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Tom Drury - West of Loveland
Past event
Featured Book
West of Loveland: a novel
"The award-winning author of The End of Vandalism returns to the Midwestern county he's chronicled over four decades for a panoramic tale of fate, found families, and the revolutionary possibilities of love. A lonely highway, a traveler, and a revolver . . . Teenage Rocky and his aunt Helen's roadside discovery on a winter afternoon sets off a mysterious yet inevitable chain of events that will assemble citizens of Grouse County in a quest for knowledge, romance, and an occasional shared supper with a decent bottle of wine. Characters from Drury's previous novels-the stoic sheriff, the red-headed photographer, the retired thief-are joined by a vibrant new cast including a trio of teens in a secret club named after a nineteenth-century suffragette, a reverend doctor who counsels her flock to perform good works and dance on houseboat, and an amateur film scholar who inspires a meet-cute in a plasma donation center. Marked by uncanny dialogue, subversive humor, and indelible descriptions of natural and human beauty, West of Loveland is a warm and polyphonic portrait of a singular community navigating contemporary life with grace and an enduring belief that something good might happen. Drury's masterwork and the capstone of what is now the Grouse County quartet, West of Loveland offers a revolutionary view of the rural Midwest and a quiet homage to American democracy"-- Provided by publisher.
This book will be available for purchase at the event.
About This Event
Tom Drury will read from his newest novel, West of Loveland. Rachel Connolly, author of Lazy City, describes West of Loveland as a place of "rural America [that] has a dreamlike, Lynchian quality." Pulitzer Prize winning author Yiyun Li praises West of Loveland as having "a wry humor" and adds: "Drury has delivered in West of Loveland a memorable novel that will make the world a less lonely and more mysterious place."Tom Drury is the author of five previous novels, including Pacific, long-listed for the National Book Award, and The End of Vandalism, named one of the best books of the past 45 years by GQ Magazine in 2002. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper’s, and A Public Space, and he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy in Berlin, and MacDowell. He lives in Iowa City.
Featured Author
Drury, Tom
Tom Drury is the author of five previous novels, including Pacific, long-listed for the National Book Award, and The End of Vandalism, named one of the best books of the past 45 years by GQ Magazine in 2002. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper’s, and A Public Space, and he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy in Berlin, and MacDowell. He lives in Iowa City.
About the Venue
Prairie Lights Books
Prairie Lights sprang to life in May 1978 as a small, intimate bookstore offering titles by the newer voices of Raymond Carver and Alice Munro and by established authors like Eudora Welty and George Orwell. As the staff and customers tended the books with care much like a garden, the store grew and blossomed. By 1982 Prairie Lights transplanted itself from South Linn St. to South Dubuque and has gradually spread to three and a half floors, the half being an 1100 square foot coffee house located in the same space that the local literary society met throughout the 1930's, hosting writers Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, Sherwood Anderson, Langston Hughes, E.E Cummings and others. Gertrude Stein and friend Alice B. Toklas were scheduled for a reading but were sleeted in at Waukesha airport-- or so the story goes. Perhaps the strength of reputation lies in the reading series of local, national and international writers who have read their works which were broadcast live on stations WSUI and WOI and which was the only regular literary series of its kind. All of this could not have been possible without a loyal customer base and a dedicated staff. We thank our customers for their continued support, and welcome our new customers.
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