Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2 stars)

This is my 9th Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. It seems that when reading a Pulitzer Prize winner you are guaranteed excellent writing, but excellent plot, as in this case, is optional.

Russo creates excellent characters, and gave me a real sense of knowing Empire Falls, a dying small town in Maine that lost its spirit with the closure of various mills owned by the Whiting family. Russo's skillful depiction of Miles' inability to escape from the dying town, the simultaneous death of his mother and her dream for him to go to college, and the constant bullying of John Voss, all made for quite a depressing read.

Unfortunately the skill of the writing and good character development doesn't make up for the plodding pace (483 pages in small font) and lack of interesting plot for most of the book. There is a flurry of excitement towards the end, and quite a good climax, but it seems rushed after the slow pace of the rest of the novel.

The book was made into a 2-part HBO miniseries, which I intend to watch. It could be quite good, since with only two parts most of the boring set-up can be condensed. If it flowed at the same pace of the book it would probably have to be a 26-part series...

2 stars.