The End of Vandalism [Hardcover]

Tom Drury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 1994

A whimsical novel about Midwestern life centers around the love triangle of Sheriff Dan Norman, thief Tiny Darling, and Louise, the woman they both love. A first novel. 10,000 first printing. First serial, The New Yorker. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The late Seymour Lawrence was celebrated for his discerning eye: Drury will figure among his literary legacies. Readers who encountered the 11 chapters of his first novel in the New Yorker can testify to the staying power of Drury's characters, generally lonely, well-meaning Midwesterners who live in the richly realized fictional terrain of Grouse County. In these small farming communities, where families have been intertwined for generations and no event can escape the shadow of the past and the petty gossip of the present, everyone knows everyone else, perhaps better than they should. A lovers' triangle is inevitable when petty thief Tiny Darling can't reconcile himself to his divorce from Louise; she, meanwhile, has drifted into an uneasy marriage with sheriff Dan Norman; and good-hearted, conscientious Dan now adds insomnia to the problems that plague him. Tiny is a comic and poignant antihero. Pugnacious and impulsive, but also confused and vulnerable, he is his own worst enemy, especially when he drinks. Tiny steals instinctively, because it seems logical to him: "Stealing is like being a chef . . . You can find work anywhere." Louise is muddled and unfocused until she becomes pregnant; Dan's quiet compassion can get in the way of his job. Drury has a bemused fondness for his characters' foibles and self-destructive impulses. In distinctive and dryly humorous dialogue, he captures the oblique, random chitchat of basically inarticulate people, who converse in a blend of ungrammatical vernacular and old-fashioned formality. His view of rural life is unsentimental: "Family agriculture seemed to be over and had not been replaced by any other compelling idea." And his sense of place and his eye for the particular in the mundane are extraordinary. This is a quiet book that grows in emotional resonance.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the 296 square miles of Grouse County, Iowa, "family agriculture seemed to be over and had not been replaced by any other compelling idea." Even so, Drury's fictional world teems with idiosyncratic life. We witness much of it through the eyes of Sheriff Dan Norman, who arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an antivandalism dance, marries the culprit's ex-wife, comforts a local stripper, and listens atop his trailer to a former actress witness for Christ. Drury's narrative style is as flat as the prairie land, but amidst apparent blandness we discover an abundance of droll characters and quirky events. Drury's first novel (much of which appeared earlier in The New Yorker ) affectionately chronicles the mundane but elevates it to a richly comic plane. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/93.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 321 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1st edition (March 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395621518
• ISBN-13: 978-0395621516
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rural Ohioan Defends "Vandalism" from Suburban Floridian, December 20, 1999

By 

John E. Wallace, Esq "John E. Wallace" (The Susquehanna Valley) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: End of Vandalism: A Novel (Paperback)

My enthhusiasm for this novel sent me out searching a database of newspaper comments about it. A reader in Florida complained that the novel was too pointless to be any good. I am a notorious for reading a good book several times, and this novel is no exception. The deadpan humor fills me with glee whenever I pick it up. But there is more than just deadpan humor happening here. Like its literary ancestor, "Winesurg, Ohio," the running theme is the inadequacy of human communication in the face of petty meanness, true tragedy, and profound love. Before Louise marries Dan, she writes three times on a piece of paper, "Show me love." And then she hands it to him. Her need to communicate with Dan transcends even her sleep: She sleepwalks into his insomniacal nights and interrupts his excuses for avoiding their bed. I've determined that the Florida reader who was disappointed with this novel is probably a chatty type, probably also suburban. The characters in The End of Vandalism are taciturn and rural, from a place "where family farming ended and no compelling idea showed any interest in taking its place." There is a wonderful economy of language in places like Grouse County and in this novel, but the dialogue and narrative are as loaded as an opening-day shotgun. So, there is a point, Mr. Florida. You just didn't get it. Boy, I feel better.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ordinary people; so what?, October 20, 1999

By 

Manola Sommerfeld (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: End of Vandalism: A Novel (Paperback)

Sure, this book is about Middle America, and there are no exciting lifestyles, just people dealing with mundane every-day occurrences. So what's so boring about that? I find human nature endlessly fascinating, and Tom Drury does a wonderful job depicting it. Whether the problem is fixing your tractor or fixing your marriage, he makes it interesting. The characters are well-defined and real. Give me this before any hot and trendy novel with 'exciting' characters.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable book with deadpan dialogue, July 5, 2000

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: End of Vandalism: A Novel (Paperback)

The End of Vandalism certainly is a unique, enjoyable read. Tom Drury's Grouse County and the people who inhabit it are quite a bunch. Ther eis Dan Norman, the rather half-hearted county sheriff; his wife Louise, who must contend with Tiny, her screw-up ex-husband and her tart-toungued mother Mary; and an assortment of other oddball characters who pop in and out of the narrative.

This novel does not take place in the "real world", but rather in an alternative America in a parallel universe. It's a shame that real people don't converse with the nutty, deadpan humor that Drury's characters do. The events in the novel happen to all of us, but most of us don't deal with them, or comment on them, like these Grouse County residents. It is these differences between reality and Grouse County that make this novel so enjoyable. It took me about 50 pages or so to get into the book, but once I did, I found it a completely enjoyable read. I would recommend this book to anyone and I look forward to reading Drury's latest.