Richard Russo: Empire Falls

By PENELOPE BIEDER*

A small town in the backblocks of Maine, Empire Falls, is slowly dying. The textile mill is long closed and quietly rotting on its foundations. And its adjacent shirt factory has also been abandoned.

In this somewhat demoralising scene lives Miles Roby, struggling along with his restaurant, the imaginatively named Empire Grill. One day he hopes to own it, and his hopes insecurely rest in the verbal agreement he has with its owner, elderly matriarch Francine Whiting, who also owns just about every building in town.

This is the story of their two families and it is a contemporary American story, with compassion and morality at its core.

It is about the things that are unsaid between people, and the things left undone. The way Richard Russo has communicated the unspoken in this large, riotously funny, heartbreakingly beautiful novel, is quite a miracle.

Miles looks across the bar at his appalling father, Max, an itinerant house painter with breadcrumbs in his beard, who is always trying to get to Florida by stealing money from Miles.

Miles is a true anti-hero, slightly bemused, generous and kind to a fault, and a drop-out from college for the very best of reasons. He worries about his 16-year-old daughter, Tick, and he has to serve coffee to awful Walt Comeau, his recently ex-wife Janine's new boyfriend.

The Empire Grill is getting more customers thanks to younger brother David's inspired cooking, so Miles sets out to see Mrs Whiting to beg for a liquor licence and bumps into Cindy Whiting, the daughter he hasn't seen for years ...

There's a hint of Alice Munro or Anne Tyler in Russo's deep affection for his characters. And while it is possibly a little wordy at times the plot throws out surprising curve balls.

It's no surprise to learn that Empire Falls has just picked up the Pulitzer Prize for literature. It's a rich, satisfying read to take away on a winter holiday.

* Penelope Bieder is a freelance writer.

* Published by Random House, $26.95