Empire Falls by Richard Russo
"Empire Falls" is a novel by Richard Russo that explores the life of Miles Roby, a struggling diner proprietor in the small, seemingly stagnant town of Empire Falls, Maine. Miles faces numerous personal challenges, including a troubled childhood, strained family relationships, and a recent divorce from his wife, Janine. Despite his desire for a better life, his hopes are tethered to the diner he runs, which he is promised to inherit but which faces financial uncertainty. The narrative unfolds against a backdrop of local struggles, including the decline of small businesses and the impact of past decisions made by influential town figures, like Francine Whiting, the diner’s owner.
Miles's daughter, Christina, nicknamed Tick, grapples with her own issues, including social isolation and a tumultuous relationship with an abusive boyfriend. The story highlights themes of personal and social power dynamics, family loyalty, and the complexities of small-town life. As events escalate, including a tragic school shooting involving one of Tick's friends, Miles reevaluates his life choices and ultimately chooses to leave Empire Falls, only to return with a renewed perspective on his hometown and its potential for revitalization. The novel paints a poignant picture of resilience amidst adversity and the intricate relationships that define a community.
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Empire Falls by Richard Russo
First published: 2001
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical realism
Time of plot: Late 1990’s
Locale: Empire Falls, Maine; Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
Principal characters
Miles Roby , the proprietor of the Empire GrillJanine Roby , his estranged wifeChristina “Tick” Roby , their daughterMax Roby , Miles’s fatherGrace Roby , Miles’s motherDavid Roby , Miles’s brotherCharlene Gardiner , a waitress at the Empire GrillWalt Comeau , Janine’s loverFrancine Whiting , wealthy owner of the Empire GrillCharles Beaumont Whiting , Francine’s late husbandCandace Burke , Tick’s friendZack Minty , Tick’s former boyfriendJohn Voss , Tick’s classmate
The Story:
On a quiet afternoon at the Empire Grill diner, Miles Roby, the proprietor and fry cook, is looking out the window. His life has not been easy. His father rarely provided his mother Grace with any financial support for him and his brother David. Instead, Grace Roby worked long hours at the local shirt factory to pay the bills for her family. Miles had dreams of attending college, but those dreams were deferred when his mother discovered she had cancer and Miles came home to take care of her. Moreover, Miles’s wife has recently left him. The one hope that remains to him is the promise that the owner of the Empire Grill, Francine Whiting, made to him twenty years ago: that when she dies, he will inherit the diner. Even this hope is fading. Owning the diner seemed like a good idea to the younger Miles, but the closed storefronts along his street suggest that the Grill may not be worth owning by the time he inherits it.
Miles’s daughter Christina, nicknamed Tick, shortly arrives, burdened by her heavy bookbag, and solemnly greets her father and her uncle David. She pointedly ignores Walt Comeau, who comes to the Grill only to taunt Miles with the fact that Walt seduced Miles’s wife Janine away from him. Tick is nearly as glum as her father, primarily because, having broken up with her abusive boyfriend Zack, she is no longer accepted by his friends and has to sit with other social rejects such as the emotionally disturbed John Voss. Her one friend, Candace, is shallow and oblivious to Tick’s feelings. While Tick feels comfortable working at her father’s diner, she wonders if she will ever feel positive about growing up in a town that seems to be dying.
Today is the day that Miles has to visit Francine Whiting and provide her with the Grill’s financial details. For many years, his profit and loss statement has reflected far more loss than profit. As Miles walks to the Planning and Development Commission Office, he wonders why Mrs. Whiting has allowed him to remain open. Most of the businesses she has acquired over the years, including the shirt factory, the mills, and many others, have closed their doors after unsuccessfully struggling to realize a profit. This year’s meeting, like the ones before, ends without any resolution: The Grill will remain open for another year. Miles thinks that he should be happy about keeping his job, but, in his sadness over his divorce and his anxiety over his daughter’s growing distance from him, he feels trapped. He thinks about the history of Empire Falls and the factory’s former owner, C. B. Whiting, who had planned such a bright future for the little town.
Miles is unaware of the full extent of C. B.’s influence on his life. His mother’s boss, Whiting became attracted to Grace Roby just after Miles was born, and he sought for years to win her heart. C. B.’s marriage was unpleasant for the aging playboy, and Grace’s prettiness was impossible for him to ignore. The summer that Miles was nine, Whiting took both Grace and her son to Martha’s Vineyard for a week, hoping to persuade Grace to leave her husband and accompany Whiting to a new life in Mexico. Grace would have acquiesced and escaped her drunken husband Max had she not been pregnant with another child at the time. Whiting was willing to accept Miles, but two children would have been too many for him. When Grace and Miles returned home to Empire Falls, Grace knew that she would never escape her life there.
Life in Empire Falls continues to move at a depressing, glacial pace. Janine’s relationship with Walt proves to be even more difficult than the life she had with Miles, as she slowly discovers how extensively the so-called Silver Fox has lied to her. Although he claims to be fifty, Walt is actually sixty. Janine’s affair inspired her to get in the best physical shape of her life and taught her how to enjoy sex for the first time, but she feels that she can no longer relate to Tick and worries that her daughter is disappointed in her.
Miles is informed that Mrs. Whiting’s daughter Cindy has been allowed to leave the mental hospital in which she has been since she last tried to commit suicide. Cindy is coming back to Empire Falls for a while. As always, Miles has mixed feelings about Cindy. She has always had a serious crush on Miles, and romancing her would ensure his own financial future, but he simply cannot make himself feel anything besides pity for the crippled girl.
Tick, buoyed by a strange sense of inner peace, has decided to befriend the silent John Voss. She even offers him a job washing dishes at her father’s diner. She does not know how deeply troubled her friend really is, however. John brings a pistol to school with him and murders Justin Dibble, the art teacher Mrs. Rodrigues, and the principal, Otto Meyer. Candace is seriously wounded in the attack. A background check on Voss reveals that he suffered severe child abuse at the hands of his parents and then lived in extreme poverty and humiliation with his grandmother. Eventually, he took revenge on both his grandmother and the family dog. The bullying he suffered at school triggered his final homicidal rage.
The murders at school convince Miles to leave Empire Falls. He had already informed Mrs. Whiting that he no longer wanted to work for her. Now, he packs his belongings and takes his sobbing daughter to Martha’s Vineyard. Their flight proves not to solve their problems, however.
Six months later, Miles assesses his dwindling savings and decides to return to his hometown. He learns that Mrs. Whiting has died and that a romance is budding between his brother and Charlene Gardiner, a waitress at the Grill. After the loss of the Grill, David and Charlene decided to start their own restaurant by expanding one of the local bars to include a full menu. Since their building was one of the few not owned by Francine Whiting, they have been able to realize a small profit. Many of the storefronts and the empty factory were sold by Mrs. Whiting shortly before her death, and the new proprietors have big plans for revitalizing the little town. No longer feeling trapped by circumstances, Miles and Tick decide that going back home is finally a welcome prospect.
Bibliography
Charles, Ron. “Grease Spots on the American Dream.” Christian Science Monitor, May 10, 2001, pp. 18-19. Echoes the sentiments of many critics who have studied Russo’s writings. Points out that the people of Empire Falls have the same blue-collar, impoverished mentality that Russo witnessed during his own childhood.
Gussow, Mel. “Writing a Novel in the Deli, Making Revisions in the Bar.” The New York Times, August 29, 2001, p. E1. Provides biographical details on author Richard Russo and describes the circumstances in Russo’s life surrounding his choice of setting for the novel.
Heinegg, Peter. “You Still Can’t Get There from Here.” America 187, no. 12 (October 21, 2002): 26. Admires Russo’s unflinching realism in representing the problems faced by traditional, East Coast mill towns. Praises the novel for being honest about its limited horizons and stunted futures, because otherwise, it could provide no impetus for social change.
Roberts, Rex. Review of Empire Falls, by Richard Russo. Insight on the News 17, no. 30 (August 13, 2001): 25. Highly praises the novel, finding it to be an excellent example of tragicomedy—a tragedy that, despite its painful subject matter, manages to find comic elements inherent in suffering.
Smith, Wendy. “Richard Russo: The Novelist Again Explores the Crucial Impact of Place on Individual Destinies.” Publishers Weekly 240, no. 23 (June 7, 1993): 43-44. Argues that the negative qualities of the town of Empire Falls define the fate of its citizens. Place seems to predetermine characters’ destinies to be unsatisfying or even destructive. It is no surprise, then, that the town raises a boy capable of a massacre.