Empire Falls

Review of novel by Richard Russo

Slow building, but brilliant. It took me 300 pages to realize that the title had a double meaning.

A friend responded to that brief review on Goodreads, saying:

Your “review” was a bit curious. Your main point seemed to be that you didn’t get the title until 300 pages in. That’s supposed to encourage people to read it???

I replied to that:

The intent of the review is not to encourage people to read it, but rather to give an accurate account of my experience in reading it. It starts very, very slowly. But the characters eventually come alive, and the story is interesting. And there is a turning point/revelation that makes you reevaluate what you had read before, understanding it from a different perspective.

List of Richard’s other stories, essays, poems, and jokes.