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Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: down through the valley, Jeff Park, Jim Lemons, Stewart Quick (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The stories in this outstanding debut collection explore the troubled relationships of men down on their luck, in failed marriages, estranged from family, caught in imbroglios between sons and their fathers and stepfathers, and even, in Wild America, the subtle and ferocious competition between teenage girls. Bob Monroe, the protagonist of The Brown Coast, loses his job, his inheritance and his wife after the death of his father. The narrator of Down Through the Valley, meanwhile, is persuaded to drive his ex-wife's boyfriend home from an ashram after he injures himself. In Leopard, the threat of a missing pet leopard lurking in the woods hints at a troubled 11-year-old's rage toward his stepfather. The narrator of Down Through the Valley has a savage freak-out that terrifies him. The strange and magnificent title story, in which Vikings set off again toward an oft-raided island, beautifully ties the collection together in its heartbreaking final paragraph. Tower's uncommon mastery of tone and wide-ranging sympathy creates a fine tension between wry humor and the primal rage that seethes just below the surface of each of his characters. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics described this collection as visceral, contemplative, and inappropriately side-splitting, and were captivated by tales of men and their roles as fathers, stepfathers, brothers, sons, husbands, and ex-husbands (only one story featured a female protagonist). Reviewers further marveled at Tower’s ability to take readers from gut-clutching hilarity to gloomy introspection and back again in compact, descriptive language. Although critics disagreed about which stories were the best, only the Boston Globe cited “weaker,” “choppy,” and “overlong” entries. Overall, Tower has created a stunning collection of stories that will linger in the hearts and minds of readers.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition (March 17, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0374292191
  • ISBN-13: 978-0374292195
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,464 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #53 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > United States

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Customer Reviews

36 Reviews
5 star:
 (17)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (6)
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 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (36 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars marvelous and original language and situations, March 20, 2009
By michael carroll "michael carroll" (new york, new york United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I started to read this book skeptically, but from the first story found myself completely disarmed. My favorite stories are "Retreat" and "Wild America," both gorgeously unexpected treatments of their subjects (in the first, sibling relationships, and in the second adolescent girls and sexual discovery). Nothing I could say about the way Wells Tower goes into his stories could possibly prepare you for the surprising pleasures of his language. He's always funny without sneering or being self-satisfied in his conclusions regarding this big messy thing, "American culture." He's sly and humble. But his sentences--the core of any literary enterprise as far as I'm concerned--are at the crux of his art. Carefully wrought, they approximate the uniqueness and the varieties of personal experience. And did I mention how funny he is? Anyone who cares about word choice or a fresh eye trained on the observations he makes (in the tradition of Joy Williams or Richard Yates, say) will read them aloud more than once and chuckle. Beautiful.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Decorations in an Empty Room, June 16, 2009
I agree with another review here: The Times really piled it on, and made me expect the second coming of Cheever and Chekov combined. The stories were solid and unique but far from outstanding. I found them long on punchy word choices but short on depth. For example, bugs stuck to a truck's grill are "stuccoed" there; rather than waving an object in somebody's face, a character "wands" it, which isn't a verb and doesn't really make sense except by association, calling to mind the waving of a wand. The stories are long on these snappy stylistics, and short on emotional depth and glaringly lacking in demonstrating any real understanding of human emotional complexity. I'm not levelling that at Tower himself, but at the narratives. Everything about the characters is shown, or attempted to be shown, through action, props, events, and dialogue. This is not a technical fault, because plenty can be accomplished that way, but there is little richness between the lines. What do his bumbling, dysfunctional Floridian carnies feel? We don't know. The narrator doesn't know. Does Tower know?

The first story is the strongest. "On the Show" really baffled and even embarassed this reader, calling to mind the hallmarks of amatuer fiction so often encountered in workshops: episodes, events, and people connected by physical promixity but otherwise disunited by any thematic thread. It's the writers job to do a little bit of weaving, and that has been forsaken or skipped here. "On the Show" has an ending in which the material just stops, seemingly because the author ran out of stuff to have happen. The last sentence is a nutty image, like the dozens and dozens of images provided along the way, and the last one has no special resonsance for being the last. It reads like that Beck song on "The Information" where the drums just stop and the guitar strums a few more chords, and then you hear Beck at the soundboard answering a call from someone in the house: "What? Dinner? Oh, okay." Silence. Tower did his thing along the way, showing people sexually abusing a child, smoking herion out of tinfoil, being large like a giant, having a disagreement with a step-father. Hope you liked it, because that's what it was.

A lack of compassion for his characters and narrative ungenerousness from an author I find distasteful, especially when there is evidence of effort and intention in the quirky words choices. But in a barren emotional context, these verbal oddities come to seem like decorations in an empty room.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A bit over-rated, April 25, 2009
These stories are extremely good, but the reviews in the NY Times are too laudatory. The writing is spectacular in many places, pop-culture generated grammatical slips aside in a few spots, and the voice is strong.

I found a low level of emotional depth in most of the stories and I was surprised by the experience given the writing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Promising debut in the footsteps of Carver & Saunders
If Raymond Carver were funnier and George Saunders lived in the seedy South, they might have collaborated on this collection. Read more
Published 1 month ago by John L Murphy

1.0 out of 5 stars I wish I could get the past hour and half of my life back...
I read the first story and it seemed promising, but then it just ends. No twist, no development, nothing. So I read on... Read more
Published 2 months ago by E. Rice

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievably good writer
Okay, maybe men can write. He is so astute and his writing is so funny and sharp. I could live without the extreme graphic violence of the Vikings who spoke like they were from... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Julie Blattenbauer

3.0 out of 5 stars Talented writer, but the stories don't stir
This book got a lot of press, and when the book editor at Esquire recommended it, I dutifully ordered placed my order and got to work upon its arrival. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jenna

5.0 out of 5 stars Tasty
I read no reviews prior to reading this. A friend just handed it to me, said it was good. I'd rank it pretty close to terrific. Tower's writing is relaxed. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark Stevens

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent summer read
Short story format is always good for summer reading. I took this one to the beach. Two stories struck me as complete upon the ending, and that's all right as well. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Lone Mom

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing writing; haunting and memorable. Tough to take though.
This is amazing writing; haunting and memorable. I eventually had to put the book down though; I couldn't take that much pain time and again in so short a period.
Published 4 months ago by L. Nord

2.0 out of 5 stars The power of social invention...
I didn't think much of the stories or the language. I'm sure he'll do better in the future. He has obvious talent. But he's not there yet.
Published 4 months ago by Elaine McClain

2.0 out of 5 stars challenging writing
this guy is a new modern writer ...i wonder if he has read the works of other short story writers such as gavalda for example... in french je voudrais que quelqu.un m. Read more
Published 4 months ago by LUCINDA

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wild Ride....
"Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" finally arrived to my door!

I'd read the good reviews and kept seeing the book different places, my anticipation was... Read more
Published 5 months ago by BJ

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