Monday, August 3, 2009

Review of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories by Wells Tower


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wells Tower shares his lacerating and acute command of language with Vikings, drunks and teenage girls, all trying to find something in their respective wretched existences worth doing, and while they don't ever really succeed, they don't really fail either. The triumphant thing they all do is persist with and by their wit as the machine of life churns around them unfazed.

Reading this reminded me of when I first read David Sedaris: I wanted to stop everything and write just like this. Saying he is good with metaphors is like saying a laser is no friend to tumors. See, normally, I would think that was a pretty good one, but after being blinded by the radiance of his comparisons, I am reminded I am a mere mortal looking up at the gods.

Really, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is the best thing I've read all year.

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