The End of Vandalism, Tom Drury
The End of Vandalism, Tom Drury
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The End of Vandalism

Author: Tom Drury, Jesse LaVercombe, Paul Winner

Narrator: Lloyd James

Unabridged: 10 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2013

Synopsis

Ten years ago, Tom Drury's groundbreaking debut, The End of Vandalism, was serialized in the New Yorker, was compared to the work of Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner by USA Today, and was named a Best Book of the Year in multiple publications.Welcome to Grouse County—a fictional 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. At the heart of The End of Vandalism is an unforgettable love triangle set off by a crime: Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an antivandalism dance and then marries the culprit's ex-wife Louise. So Tiny loses Louise, Louise loses her sense of self, and the three find themselves on an epic journey. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, The End of Vandalism is a radiant novel about the beauty and ache of modern life.

About Tom Drury

Tom Drury is the author of several novels, including The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams, The Driftless Area, and The Black Brook. His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, and the Mississippi Review, and he has been named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists.

About Jesse LaVercombe

Jesse LaVercombe is a Toronto-based actor and writer originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Acting credits include productions at Tarragon Theatre, Marigny Opera House (New Orleans), PuSh, SummerWorks, Caravan Stage Company; TV: American Gods, The Detail, Salvation, Mayday; Feature Films: Flowers in the Field, Mary Goes Round, The Telephone Game, In Clamatore. His first play, Preacher Man, won the United Solo Festival’s “Best Short Solo Award" in NYC, and Love Me Forever Billy H. Tender played in Toronto, Kingston, and NYC, where it received praise from The New York Times, Stage Buddy, NY Theatre Guide, and more. His latest short film has so far played over thirty festivals (including SXSW, Slamdance, and BFI Flare: London) and taken home six awards. He was recently commissioned to write a new musical, and his upcoming adaptation of The Epic of Gilgamesh with Seth Bockley and Ahmed Moneka will be workshopped at The Guthrie and premiere in 2019 at the Pivot Arts Festival in Chicago.

About Lloyd James

Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been a working professional actor in theater, film, television, and voice-overs for more than thirty years. He has narrated over one thousand audiobooks and won numerous Earphones Awards and nominations for the Audie Award and the Voice Arts Award. He holds a BFA degree in acting from Santa Fe University, New Mexico. 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Patrick on February 22, 2008

This book is a literary highwire act. There's no good reason it should be as wonderful as it is. The plot meanders all over the place. It jumps from character to character with little reason, and it has what would be described as "tone problems" if we were all sitting around workshopping it. Yet it'......more

Goodreads review by Marcello on September 10, 2017

Altro colpaccio della NN. Se vi è piaciuto Kent Haruf qui non si va troppo lontano. Più personaggi e situazioni ma lo stesso andamento pacato, la stessa lentezza e quei modi semplici da Midwest. Grouse County è la nuova Holt. È quasi un ritorno a casa. Per me molto consigliato. [77/100] Louise si trat......more

Goodreads review by Kirby on August 23, 2010

I really loved the hilarious simplicity of this. I'm getting so tired of this trend of ridiculous quirkiness in literature and film, where the "interesting" characters wear two different shoes and own gerbil-costume stores and talk in Juno-speak. It always seems like the author is trying too hard. On......more

Quotes

“Brilliant, wonderfully funny…This is indeed deadpan humor, and Tom Drury is its master.” Annie Dillard, New York Times bestselling author

“Drury’s prose is gorgeously descriptive.” Entertainment Weekly

“Miraculous…reads like life itself.” Men’s Journal

“A screamingly funny book.” Boston Globe

“The End of Vandalism is a remarkably funny book without being in the least frivolous.” Los Angeles Times

“[Drury’s] sense of place and his eye for the particular in the mundane are extraordinary. This is a quiet book that grows in emotional resonance.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Drury strikes gold…This startling, affecting, and funny debut…contributes to the American literary tradition of arch renditions of midwestern rural life.” Booklist (starred review)

“Affectionately chronicles the mundane but elevates it to a richly comic plane.” Library Journal

“A poker-faced look at American folkways in a world that is precarious and perverse…There’s an awful lot to like here: the dialogue, the sly humor, the feather-light touch, the clean drive of the prose.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • New York Magazine Best Books of the Year
  • Publishers Weekly Best Book
  • GQ Magazine
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