story of de-industrialization: the family whose economic decisions shaped a community, who extracted wealth from it for generations, and who then moved on when the math no longer worked, leaving the community to manage its own decline. Russo is very precise about the moral dimensions of this story.
How does Empire Falls compare to Nobody's Fool?
Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool are Russo's two great novels and they make an interesting pair: Nobody's Fool is tighter, funnier, and more focused on a single character (Sully Sullivan), while Empire Falls is more ambitious, broader in scope, and more willing to take tragedy seriously alongside its comedy. Nobody's Fool is perhaps more perfectly executed — every scene works, the comic timing is flawless — but Empire Falls is more ambitious and its success is therefore more impressive. Most readers who love one love both, and the two novels together constitute Russo's definitive statement about the dying Northeast mill town.
What should I read after Empire Falls?
After Empire Falls, Nobody's Fool (1993) is the companion novel and equally essential. Straight Man (1997) is Russo's most comic novel, set in an academic world rather than a small town. Bridge of Sighs (2007) is his most ambitious subsequent novel. For American fiction about dying mill towns and working-class communities in the same tradition, Richard Price's Clockers and Tom Perrotta's Election are important companions. Kent Haruf's Plainsong is the plains Western companion.
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