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A review by sanrio912
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
4.0
Quite a read and understand why it won the Pulitzer at the time.I marked a star off for a few reasons.
First was that the ending felt very rushed in comparison to the almost 500 pages this is. I got entire chapters on characters that I didn’t really care for, just to have everything packed into honestly maybe 50 or so pages?
Second is some of the characterizations and dialogue is misogynistic, racist and xenophobic. I’m from a red state background and I’ve lived in a small coastal community (a few thousand people when not in tourist season). Some of the feelings or statements of characters were close enough that you got the point. However, some just felt a bit fancy writer making a point vs actually capturing vernacular and telling the whole truth. Janine’s character in particular was a very damaged woman turned mean girl from losing weight. Then she gains it all back. What’s the purpose? I hated her, so the portrayal of a real(ish) person was done well.
Lastly the school shooting ending in 2002 was probably much more shocking, but in 2023 it felt like a slow walk to Voss doing something horrible. The entire time it seems he was failed over and over. Now at the end he’s been declared unfit for trial. Without any lengthy insight from the rest of the cast of characters as to how it got there.
First was that the ending felt very rushed in comparison to the almost 500 pages this is. I got entire chapters on characters that I didn’t really care for, just to have everything packed into honestly maybe 50 or so pages?
Second is some of the characterizations and dialogue is misogynistic, racist and xenophobic. I’m from a red state background and I’ve lived in a small coastal community (a few thousand people when not in tourist season). Some of the feelings or statements of characters were close enough that you got the point. However, some just felt a bit fancy writer making a point vs actually capturing vernacular and telling the whole truth. Janine’s character in particular was a very damaged woman turned mean girl from losing weight. Then she gains it all back. What’s the purpose? I hated her, so the portrayal of a real(ish) person was done well.
Lastly the school shooting ending in 2002 was probably much more shocking, but in 2023 it felt like a slow walk to Voss doing something horrible. The entire time it seems he was failed over and over. Now at the end he’s been declared unfit for trial. Without any lengthy insight from the rest of the cast of characters as to how it got there.