CCC Book Club

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

Like most of Richard Russo’s earlier novels, Empire Falls is a tale of blue-collar life, which itself increasingly resembles a kind of high-wire act performed without the benefit of any middle-class safety nets. This time, though, the author has widened his scope, producing a comic and compelling ensemble piece. There is, to be sure, a protagonist: fortysomething Miles Roby, proprietor of the local greasy spoon and the recently divorced father of a teenage daughter. But Russo sets in motion a large cast of secondary characters, drawn from every social stratum of his depressed New England mill town. 

Find it on Amazon.

Facilitator: Ed Tokarz, Jr.

For more information, please contact the group leader, Jean Kerns, at jakerns@tampabay.rr.com.