The plot of The End of Vandalism, such as it is, meanders among incidents in the lives of Louise Darling; her thieving husband, Tiny; the sheriff she takes up with, Dan Norman; and other citizens of fictional Grouse County, Iowa. Author Tom Drury's characters, as one critic noted, are "life-sized nobodies." A linear tale, with one event building from a previous one, isn't his style. Because of the lack of drama and pattern, however, The End of Vandalism seems more typical of real life than some novels with a conventional crisis-driven plot.
The End of Vandalism was serialized in The New Yorker before it was published as a book. It was included on "best of" lists, but Drury never received the fame that was predicted, perhaps because of his unconventional approach to storytelling.
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