Under the Falls

Stone Mountain is not a fancy New York mountain town. It's one of the "in-betweens"—more rural than not, with seasonal weekend crowds in the summer, but a transient feel to the place. There's no town center, and driving through, "you don't see things. You glimpse them, and just that quickly they're gone." It's the type of place that produces a mountain of history among its permanent inhabitants, many of whom never leave. People from Stone Mountain "don't go out into the world and become rich and famous... with one exception."

Tyler Sinclair is that exception. He grew up in Stone Mountain, but at age eighteen, he left without saying a single goodbye. Getting out served him well: he became a famous rock star, writing and singing songs about the place he left behind. Now he's back for the first time in almost twenty years to perform a benefit concert for his paralyzed friend, Tim "Doc" Dockery.

As the story unfolds, secrets from Tyler's past begin to surface. We learn he was present the day Doc was paralyzed, and that he has been estranged from his childhood best friend, Curt, ever since leaving town. Curt, now the chief of police, is married to Freddi—the third member of their tight-knit trio growing up—with whom he shares an 18-year-old son, Curtis Jr.

While the novel takes a few unexpected plot turns, it also has elements that feel familiar and predictable. It's a tale about making peace with past demons and reconciling how the past influences the present without allowing it to dominate who you become. Tyler has moved on from Stone Mountain, but he's never fully been able to leave the town—or the people he was closest to—behind. Meanwhile, Curt seems locked in a pattern established twenty years ago. In a moment of introspection, Tyler comes to the following conclusion:

"In a nutshell, living is a lifelong process of messing things up. You start when you're young and you just keep at it, doing every damn thing wrong, making a complete hash of everything, until you no longer recognize yourself, or, worse, you know exactly who you are."

It had been a while since I'd read any Richard Russo, and Under the Falls helped me remember how much I appreciate his writing (with the passage above as evidence). However, the moments of brilliance were fewer in this novel, and the character development didn't quite reach the depth seen in his previous works. Overall, I was satisfied with the book, but it was missing a "wow" factor for me.