About
With extensive excerpts appearing in the New Yorker before its release, Tom Drury's groundbreaking debut, The End of Vandalism, drew widespread acclaim and comparison to the works of Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner.
With his fictional Grouse County, Tom Drury conjures a Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric-where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse, and a sleepless man watches his restless bride scatter their bills beneath the stars.
When Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an anti–vandalism dance, he goes on to marry the culprit's ex-wife Louise. But while Tiny loses Louise, Louise loses her sense of self-and all three find themselves in a love triangle that sets them on an epic journey.
With his fictional Grouse County, Tom Drury conjures a Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric-where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse, and a sleepless man watches his restless bride scatter their bills beneath the stars.
When Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an anti–vandalism dance, he goes on to marry the culprit's ex-wife Louise. But while Tiny loses Louise, Louise loses her sense of self-and all three find themselves in a love triangle that sets them on an epic journey.
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Reviews
"Brilliant, wonderfully funny . . . It's hard to think of any novel-let alone a first novel-in which you can hear the people so well. This is indeed deadpan humor, and Tom Drury is its master."
Annie Dillard
"Remarkable . . . Simply stuns you with the elegance and beauty of its writing."
Entertainment Weekly
"Rich and readable . . . [Drury] possesses his made-up world with the same authority Sherwood Anderson brought to Winesburg, Ohio, and Faulkner to Yoknapatawpha County."
USA Today