SOURCE: Prager, Michael. “Run-of-the-Mill? Not Empire Falls.” Boston Globe (27 June 2001): D13.

In the following review, Prager offers a positive assessment of Empire Falls, lauding Russo's “entirely natural portrayal of small-town life.”

In the Empire Falls of Richard Russo's clever and knowing fifth novel, [Empire Falls,] the empire has all but fallen. Led by the mighty Whitings, its textile mills had powered the fictitious central Maine town for generations, but now only tatters remain.

The most visible remnants are the two old factories that stand hard by the Knox River, but there are plenty of others, including the clan's flinty, calculating matriarch, and memories woven deeply into the fabric of the community.

This is no more so than for Miles Roby, the town's moral center and the reader's rooting interest. Not only does he share the common history, but also there are mysterious ties between his family and the...