Richard Russo likes to set his novels in upstate New York—small towns that were once prosperous and now aren’t, venues for his characters to work blue-collar jobs, fall in love, fight, make up, die. Much of that happens in Stone Mountain, the fictional town in the Adirondacks where Russo centers his latest book, Under the Falls. Driving through it, we find an “abandoned pizza joint,” errant cats, a guy living in a forgotten school bus, and a “long stretch of nothing.” It’s a place, writes Russo, “that doesn’t yield many good outcomes.”
So, it’s similar to the environs of Russo’s previous, lengthier novels—Mohawk, Nobody’s Fool, or the Pulitzer-winning Empire Falls—but also seedier, scarier. It’s a site for suspense, sketched out but not filled in; we don’t meet many Stone Mountain locals or visit any of its stores, but are mostly kept groping in the dark. Under the Falls is a thriller, taut and tense, and its theme is simple: Stone Mountain is the sort of place you’d be fortunate to get out of.
