Empire Falls

When I think of Maine, I think of mill towns. When I think of mill towns, I think of Empire Falls. And to consider Russo’s titular town is to consider what happens to a community when its once-lucrative mills are abandoned.

I have witnessed it repeatedly through the years, all around the state of Maine—first our mills go out of business, then the towns that grew around those mills gradually, inexorably decline. Russo captures this struggle, creating characters as real as the millworkers I grew up with.

He also emphasizes a strange thing that happens in these blue-collar communities: even… show more.

Even picturesque Maine has its rough side, and Empire Falls paints a complex and intriguing portrait of a rural town down on its luck and the tenuous ties between two of its most constant families, current and past.

It is a unique work where I fell in love with the story, without necessarily falling in love with the characters, as they were far too nuanced for such a simplistic emotion. Despite its nearly 500 pages, I ripped through it in just a few days, though my mind long lingered on what the future could offer this rusty mill town and… show more.