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Published May 2013
208 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In a triumphant return to the characters that launched his career two decades ago, Tom Drury travels back to Grouse County, the setting of his landmark debut, The End of Vandalism. Drury's depictions of the stark beauty of the Midwest and the futility of American wanderlust have earned him comparisons to Raymond Carver, Sherwood Anderson, and Paul Auster.
When fourteen-year-old Micah Darling travels to Los Angeles to reunite with the mother who deserted him seven years ago, he finds himself out of his league in a land of magical freedom. He does new drugs with new people, falls in love with an enchanting but troubled equestrienne named Charlotte, and gets thrown out of school over the activities of a club called the New Luddites.
Back in the Midwest, an ethereal young woman comes to Stone City on a mission that will unsettle the lives of everyone she meets - including Micah's half-sister, Lyris, who still fights fears of abandonment after a childhood in foster care, and his father, Tiny, a petty thief. An investigation into the stranger's identity uncovers a darkly disturbed life, as parallel narratives of the comic and tragic, the mysterious and everyday, unfold in both the country and the city.
"Uncanny dialogue, deadpan humor, a few morbid twists, and a considerable amount of quirk make [Pacific] an engaging read." - Publishers Weekly
"As in his previous masterful novels, Drury weaves carefully metered sentences, deeply felt scenes, and struggling characters into an endlessly entertaining tapestry of human comedy and small-town living." - Booklist
"A fine percussive beat sweeps the reader along ...The always fresh perspective of this one-of-a-kind writer will have you responding like his character who 'laughed with surprise in her heart.'" - Kirkus Reviews
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Tom Drury is also the author of The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams, The Driftless Area, and The Black Book. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The Mississippi Review, and he has been named one of Granta's "Best Young American Novelists."
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