2010 Reading #46: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
41. When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty by Hugh Kennedy.
42. The Suffrage of Elvira by V.S. Naipaul.
43. The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
44. The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship by David Halberstam.
45. Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man by Gardner Fox, John Broome, Carmine Infantino, Sid Greene, et al.
46. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower. Alan and Kristin have been telling me to read the title story of this collection for over a year, so I finally picked up a copy. Things did not start out auspiciously; I bounced off the first few stories pretty hard. Why, I'm not entirely certain. Part of it was that they reminded me of Anthony Doerr's stories (which I love) but with the tone and characters of a Raymond Carver story (which I loathe). A couple of people who saw me with the book mentioned how much they liked Tower, and how funny he was; I was a bit flummoxed by this, because for the first few stories I wasn't aware that he was even attempting humor. This is the sort of reading experience that makes one wonder if one has become completely tone-deaf. Part of my problem was that Tower's protagonists were of the shallow, macho loser type. This isn't a problem in and of itself, but it seemed like the authorial sympathy was most with them when they were behaving badly. At some point, though, possibly with "Leopard" but definitely with "Door In Your Eye," I started to like what I was reading. Tower does have a gift for description that keeps a reader engaged with his language, and since reading this I've been thinking a lot about how lazy description encourages lazy reading. I was a bit disappointed with "On the Show," which felt like a long way round to an uninteresting sermon about rushing to judgment, but Alan and Kristin were right; "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" is a great take on Vikings, bloody, hilarious, squirm-inducing, and with lots of 21st Century ennui. A mixed bag, but overall worthwhile.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
41. When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty by Hugh Kennedy.
42. The Suffrage of Elvira by V.S. Naipaul.
43. The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
44. The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship by David Halberstam.
45. Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man by Gardner Fox, John Broome, Carmine Infantino, Sid Greene, et al.
46. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower. Alan and Kristin have been telling me to read the title story of this collection for over a year, so I finally picked up a copy. Things did not start out auspiciously; I bounced off the first few stories pretty hard. Why, I'm not entirely certain. Part of it was that they reminded me of Anthony Doerr's stories (which I love) but with the tone and characters of a Raymond Carver story (which I loathe). A couple of people who saw me with the book mentioned how much they liked Tower, and how funny he was; I was a bit flummoxed by this, because for the first few stories I wasn't aware that he was even attempting humor. This is the sort of reading experience that makes one wonder if one has become completely tone-deaf. Part of my problem was that Tower's protagonists were of the shallow, macho loser type. This isn't a problem in and of itself, but it seemed like the authorial sympathy was most with them when they were behaving badly. At some point, though, possibly with "Leopard" but definitely with "Door In Your Eye," I started to like what I was reading. Tower does have a gift for description that keeps a reader engaged with his language, and since reading this I've been thinking a lot about how lazy description encourages lazy reading. I was a bit disappointed with "On the Show," which felt like a long way round to an uninteresting sermon about rushing to judgment, but Alan and Kristin were right; "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned" is a great take on Vikings, bloody, hilarious, squirm-inducing, and with lots of 21st Century ennui. A mixed bag, but overall worthwhile.