Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

Most people have not heard of Wells Tower, few have read his work, and even fewer have written about it. This is disappointing, because not since Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge has the American short story been so deliciously unique and entertaining as in Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned. While O'Connor wrote of violence and redemption, Tower constructs worlds where both are at times ubiquitous, and at others non-existent. His prose slingshots the reader between sadness, horror, joy and liveliness within the confines of only a few pages, enticing us closer and closer to emotional retribution. We travel to the far off land of good-humored Vikings, a frustrated little boy, teenage romance and rebellion, feuding brothers and scandalous infidelity, guided only by the slick prose Tower wields with seemingly little effort.

Each story is its own sequestered gem, completely contained within itself as all great stories should be. Tower tells the tales he wishes to tell efficiently, while avoiding literature cliches that befall so much of the new fiction these days. They are completely "in the now," twisting the traditional beginning middle and end format to their liking.

One particular story I wish to highlight is my favorite of the bunch, which shares the title of the book itself. It follows a band of spiritless vikings who, in their tedium, go for a good old fashioned raid. It is here that Tower exercises his talent for evoking both belly laughs and gasps of surprise almost simultaneously. The Vikings, ingeniously endowed with present-day humor and dialogue, embark on their raid in a flurry of perversion, expletives and bloodshed. There is one act of violence, perpetrated by the top-ranking Viking, that spits in the face of what we call funny, but makes us laugh anyway. I appreciate this not only for its refreshing quality, but for the way Tower confesses through his writing the understanding that it takes a little bit of ridiculous to have fun. I finished Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned feeling invigorated, having been confirmed that there does exist at least one great modern short story writer. I highly recommend this book so that you may feel the same way.