Viking marauders descend on a much-plundered island, hoping some mayhem will shake off the winter blahs. A man is booted out of his home after his ...
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reviews
Sep 09, 2011
Paquita Maria
rated it: 
You know that dizzy, clammy feeling just after you've gotten really infuriated with someone and exploded into a fit of dismal, futile nastiness by saying something sadistic and clever and perhaps even true enough--to them, at least--that, regardless, cuts straight to the bone of the listener, causing you almost immediately afterward to break out into a full body attack of hives and dripping sweat, heart suddenly hammering, as you watch that person spontaneously combust before your very eyes, lea
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19 comments
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(27 people liked it)
Oct 07, 2011
Paul
rated it: 
Style. It’s amazing. I mean to say, we all have the same English language with its million plus words available to us, it’s open 24 hours a day, you have already been given a free lifelong subscription. How is it that some writers can put selections from those million English words which are permanently available to all the rest of us down in sentence after sentence so that it becomes more (much more) than prose, it becomes style. So that you read one page and you can say – oh, that’s James
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10 comments
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(22 people liked it)
Aug 27, 2008
Ryan
rated it:
Tower's stories take place in the middle parts of America, which isn't to say the midwest - he takes on the bored teenagers, the divorced fathers, the estranged brothers. Except for the last two stories, "On the Show" and titular piece about Visigoths going through the motions of raping and pillaging, there's a fairly similar approach: we're invited into these people's domestic lives through their pitch-perfect verbs (what verbs! I'm telling you) and dialogue until a real sense of thin
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5 comments
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(8 people liked it)
May 22, 2009
Mike
rated it:
I heard all the buzz about Towers, and excitedly gulped down the one published in The New Yorker ("Leopard"), and decided it must be another false prophecy of the great new debut collection. That story was fine enough, but no more than fine (enough), and I quickly forgot it, and then passed by the book when it arrived on shelves, perused the flurry of glowing reviews with a knowing smirk.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. A friend told me I had to read More...
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. A friend told me I had to read More...
6 comments
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(15 people liked it)
Apr 17, 2009
Jim
rated it:
In the title story of his debut collection, "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned," Wells Tower uses contemporary American idiom to tell the story of a Viking having second thoughts about his career as a plunderer and pillager.
We've seen reluctant detectives, hitmen and superheroes but never a foot-dragging sacker of cities. It's a weirdly empathetic and altogether unforgettable tale, but once you get past the absurdity of characters with names like Naddod the Norwegian Mo More...
We've seen reluctant detectives, hitmen and superheroes but never a foot-dragging sacker of cities. It's a weirdly empathetic and altogether unforgettable tale, but once you get past the absurdity of characters with names like Naddod the Norwegian Mo More...
8 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Apr 05, 2009
Mike
rated it:
"like trying to push a coin with your mind"..."a quivering halo of vermilion minnows"..."a little imp inside me whose ambrosia is my brother's wrath"..."his tongue lolling like a tiki god in ugly throes"..."big medicine on the dragon-and-blight circuit"...
I'm going to have to find someone else to call "the best writer in America without a book to his credit" in too-loud, one-sided conversations now. Like very few writers I c More...
I'm going to have to find someone else to call "the best writer in America without a book to his credit" in too-loud, one-sided conversations now. Like very few writers I c More...
Apr 25, 2009
Elaine
rated it: 
Not as impressive as I thought it would be -- given the rave reviews and the cachet of being picked up by Granta as well as his list of creds. Some of the stories have luminous scenes, and the prose is winsome, but I have to admit to a basic prejudice -- I expect more startling insights, deeper thematic renderings, more emotional involvement (pathos, male alienation, anything)and less run-of-the-mill average American male characters from any short story collection that manages to break through
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3 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Apr 13, 2009
Mick
rated it:
I picked up this book because I've been trying to find short fiction by a living writer to read that wasn't boring as hell. (Too pretty, too literary, too preachy, too fake.) I rarely buy new short story collections, and hardly ever by writers I haven't heard of; but I have to admit I'm not entirely regretting buying this one.
Each story is steeped in a world that is fundamentally unfair. The characters are thrust (or they thrust themselves) into situations where the usual happy endin More...
Each story is steeped in a world that is fundamentally unfair. The characters are thrust (or they thrust themselves) into situations where the usual happy endin More...
May 11, 2009
jo
rated it:
this is pretty fabulous short story writing. maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely splendid. it's quite impressive, for one, that wells tower should have waited so long to put out a collection, piling up stories in this and that first-rate magazine seemingly with no hurry whatsoever, giving thus the impression of being after beauty and intensity of narration rather than a book. my friend mike compares these stories to flannery o'connor's but the only similarity i see, besides the extr
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6 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Jul 12, 2011
Barry
rated it:
For me, this collection shows that Wells Tower is a master of words, a true talent with crafting some beautiful sentences, but for the most part, is still some way short of being a great storyteller. This may sound rather harsh - after all this is his first published collection - but with all the hype surrounding him currently, I can't help but expecting more from this book.
The stories are fast paced and as mentioned the language is wonderful, I had no trouble getting into a story and More...
The stories are fast paced and as mentioned the language is wonderful, I had no trouble getting into a story and More...
2 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Nov 27, 2010
Jessica
rated it:
I know I'm late getting to this, but here I go and so far I gotta alert you others: believe the hype. This is fucking phenomenal.
****
I've been reading a lot of them lately so I think I'm qualified to complain that a good short story collection is hard to find. There is a lot of fairly good short fiction, and short fiction with good things about it, but actually finding an entire book of stories by one author that is solidly original and well-written and interesting and fresh is More...
****
I've been reading a lot of them lately so I think I'm qualified to complain that a good short story collection is hard to find. There is a lot of fairly good short fiction, and short fiction with good things about it, but actually finding an entire book of stories by one author that is solidly original and well-written and interesting and fresh is More...
12 comments
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(26 people liked it)
May 09, 2010
Trin
rated it:
The word I keep wanting to use to describe this short story collection is “masculine.” Customers give me weird looks when I do this. But I suppose it's still better than the other phrase I could use: “Whoa-ho-ho, hello, daddy issues!”
This is a collection all about manly men in the height of their manliness, doing manly things like hunting deer and having questionable affairs with questionable women, all while suffering from some seriously bad cases of Manpain (a.k.a. Mangst), and fai More...
This is a collection all about manly men in the height of their manliness, doing manly things like hunting deer and having questionable affairs with questionable women, all while suffering from some seriously bad cases of Manpain (a.k.a. Mangst), and fai More...
2 comments
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(4 people liked it)
May 07, 2009
Cynthia
rated it:
The humor in this books sneaks up on you, somehow you're laughing without knowing why because the humor is so subtle you think *you're the only one who got the joke. The humor is endemic, it's part of the plot, and it feels inevitable. That's how good a craftsman Towers is.
So much of the plot turns on family and long standing relationships that cause knee jerk interactions. The people don't want to act petty or love so much but they do. One moment they're acting five years old the n More...
So much of the plot turns on family and long standing relationships that cause knee jerk interactions. The people don't want to act petty or love so much but they do. One moment they're acting five years old the n More...
0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Apr 07, 2009
I stopped reading because I got too many holds at once, not because I didn't like it. Kind of a sleazier Tobias Wolfe. Would pick it up again.
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 10, 2009
Shya
rated it:
I'll dispense with the easiest bit of criticism first: though it is the titular story, "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" is actually the only story set in something other than what I fairly assume to be present day, the only story to stretch realism. (All the rest of these stories are basically slice of life, NYer realism, with tinges maybe of hysterical realism.) I don't think this is quite fair however, this critique, seeing as how it could very well have been Tower's publish
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0 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Nov 06, 2011
Ryan
rated it:
Towers' stories are less about delivering a clean plot and more about dropping the reader into the middle of his characters' messy lives and watching them as they flail around. Most (but not all) of the stories are set in modern America, and, invariably, the people he writes about are losers, misfits, and the averagely dysfunctional. Towers has a gift for supple description and crunchy, lifelike dialogue, and his unironic narrative voice gives his stories a bleak humor that feels a little wrong
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Oct 12, 2011
Richard
rated it:
If this is the beginning of a career, it's hella fine and bodes so well for the rest of his earthly time that I am thrilled and grateful he decided to write.
The nine stories in the collection are the products of much careful observation, writing, and re-writing, and that shows in their craftsmanship. There are very few infelicities of style on display here. But what doesn't show, what's invisible to the naked eye, is the muse-touch that brought Wells Tower to our shelves. He's not a More...
The nine stories in the collection are the products of much careful observation, writing, and re-writing, and that shows in their craftsmanship. There are very few infelicities of style on display here. But what doesn't show, what's invisible to the naked eye, is the muse-touch that brought Wells Tower to our shelves. He's not a More...
0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Sep 20, 2011
Sam
rated it:
Wells Tower's first book is an interesting collection of stories showcasing a wide range of contemporary urban America. Tower shows his depth of character voices by writing from the varied points of view of disaffected young men, confused young boys, troubled teen girls, humourous old men, and medieval Vikings. This last one is the story to get peoples' attention, the gimmick, but is in fact the weakest. Tower's strengths are in contemporary settings and complex relationships. Most of the storie
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Aug 06, 2011
Ron
rated it:
Tower has, at a very young age, written the most remarkable set of short stories I've read since David Foster Wallace's last collection. While he does share some things in common with Wallace--a gift for language and a curious sense of whimsy at the darkest of events--the stories mostly evoke the works of Raymond Carver and Russell Banks in that they explore the malaises so common to middle-aged men and end rather abruptly, with little fully resolved. Tower also uses metaphor masterfully, allowi
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Jul 13, 2011
Gaston
rated it:
To preface, this was like, a 4.6, so I figured I would round up. Like many others, I was introduced to Mr. Wells via McSweeney's. While I enjoyed his story of the reconciliation of two brothers, there was something about his style that caused me to type his name in GR's search engine and discover he had a collection of short stories in print. I quickly added it to my 'to-read' collection, figuring one day I might order it on Amazon. Maybe.
Fast forward several months and guess w More...
Fast forward several months and guess w More...
Jun 20, 2011
Mykle
rated it: 
I didn't read it all. I read the first story, which was your standard New Yorker story about a middle-aged middle-class guy doing something vague and poignant during a Major Life Moment. And I read the last story: the same but with Vikings. I'm not going to read the ones in between unless someone can convince me one of them is significantly better, or at least different.
I think Wells Tower is a super-talented writer in all the standard workshop areas. But there's something I don't More...
I think Wells Tower is a super-talented writer in all the standard workshop areas. But there's something I don't More...
6 comments
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(8 people liked it)
May 09, 2011
Jen3n
rated it:
This gets four stars because some of these stories not only meet all the hype that surrounded the release of this book, but exceeded it. and then some were really tiresome dreck. it all equaled-out to four-stars.
This is a pretty good collection. I love short stories and I love a well-written phrase. Wells Tower can write a really damnned good sentence, I will give him that. Sumptuous, even.
This seems a very masculine book in many ways. It's hard really to articula More...
This is a pretty good collection. I love short stories and I love a well-written phrase. Wells Tower can write a really damnned good sentence, I will give him that. Sumptuous, even.
This seems a very masculine book in many ways. It's hard really to articula More...
Mar 09, 2011
Amelia
rated it:
Tower Wells' collection of short stories are funny, smart, beautiful, bleak and emotional. Honest glimpses of middle America (the exception being in the book's title piece, about Scandinavian vikings). The characters are deep. His words are so carefully chosen - I don't think this author could write a boring description. Some of my favorites:
"Bob glimpsed at the melancholy little change purse he had between his legs, and looked away." (The Brown Coast)
"Anxiety qu More...
"Bob glimpsed at the melancholy little change purse he had between his legs, and looked away." (The Brown Coast)
"Anxiety qu More...
Feb 07, 2011
Michael
rated it:
In Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned author Wells Tower delivers delightful misery as he enlivens his various settings with strikingly powerful language. When these stories come together their powerful characters are in harmony with stark worlds, which makes their small realisations poignant and profound.
The stories that bookend the collection, The Brown Coast and Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, are particularly effective, but in different ways. The Brown Coast sneaks a cu More...
The stories that bookend the collection, The Brown Coast and Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, are particularly effective, but in different ways. The Brown Coast sneaks a cu More...
Aug 05, 2010
rmn
rated it: 
The most disappointing thing about Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (and to be the most disappointing thing in this book is like being Shaquille O'Neal's favorite meal because there are so many from which to choose) is that the book itself had not been ravaged or burned which would have spared me from reading it.
This book is a compilation of short stories from an author named Wells Tower who apparently never saw a noun in front of which he couldn't place a monosyllabic, undescr More...
This book is a compilation of short stories from an author named Wells Tower who apparently never saw a noun in front of which he couldn't place a monosyllabic, undescr More...
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 04, 2010
Travis
rated it:
This book gets extra points from me because it was written by a guy in my high school graduating class.
This book of short stories seems to explore what it is to be a man, from the points of view of men going through hard times. There's a confused divorcé trying to rebuild on the coast of North Carolina, an off-track real estate investor ineffectively trying to make peace with a semi-estranged brother, a carnival community rocked by a molestation, a middle class man forced to do kind More...
This book of short stories seems to explore what it is to be a man, from the points of view of men going through hard times. There's a confused divorcé trying to rebuild on the coast of North Carolina, an off-track real estate investor ineffectively trying to make peace with a semi-estranged brother, a carnival community rocked by a molestation, a middle class man forced to do kind More...
Jul 31, 2010
Malcolm
rated it:
Wells Tower’s brilliant new collection of stories, “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” achieves what few debuts can: perfection. Found in the nine stories, we see people, not characters, shown in their natural state, beyond the notions of ugly beauty or beautiful ugliness. They simply are. They are not damaged or crippled or tragic any more than an antelope or a cougar could be seen as such. They are animate and corporeal. Equally a reporter and a poet, Tower gives us a glimpse of exampl
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Jul 24, 2010
Matt
rated it:
I came to this book with enough deep seated resistance to liking it that it could match the level of hype this book has received. In other words, I didn't want to be totally blown away, but I read it, right?
And in the end, the book didn't blow me away-- I think the big issue for me was the lack of variety here, in terms of subject matter (too many of the stories deal with the "wounded man" thing, which I find kind of tedious) and structure-- these stories are mostly told st More...
And in the end, the book didn't blow me away-- I think the big issue for me was the lack of variety here, in terms of subject matter (too many of the stories deal with the "wounded man" thing, which I find kind of tedious) and structure-- these stories are mostly told st More...
Jun 09, 2010
Imogen
rated it:
Tim said that Wells Tower is his favorite author ever ever now, which is a pretty big deal, and he's been pushing this book pretty hard basically since it came out, so I read it on a plane a few days ago. And it was good, I liked it, but Wells Tower hasn't become my new favorite author evar or anything. A friend wrote it off as something like "men having men's feelings," which I think is a pretty unfair reduction, but which might be part of why it didn't hit me as hard as it's hit some
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2 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Apr 16, 2010
Brett
rated it:
"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 building..
Wells Tower can write, extremely well. His stories are very, very well written and leave you wanting to know more at the end.
These stories are the kind most readers will either love or hate. The book consists of nine stories, with each story being around 18-30 pages long.
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I'd read the good reviews and kept seeing the book different places, my anticipation was building..
Wells Tower can write, extremely well. His stories are very, very well written and leave you wanting to know more at the end.
These stories are the kind most readers will either love or hate. The book consists of nine stories, with each story being around 18-30 pages long.
More...
