The Empire Rolls: A Novel

by Trudy Lewis

Sally LaChance leads a double life. By day, she works as a park ranger in a midsized Missouri town. At night, she acts as emcee for the local roller derby team, the Boonslick Bombers, at the Empire Roller Rink. Sally loses her temper one day and pulls a gun on a group of polluters in Karst Park. Her boyfriend, a video artist, captures the moment on film and posts the footage to YouTube, putting Sally’s job, her relationships, and her life at risk. Just before the financial crash of 2008, Sally LaChance must wind her way through the crumbling economy, a DIY skating corps, angry veterans, a slacker boyfriend, an evangelical mother, the war machine, and ever-encroaching private interests. The Empire Rolls captures the changing cultural landscape of the Midwest at a critical moment in history. The Empire Rolls. And it is rolling still.

302 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[Aj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly, Trudy Lewis needs to get herself a better editor. This book was full of jarring typos and mis-worded sentences. No matter how good the story is, that kind of thing gives your work a sloppy and amateur feel. Secondly, the roller derby motif isn't carried through very evenly. In fact, during the second half of the book, I was wondering if we were ever going to encounter the team again. Wouldn't you think that a book hyped to be about derby would have a great dramatic scene at a bout during the rising action or climax? Well don't get excited. Lastly, many parts of the story felt forced and unnecessary to the plot, and several characters were completely unnecessary (e.g. the ex-husband: what was the point of him? The ex lover in j.c. illustrated perfectly well that Sally is attracted to the wrong guys). In short, it seemed like this whole thing could have been "tightened up" and given a better and more ruthless look by the editor. :(

[Andy Mozina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brave and unpretentious novel that brilliantly relates the everyday lives of midwesterners to the swell of maddening concerns that afflict us in the age of terror, economic uncertainty, and imminent environmental catastrophe. Greed, love, art and anger animate these compellingly real characters. Sally, a riled up park ranger in her mid-forties, and Jared, an avant garde documentary film-maker knocking on the door to 30, are excellent point of view characters to carry the story. Sally's willingness to indulge an anger that many justifiably feel allows us to imaginatively play out the consequences of trying to strike a violent blow against so much that is wrong about the world. Her visceral morality complements Jared's slacker/aesthetic view. But that's probably too simple. Jared is struggling toward responsibility and accepting fatherhood, while also offering a fresh take on the gap between art and life. Near the end of the book, he makes some great observations about the difference between what he sees through his camera's viewfinder and what he experiences in the world. The convergence of Jared and Sally in the novel's climactic scene makes sense. The imagery and metaphors are wonderful throughout, whether describing sex, getting tazed, or just how people look and move and talk in this world. There is also a sharp sense of humor moving through the whole book. In the end, this novel succeeds as an unflinching act of clear-eyed, big-hearted witness.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Empire Rolls is a love letter to central Missouri and to tough, tender, messed-up women everywhere. Sally LaChance is an exasperating, impetuous, and ultimately admirable woman. I adored following her through my beloved landscapes—the parks and trails of the place that I call home.

Trudy Lewis writes like an angel. Her limpid, lucid prose carries us to some dark places in this novel. We encounter some pretty nasty characters and some sterling ones too (oh, I love Sally’s mother). Lewis’s keen intelligence and big heart allowed me to hang on with some of these folks when I didn’t particularly like them.

This is not a sweet novel. It is full of grit and drugs and bodily fluids. It is also full of motion, energy, power, wisdom, and love.

Here's more about Trudy: http://trudylewisempirerolls.me/

[Josephine Briggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

LIVING OUTSIDE THE BOX. I have been reading midwestern novels. For some reason I seem to prefer them, at the moment at least. This is an easy, entertaining read, but dealing with a great deal of social problems. The book is set in a mid sized, midwestern city location, central Missouri to be exact. The characters live somewhat rough lives. The is story is told between Sally LaChance and her lover, Jared Mayweather. Sally LaChance, a park ranger, moonlights as an emcee for a roller derby team. The Empire is a rundown skating rink located in the worse part of town.

Sally is forty-five, divorced, no children, just her two dogs, Diana and Rye, her kids. She is hitting middle age hard or so she feels. her lover is Jared Mayweather, twenty-nine, trying to earn his living with his camera. He feels he is getting older, going no where, as is Sally. He has just returned back to his hometown from Chicago where he has been for four years.

The book is fast paced. Sally has an A frame house out in the country. Sally has had several lovers as had Jared, nickname Jarhead, plus other characters who have many loves.

There is the question of the environment versus growth and improvement. Sally, naturally, is for the environment. Others disagree. Thus goes the story. And this is how Sally and others get in trouble.

The time is autumn, the most beautiful season of the year. There is beautiful writing about the earth, leaves turning color and falling, the autumn skies, the changing of nature never staying the same. Beautiful descriptions.

[MaryJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by a local COMO writer has a familiar Boone County setting. The Empire of the title refers to an old Roller Rink, home of the Booneslick Bombers, but also to rolling business interests in the early 2000s. There is a cast of boldly drawn, quirky characters. We see their self-interestedness, whether motivated by self protection or greed. And we also see their vulnerabilities and the ways that even the most narcissist and/or entrepreneurial can be motivated to act in behalf of others. Scenes of violence and corruption occur along side beautiful descriptions of the natural landscape. In some ways this book reminded me of How the Dead Dream, the first book--and my favorite-- in Lydia Millet's trilogy. The authors share concerns about conserving the environment in this moment of rampant development and triumphant capitalism. In both books there is a very troubling scene involving cruelty to animals--a dog in both cases: thinking about this part of the book reminds me about how much our humanness is instantiated in our relations with animals. If you ever thought that Tazers are "the safe alternative", you may find yourself re-thinking this position.

[McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful prose style.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable. Okay story. Could have been more.