Dec 19, 2009

Empire Falls | Introduction

Empire Falls (2001), by Richard Russo, is set in a small, working-class town that has fallen upon hard times. Unlike Russo’s previous novels, which are set in Upstate New York, this novel is set in Maine, where Russo lived for several years prior to its composition.

The themes explored in this novel are not peculiar to Maine, however. The story of long-suffering Miles Roby, trapped in Empire Falls by the mysterious motives of Francine Whiting, by economic necessity, and by his deep love for both his teenage daughter and his late mother, explores universal questions about how much is determined by free will and how much is determined by nature. The novel also examines whether the rich and powerful suffer consequences from their exploitation of those who are less fortunate, and it inquires if people ought to forfeit their own happiness in order to benefit others whom they love.

Distinguished by its rich characterization and Russo’s trademark sense of humor, Empire Falls was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002.

Empire Falls Summary

Prologue
C. B. Whiting is the last in the line of Whiting males. The Whiting dynasty has ruled the town of Empire Falls for generations, owning the town’s major employers, the shirt factory and the textile mill. Charles Beaumont Whiting grows up in privilege in the grandiose Whiting mansion. In his twenties, he moves to Mexico, where he dreams of being a poet and painter. However, his father summons him back to Maine to take over the management of the shirt factory. Ten years later, resigned to his life in Maine, Charles decides to build himself a hacienda across the river from Empire Falls. Before construction begins, however, he notices that great quantities of trash keep washing up on the banks of the river, on his future doorstep. Hired analysts explain that the “design” of the river, “one of God’s poorer efforts,” is to blame for the problem. To improve the flow of the river, a channel is blasted through a strip of land Charles buys from a poor family named Robideaux.

The Whiting men have a common curse: they share their lives with women who make them miserable. C. B. Whiting chooses Francine Robideaux.

Part One: Chapters 1–8
In current day Empire Falls, the Empire Grill is a small diner run by protagonist Miles Roby, but owned (as much of Empire Falls is) by Francine Whiting. The shirt factory and the textile mill have been closed for over twenty years, but the town and the Empire Grill limp onward.

Miles and his daughter Tick are readjustting to Empire Falls after their annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard, made possible by Miles’s college friends who own a house there. Tick laments that she has no friends since she broke up with the volatile Zack Minty. Miles does his best to comfort her while coping with life at the Grill: the rundown dishwasher, a fry cook who has gone missing on his annual bender, and diner regulars such as Walt Comeau (also known as the Silver Fox), the loud boastful proprietor of the town’s health club, who is sleeping with Miles’s soon-to-be-ex wife.

Miles is a faithful parishioner of St. Catherine’s, and in his spare time, he is painting the exterior of the church for free. He is good friends with Father Mark, the younger of the two priests at the parish; the elder, Father Tom, is senile. Miles and Father Mark chat over a cup of coffee when Father Tom enters and calls Miles a “peckerhead,” and his mother—who has been dead for twenty years—a “whore.” Miles attributes the outburst to Tom’s dementia. Still, it causes him to think back on his mother and her untimely death of cancer.

Francine Whiting now controls what is left of the Whiting empire, since her husband took his own life over twenty years earlier. The same afternoon that Miles is accosted by Father Tom, Miles runs into Mrs. Whiting. She asks him about his recent trip and if he knows why he keeps going there every year. Miles replies that it is because his friends have a house there. Mrs. Whiting cryptically quotes from The Great Gatsby and then dismisses him with a wave of her hand.

Miles’s wife, Janine, is now living in their house with Walt Comeau, while Miles is living in a tiny apartment over the Empire Grill. Janine’s main attachment to Walt is sex. After twenty years of marriage to Miles, Janine at forty had her first orgasm with Walt and is determined to make up for all the sex she has missed. Janine recently lost fifty pounds and is now an aerobics instructor at Walt’s health club.

Tick, Janine and Miles’s daughter, is in high school. Her favorite subject is art, and she has rearranged her schedule to accommodate it, by eating lunch alone in the cafeteria during sixth period. In art class, Tick sits at a table with her only friend, Candace, and John Voss, a silent boy who wears mismatched thrift-shop clothing. Candace carves her boyfriend’s name on her chair with a stolen Exacto knife and accidentally slashes her thumb open. Tick faints at the sight. When she regains consciousness she spots the Exacto knife on the floor and slips it into her backpack before her teacher discovers it.

Miles’s father, Max, is a seventy-year-old reprobate with a general disregard for niceties such as tact, personal hygiene, and integrity. Max badgers Miles to let him help paint St. Cat’s, so he can make enough money to go to the Florida Keys for the winter. Miles points out that he is not getting paid. While arguing this point at the local donut shop one morning, they are joined by Jimmy Minty, an Empire Falls policeman Miles has disliked since childhood. Devious and spiteful, Jimmy always puts on an outward show of down-home friendliness. When Jimmy tells Miles to warn his brother David to be careful, because “Everybody knows he’s growing marijuana,” Miles loses his temper and tells him to shut up.

The idea that David could be growing marijuana, however, is not so far-fetched. David has had his problems with drugs and alcohol. Three years before, David, drunk, drove his car into a ravine. The accident ruined his arm but sobered him up. Now David’s idea to serve ethnic dinners at the Empire Grill—one night Chinese, another Mexican—has boosted business and allowed the Grill to show a slight profit for the first time in years. After one particularly good evening, David suggests that they should petition Mrs. Whiting for a liquor license or go into business with Bea, Miles’s mother-in-law, whose bar has an unused kitchen. Miles expresses his doubts. Angered by the negative response, David reminds Miles how heartbroken their mother would be to know that twenty years after her death, Miles was still running the Empire Grill.

Part One concludes with a flashback to a pivotal event in Miles’s childhood, a trip that he and his mother took to Martha’s Vineyard. They stay in a small cottage near the beach. Beautiful Grace is approached by numerous men on the island, but she rebuffs them. They eat every night at the cheapest restaurant they can find, where Miles eats steamer clams by the basket. One night, however, they have dinner in the main dining room, an expensive place, and Grace wears a new white dress. Miles complains loudly that steamer clams are not on the menu, and Charlie Mayne, who is eating alone at a neighboring table, suggests that he try the Clams Casino. To Miles’s surprise, Grace invites him to join them for dinner.

After dinner Charlie takes them for a speedy ride in his yellow sports car, ending in a spot overlooking the beach, where the sun is just setting. Miles asks to go to the beach, and his mother agrees. When he returns, he spies his mother resting her head on Charlie Mayne’s shoulder.

The next day, Miles is angry with his mother. He announces that he is going to tell Max about Charlie Mayne. His mother tells him he will have to wait for Max to get out of jail, because he has been arrested for being a public nuisance. Miles storms out, and while he is sitting on the beach, Charlie Mayne approaches and tries to talk to him, saying that everyone deserves a chance to be happy. When Miles asserts that his mother “is happy,” Charlie replies, “I was talking about me.”

The next day they leave on the ferry. Grace is in tears, and Miles, seeing her distress, promises her he will not tell Max.

Part Two: Chapters 9–14
Miles is summoned to the Whiting hacienda. Mrs. Whiting claims she has a surprise for him. When he arrives, he sees that the surprise is Cindy Whiting, home from her latest stint in the state mental... » Complete Empire Falls Summary