Jean's Pick:
Here’s what you need to know about Wells Tower: he tells it like it is. He doesn’t pretty it up, and unfortunately, he sees the world a lot more clearly than you do, so you’re going to have a deep, dark look at a reality that may make you fairly uncomfortable. The saving grace of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is that Tower’s sympathy for his characters shines through every heartbreaking word. In his bluntness, he hits no false notes, and he’ll have you guffawing as he nails a character, a situation, or place. This wonderful debut collection of short stories is highly recommended. ( )

Wells Tower continues in the tradition of the great Southern short story, even when the stories themselves aren't set in the region. From a tale about an elderly wandering father to the angst of battle-weary Vikings, his prose covers the range of human emotions. It also doesn't hurt that he looks like Bruce Hornsby. ( )

Easy to tell why Tower is creeping on to the radar as a short story writer of note. He's put together one of those quintessentially American collections where reflections on the minutiae of unremarkable lives somehow speak of much bigger things. I suspect he'll get compared to Raymond Carver, but these stories are messier than Carver's ultra-pared-down work and no bad thing too. The messiness is part of the charm and, at times, makes for very funny reading.

Thematically most of the stories deal with male angst, the daily frustrations of simply having to live life and get by. Two of the best stories, though, 'Leopard' and 'Wild America' are told from the perspective of young adolescents, the former a boy, the latter a girl. The frustrations here are even more poignant, tinged with the hope of youth.

The title story at the end is one no reader will forget. Fun and most definitely different from the other stories, its Viking narrator uses a hard-boiled street vernacular. Sounds tricksy, but it works, and thematically fits in: Vikings suffered from male angst too! ( )