aemkea's review
3.0
It was well written! The short stories are just not my cup of tea. I'm more of a high-flying fantasy adventure type of girl. But, well worth a free read! :)
ben_miller's review against another edition
3.0
"Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" improves as it goes along, starting out with 4 wretched stories before finding its feet with "Leopard" and achieving mixed success until the final story, the title story, which is the crowning achievement of this collection.
The writing here is mostly serviceable, and ranges from the very bad to the very good. Someone tell Wells Tower to never again write about divorced men who drink too much, because he ends up with a Raymond Carver story minus the clever, simple plotting and the irrepressibly engaging voice. In other words, he ends up with a bad Raymond Carver story. When he writes about children and teenagers and Vikings, something comes alive in the prose that is dead elsewhere - he abandons the flat sarcasm and the sharp jokes which consistently fail to amuse and produces something more honest and affecting.
Towers' sense of story structure is bizarre throughout. Rather than using his inventory and bringing the business of the story to a conclusion, he consistently drops threads in order to pick up other ones, never returning to the original story. I have no doubt that he's doing this on purpose, but I do doubt its effectiveness. He allows the stories to go sideways, to take unexpected paths, as good stories should. However, some of these pieces feel like watching 20 minutes out of the middle of a movie - they don't end, they just stop. It would be a worse sin for him to tie each story up in a little bow, but still, these stories are mostly unresolved. In fact, in a number of them it feels to me as though the central business of the story, the key scene, never even happens.
There's plenty in this book to indicate that Wells Tower could go on to write something really good, but this isn't it.
The writing here is mostly serviceable, and ranges from the very bad to the very good. Someone tell Wells Tower to never again write about divorced men who drink too much, because he ends up with a Raymond Carver story minus the clever, simple plotting and the irrepressibly engaging voice. In other words, he ends up with a bad Raymond Carver story. When he writes about children and teenagers and Vikings, something comes alive in the prose that is dead elsewhere - he abandons the flat sarcasm and the sharp jokes which consistently fail to amuse and produces something more honest and affecting.
Towers' sense of story structure is bizarre throughout. Rather than using his inventory and bringing the business of the story to a conclusion, he consistently drops threads in order to pick up other ones, never returning to the original story. I have no doubt that he's doing this on purpose, but I do doubt its effectiveness. He allows the stories to go sideways, to take unexpected paths, as good stories should. However, some of these pieces feel like watching 20 minutes out of the middle of a movie - they don't end, they just stop. It would be a worse sin for him to tie each story up in a little bow, but still, these stories are mostly unresolved. In fact, in a number of them it feels to me as though the central business of the story, the key scene, never even happens.
There's plenty in this book to indicate that Wells Tower could go on to write something really good, but this isn't it.
redroofcolleen's review against another edition
1.0
I thought this collection would be funny. It just made me sad and uncomfortable. I guess I should have remembered the title of the book.
editrixie's review against another edition
5.0
So, so good, even two years later. I think Wells Tower is David Gates' half-brother.
martinfkj's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent collection of short stories, largely about broken families and sad men in early noughties America (& vikings?) Made me long for each story to be a full novel but in a good way, like mars bar ice creams, which are perfect and yet too small.
cozylittlebrownhouse's review against another edition
2.0
I found this collection of short stories to make me feel uncomfortable as I was reading them, which is why I gave the book a second star; however, I have forgotten each and every one since closing the cover. A disappointment and a short story collection that I would not recommend to others.
f_farm's review against another edition
3.0
The writing is top notch but I found the protagonists so repetitively off - putting and bleak and testosterone - emitting that I could not read more than a few. I rarely have this kind of reaction but I just could not go on.
jmcphers's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful little collection of short stories. Tower is a master of description, and his stories are jammed with so many evocative details and delicious metaphors that they are worth reading for the splendid prose alone.
The plots of these little gems leave something to be desired. Certainly they do that modern literary thing, where the Explore The Nature Of Human Relationships, and Reflect The Post-Modern American Family, but rarely did I feel that the stories went anywhere or revealed something new.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about these stories is the way they stick in your head (or at least stuck in mine). I found phrases from the book wafting their way into my thoughts for weeks afterwards; even now, I remember the "ruby-studded turd" that turned out to be a sea cucumber, the "sour blossom" of alcohol hitting the stomach, the compelling image of an eleven-year old child sprawled in a faux faint on the driveway, mail scattered about. In a shelf largely populated by forgettable books, this one left a lasting impression.
The plots of these little gems leave something to be desired. Certainly they do that modern literary thing, where the Explore The Nature Of Human Relationships, and Reflect The Post-Modern American Family, but rarely did I feel that the stories went anywhere or revealed something new.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about these stories is the way they stick in your head (or at least stuck in mine). I found phrases from the book wafting their way into my thoughts for weeks afterwards; even now, I remember the "ruby-studded turd" that turned out to be a sea cucumber, the "sour blossom" of alcohol hitting the stomach, the compelling image of an eleven-year old child sprawled in a faux faint on the driveway, mail scattered about. In a shelf largely populated by forgettable books, this one left a lasting impression.
kinbote4zembla's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this quite a bit. Wells Tower's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned isn't the most sophisticated collection of short stories I've ever read, but it contains a great deal of humour and pathos.
There is certainly a theme I've been noticing in masculine American fiction of impotence. But, I think, Tower is much more successful than, say, D'Ambrosio in creating nuanced, complicated characters. The men in his stories confront the absurdity of life with more humour and insight than expected. When at the end of "The Brown Coast," for instance, Bob Munroe intends to throw the sea cucumber at a happy couple on a boat but the wind throws it off course, we are reminded of Bob's shortcomings and his comic impotence.
For the most part, these tragicomic stories are pretty consistent. Only "On the Show" stuck out to me as sort of underdeveloped.
The one thing that I appreciate most about these stories is that Tower is a genuinely quality writer. His sentences are usually wonderful and, even when a story feels familiar, his language feels inventive.
Yeah. Good stuff. Fun.
3.5 All-Male Mountain Retreats out of 5
There is certainly a theme I've been noticing in masculine American fiction of impotence. But, I think, Tower is much more successful than, say, D'Ambrosio in creating nuanced, complicated characters. The men in his stories confront the absurdity of life with more humour and insight than expected. When at the end of "The Brown Coast," for instance, Bob Munroe intends to throw the sea cucumber at a happy couple on a boat but the wind throws it off course, we are reminded of Bob's shortcomings and his comic impotence.
For the most part, these tragicomic stories are pretty consistent. Only "On the Show" stuck out to me as sort of underdeveloped.
The one thing that I appreciate most about these stories is that Tower is a genuinely quality writer. His sentences are usually wonderful and, even when a story feels familiar, his language feels inventive.
Yeah. Good stuff. Fun.
3.5 All-Male Mountain Retreats out of 5