The elegance of this 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning novel can be described best by one of his characters, teenager Tick, who decides "just because things happen slow doesn't mean you'll be ready for them."Miles, the central character of Russo's story, runs the Empire Grill in economically depressed Empire Falls, Maine.He ekes out a life hoping for parity:that his loyalty to the grill and to its wealthy owner Mrs. Whiting will result in his owning the business, that his patience with his daughter Tick will be rewarded with openness, that his soon-to-be-ex wife Janine will find what was lacking in him in her fiancé Walt, that his youthful failure to escape the town will have some redemption.But the complexity of Mrs. Whiting's interest in him remains out of his grasp, and the dynamics of Tick's life are largely hidden from him.Janine has a growing need for exactly what she hated so much about Miles.Worst of all, Miles sees himself as destined to remain a loser who gives and never gets. Russo explores the storylines of all these characters and others, allowing the reader intimate glimpses into their lives. In Empire Falls, relationships between husbands and wives and between parents and children are never simple.Russo's characters suffer in ways that are passionately ordinary - that is, until everything funnels into one explosive, extraordinary moment.I literally had to put the book down to absorb this climatic scene.That this scene was both prepared for and totally shocking speaks to the author's skill.I cannot recommend this book highly enough.The characters are lively and sympathetic - even the ones that might be called villains - and despite the quiet nature of the narrative, it is a difficult book to put down.
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