Amazon.com: Everything Ravaged Everything Burned (9780143175919): Wells Tower: Books

More About the Author

Wells Tower's short stories and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Washington Post Magazine, and elsewhere. He received two Pushcart Prizes and the Plimpton Prize from The Paris Review. He divides his time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

63 Reviews

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.7 out of 5 stars (63 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 65 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
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This review is from: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories (Hardcover)

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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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing writing; haunting and memorable. Tough to take though., July 1, 2009

By

L. Nord "spanprof" (Pasadena, Ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories (Hardcover)

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.

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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit over-rated, April 25, 2009

By

Martin J. Kelly, Jr. (Bronx, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories (Hardcover)

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 Excellent writing!
I was completely unprepared for these stories. I expected them to be well written, they are. I expected them to be hyper-masculine, they are. Read more

Published 7 days ago by kj

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT READING, ABSORBING STORIES, CLEARLY WRITTEN
I had not heard of Wells Tower until I read one of his short stories in a book of short stories. These short stories take unusual turns and would be boring or confusing if not... Read more

Published 12 days ago by Roy Berger

5.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable read with memorable stories and characters...
This books was recommended by a book club member and was required reading for one of our meetings. I enjoy short stories, and I particularly enjoyed this book for the variety of... Read more

Published 3 months ago by M. Madeley

4.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably Talented Debut
The range of style evinced here is stunning. I love that some of the stories are disruptive in their incompleteness, as if the endings were forgotten. Read more

Published 4 months ago by R. Smith

1.0 out of 5 stars Wretched
Just awful. Banal characters with unclear motives. Non-stop and gratuitous profanity. Disgusting details. Unrealistic dialog. Stupid and abrupt endings. Read more

Published 7 months ago by History Teacher

4.0 out of 5 stars The tragicomic violence and thwarted hopes of disappointed llves
If most of Tower's nine stories have a unifying theme, it's the explosive violence of the everyday. The rage of relationship breakups, the crushing burden of failure, the... Read more

Published 8 months ago by D. Cloyce Smith

2.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Writing - Poor Stories
The thing about short stories is that something is supposed to happen to someone. Nothing really happens to anyone here (if something does happen, it is so subtle that you'd have... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Todd A. Gray

4.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but really good
I missed 99% of the hype about this book so I wasn't as disappointed as a lot of people seemed to be. Taken on its own, the book is inventive, surprising and evocative. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Rob Barget

5.0 out of 5 stars Biting, funny, descriptive prose
This is a great collection of short stories. David Sedaris recommended it at a reading he did in Orange County, CA and he was totally right as usual.

Published 13 months ago by Kathryn R. Papageorge

2.0 out of 5 stars Everything Absent
I came about this book by a recommendation from David Sedaris when my wife and I saw him live. Granted, I am probably not your run of the mill, NPR-listening, bleeding heart... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Jay

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Inside This Book (learn more)
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
down through the valley

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jeff Park, Jim Lemons, Stewart Quick, Little Buttons, Randy Cloatch, Sheila Cloatch, Henry Lemons, Giant Wheel, Pirate Ship, Leander Buttons, Samantha Mealey, Smithfield Road, Gulf Stream, Chaises Volantes, New York, Barry Kramer

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