Forever Overhead

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

ToB 2012: State of Wonder vs. The Sisters Brothers

Tournament of Books 2012

State of Wonder

Ann Patchett

The Sisters Brothers

Patrick deWitt

Let's recap yesterday:

I was not surprised that The Tiger's Wife beat out The Stranger's Child. As you may recall, it's one of the few times in this year's Tournament that I correctly guessed the winner. I thought the commentary by judge Bethany Patrick was well thought-out, if perhaps too even-handed. As I mentioned yesterday, The Stranger's Child holds no interest for me, but The Tiger's Wife is a book that's near the top of my TBR list. I'm pleased with the outcome and it will be interesting to see how The Tiger's Wife holds up against 1Q84 - two books that won their rounds based on their reach for greatness (despite their various failings).

A quick contest update - only THREE of you have correctly picked the first four winners, but just because you've been wrong once (or twice, three times, etc.) doesn't mean you're out! There are plenty of books to go and we haven't even hit the Quarterfinals! Speaking of the Quarterfinals...

We'll be collecting your Quarterfinal Picks on Monday, March 19th. You must have your Quarterfinal picks in by 11:59PM CDT. Remember to follow Forever Overhead on Twitter and/or Facebook and subscribe to our RSS feed for the latest posts.

On to Wednesday's match-up!

For my money this is the biggest first round match-up.

I read The Sisters Brothers last January before the shortlist was announced. I was entranced by the cover and excited by the idea of a modern literary western. And so one night, as I ate a newly toasted Pop-Tart, I began The Sisters Brothers. A few days later I emerged from its dusty and blood-soaked pages wild-eyed and eager to tell all my friends about this excellent book. Charlie and Eli Sisters, hired guns, feared across the West, have been sent on a mission to assassinate Herman Kermit Warm by order of the Commodore. The Sisters Brothers is full of violence, but it's also deceptively funny and warm.

Ann Pratchett's State of Wonder, which I have not read, is a quasi-science-fiction jungle-adventure story that has echos of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Marina Singh is sent into the dark jungles of Brazil to find her former teacher, Dr. Swensen, and discover what killed her predecessor.

The Sisters Brothers was nominated for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, nominated for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize, winner of the 2011 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and winner of the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. As far as I can tell, State of Wonder's biggest honor was being nominated for the Tournament.

I'm certainly interested in reading State of Wonder, but based on many of the reviews I've read, it sounds like it just doesn't live up to the hype. Since I love The Sisters Brothers with 100% of my being, I'm picking it to move on to the next round. I'm hoping that judge Wil Wheaton sees it my way.

Powells.com is a sponsor of the Tournament of Books and you would be doing them (and me) a big favor if you used this link to buy any of the books in this year's tournament. All ToB books are 30% off their list price and you'll be supporting a great bookseller!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

ToB 2012: The Stranger's Child vs. The Tiger's Wife

Tournament of Books 2012

The Stranger's Child

Alan Hollinghurst

The Tiger's Wife

Téa Obreht

Let's recap yesterday:

What do you call it when you pretty much know something is going to happen but it surprises you anyway? That's how I felt when I read that judge Misha Angrist had chosen 1Q84 over The Last Brother. On Sunday I had predicted that The Last Brother would move on to the next round of the tournament, but all along I had a nagging feeling that 1Q84 would be recognized for the risks that it took, despite its failings. It looks like I should have listened to my gut after all. The comments on the judgement and the commentary are pretty interesting. It looks like, on balance, most of the people in the comments felt that The Last Brother was the stronger book. Oh well, 1Q84 moves on to the next round where it will do battle with the winner of today's match-up.

We'll be collecting your Quarterfinal Picks on Monday, March 19th. You must have your Quarterfinal picks in by 11:59PM CDT. Remember to follow Forever Overhead on Twitter and/or Facebook and subscribe to our RSS feed for the latest posts.

On to Tuesday's match-up!

Full disclosure: I haven't read either of these books.

Téa Obreht's debut novel, The Tiger's Wife is the winner of the 2011 Orange Prize and was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award. Obreht was born in the former Yugoslavia and now lives in the United States. The Tiger's Wife takes place in an unnamed province of the Balkans and features a female doctor and her relationship to her grandfather, who is also a doctor. Obreht weaves contemporary folktales with the narration of her main character and the product is beautifully written novel that has echos of the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The Stranger's Child is Alan Hollinghurst's fifth novel. His last novel, 2004's The Line of Beauty, won the 2004 Man Booker Prize. The Stranger's Child was long-listed for the 2011 Man Booker. The Stranger's Child is loosely the story of a poet named Cecil Valance, who writes a poem in 1913 after visiting his friend George Sawle. The poem is assumed to be written for George's sister Daphne, but was likely written for George himself. Cecil goes off to fight in the first World War and is killed in action and Cecil's poem becomes a sort of national treasure and Cecil himself a sort of literary hero. The novel concerns itself mostly with Cecil's legacy, told at different points in history as the truth of Cecil's sexuality and the true nature of the poem is revealed.

I can tell you right away that The Tiger's Wife is most definitely the type of book that I love. I'm a fan of magical realism, of interesting structure and inventiveness that still manages to be readable. The Stranger's Child is not at all the sort of book that I'd like to read. The story doesn't interest me in the slightest and while I understand that the writing is gorgeous, I just don't think I'd be able to get through more than a few pages.

I give this match-up to The Tiger's Wife based solely on the fact that I can't imagine making myself read The Stranger's Child. Maybe not great reasoning, but it's the best I can do.

Powells.com is a sponsor of the Tournament of Books and you would be doing them (and me) a big favor if you used this link to buy any of the books in this year's tournament. All ToB books are 30% off their list price and you'll be supporting a great bookseller!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

ToB 2012: 1Q84 vs.The Last Brother

Tournament of Books 2012

1Q84

Haruki Murakami

The Last Brother
Nathacha Appanah

Before we get going, some thoughts about what went down on Friday:

In the first big surprise of the tournament, Lightning Rods took down the National Book Award winning Salvage The Bones. After reading all of the comments, I can more clearly see why some people preferred Lightning Rods, but it's still a bit of a shocker. There's a change that Salvage The Bones will come back in the Zombie Round, but I kind of doubt it.

Only seven of you correctly picked the first two winners, but there's still plenty of time to earn some more points. There are lots of tournament days to go!

On to Monday's match-up!

Of the two, I've only read 1Q84 and I'm finding that it's easier to write about two books you haven't read than it is to write about a pair of books when you haven't read one of them.

Despite being a big Murakami fan, I didn't like 1Q84 very much. It's about 900 pages and in parts it just drags on and on without advancing the plot. There's a lot of repetition and while I understand that an argument can be made that the repetition and the monotony is part of the story, it just left me cold and bored. Despite this, I think 1Q84 has a decent chance of winning just based on the good will that Murakami has cultivated over the years. Murakami is Japan's biggest literary export and well-respected here in the United States. Although the major-media reviews were mixed, 1Q84 has a lot of fans. A few of you even picked it to win the overall tournament!

I haven't read The Last Brother, but I've done a bit of research. Nathacha Appanah is is a Mauritian-French author, currently residing in France. The Last Brother is her third novel and was published in France in 2007. It won two awards in France (Prix de la FNAC in 2007 and the Grand Prix des Lecteurs de L'Express in 2008). I'll let the New York Times provide the synopsis:

Inspired by the largely unknown story of 1,500 Jews who fled Europe only to be imprisoned in Mauritius from 1940 to 1945 after their ship was refused entry into Palestine (then under British rule), the novel recounts the heartfelt friendship between two boys: David, a Czech orphan, and Raj, an Indian-Mauritian grieving for the two brothers he lost in a flash flood.

Sounds pretty interesting, right? I know I'm putting it on my TBR list!

So we have two books in translation, both take place in the past but one is grounded in history and the other one isn't grounded at all...

I'm going to go with The Last Brother for this round. About 66% of you picked 1Q84. I'm not sure if that's because 1Q84 is the better known of the two or if people actually think it's the better book. Whatever happens, it'll be interesting!

Friday, March 09, 2012

ToB 2012: Salvage The Bones vs. Lightning Rods

Tournament of Books 2012

Lightning Rods

Helen DeWitt

Salvage The Bones

Jesmyn Ward

Before we get started, let's discuss what happened yesterday.

I'm not at all surprised that The Devil All The Time fell to The Sense Of An Ending. After I read the judgement this morning, I picked up my copy of The Sense Of An Ending and started reading. I hadn't read it yet and I thought I could probably plow through a good portion of it in the short time I had available for reading. I agree with Judge Emma Straub when she says that "the book is stripped down to the studs..." There is not a bit of fat in the text and Barnes' sentences are expertly crafted to wring every bit of meaning out of each word without making it feel heavy or dense. I haven't finished yet so I can't comment on the ending that so many people seemed to dislike, but I'm not worried. The craft in The Devil All The Time is in the plotting and not as much in the individual sentences. If books were gardens, Pollock's novel would be a wonderful mix of wildflowers that together form a surprising and delightful experience. The garden of Julian Barnes would appear sparse and small from a distance, but upon closer inspection, each stalk, leaf and petal would be perfect.

On to today's match-up!
Full disclosure: I haven't read either of these books, but I look forward to reading them in the future.

Today we have another case of a high-profile award-winning novel, Salvage The Bones (National Book Award) up against a lesser known (but notorious!) novel. Jesmyn Ward's novel is rooted firmly in reality, detailing the life of poor, pregnant 15 year old and her family in the ten days leading up to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Helen DeWitt's novel was called "a funny, filthy volume" by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. DeWitt's main character, a failed salesman named Joe, starts a temp agency that essentially provides glory holes to businesses. Let me quote the NYT again: "The basic premise for Lightning Rods is so audacious that it might be hard to get past its general conceit, but its true brilliance lies in DeWitt’s careful deployment of language so common that we no longer see it."

Once again we have two books that have similarities but also contrast sharply. Salvage The Bones has been called "poetic" and beautiful, but the beauty in Lightning Rods appears to be so subtle you might miss it. Both authors are female and use sex and female sexuality to get at a deeper truth. Ward's novel focuses on poor southern black people and DeWitt's novel focuses on (mostly) white men in a business setting.

My prediction is that Salvage The Bones will move on to the next round. According to your votes, Lightning Rods has slightly more support than yesterday's fallen contender, but the over 80% of you cast your votes for Salvage The Bones.

What do you think about this match-up? Did Lightning Rods ever have a real chance against Salvage The Bones?

Powells.com is a sponsor of the Tournament of Books and you would be doing them (and me) a big favor if you used this link to buy any of the books in this year's tournament. All ToB books are 30% off their list price and you'll be supporting a great bookseller!

Literary Blog Hop: Time To Read

It's that time again! Once again I'm participating in the Literary Blog Hop, hosted by The Blue Bookcase. This month's question is:

How do you find time to read, what's you reading style and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities?

I have a busy life. A day job, freelance gigs, three very young children and the bloggy that you're reading right now. It doesn't leave a lot of time for reading. As much as I love physical books, e-books have given me the ability to read anywhere and anytime. I read in the bathroom, walking to my car after work, in line at the grocery store, waiting for my computer to boot up. All I need is my phone. I can even switch books on the fly when the mood strikes. I love e-books.

In bed each night I curl up with a physical book. I still love the smell of books, the feel of a deckled edge beneath my finger tips, the sound of pages turning. Unfortunately, I don't get much reading done in bed since I often fall asleep before I get more than a few pages into my novel. However, I do a lot of reading on Saturday mornings when I wake up before everybody else and (hopefully) squeeze in a good hour of reading before my home fills with the cacophony of three two year olds.

My reading is done in stolen moments. I make e-notes, I do e-highlights. I use sticky-tabs in my physical books, but I don't make a lot of physical marks in my books. There are exceptions. My copies of 2666 and Infinite Jest are full of notes, underlinings and other marginalia.

I've gone through reading phases in my life. As a teenager my nose was always in a book. When I went to college it fell off a bit, but after becoming a member of the real world it picked up again. I had a job for three years that had me on an airplane twice a week and during that time I read lots and lots and lots of books. I read the New Yorker from cover to cover. I was a machine. When that job ended my reading fell off dramatically and it wasn't until I got a Kindle for Christmas in 2010 and started blogging last summer that my reading picked up again.

Reading has become my sanity. I find truth and beauty in literature and I can't imagine a life without books.

What about you?

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

ToB 2012: The Sense Of An Ending vs. The Devil All The Time

Tournament of Books 2012

The Devil All The Time

Donald Ray Pollock

The Sense Of An Ending

Julian Barnes

As of the time of this writing, there are 44 people signed up for our Tournament of Books contest. I have entered all of the picks in my spreadsheet and we're ready to go. The first match-up is between The Sense Of An Ending and The Devil All the Time.

The Sense of an Ending won the Man Booker Prize and was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards in the Best Novel category. This is Julian Barnes' eleventh novel.

The Devil All The Time hasn't been nominated for any awards. This is Donald Ray Pollock's first novel.

The Sense Of An Ending is about looking back at our youth and the fallacy of memory. It's a short novel - almost a novella - at only 150 pages. It certainly reads like a novella and the prose is attractive without being showy.

The Devil All The Time takes place in the 1960's in rural Ohio and Virginia and concerns a variety of very bad people doing very bad things. The subject matter is violent, evil and sometimes disturbing.

Pollock's novel is distinctly American while Barnes' book is very British. Barnes' writing is quiet and subtle and Pollock's is in your face, daring you to have sympathy for his characters.

84% of you predicted that The Sense Of An Ending would move on to the next round. Based on your picks, it's hard to imagine The Devil All The Time walking away with the win, but it's still possible. The judge of this match-up is author and book-seller Emma Straub. People may not know that Emma is the daughter of the award-winning horror writer, Peter Straub. Who knows, maybe something gets passed down from the father to the daughter and Emma's got a taste for an American gothic novel?

The Tournament of Books officially begins today, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out who advances to the next round!

So what do YOU think? Is the subject matter of The Devil All The Time too disturbing to make it to the next round? Does The Sense Of An Ending's awards shelf give it a leg up? Why did over 85% of our contest participants pick The Sense Of An Ending over The Devil All The Time?

Monday, March 05, 2012

Contest: Tournament of Books Round One!

It's the Tournament of Books Contest!

The Morning News Tournament of Books 2012 is about to begin! Let's have ourselves a contest!

*Entries for Round One are CLOSED!*

Here's a reminder of the rules:

In the comments of THIS POST, list the books that you think will advance to the next round of the tournament AND your prediction for the overall winner of the ToB. Entries may be formatted however you like, but you must list the Title of the book you predict will advance.
For each correct pick you will receive ONE point.
You may also earn points in the following ways:

+1 for liking Forever Overhead on Facebook

+1 for following Forever Overhead (@4everoverhead) on Twitter

+5 for picking the overall ToB winner in the first round

+3 for picking the overall ToB winner in the second round

+2 for picking the overall ToB winner in the third round
Winner wins any one book from this year's ToB or a previous winner of the ToB.
One entry per person (please).
I am aware there are other similar contests. You won't be cheating on this contest if you date other contests.
Entries for round one will close on Tuesday, March 6th at 11:59 PM Central Time