Tournament

by Shelby Foote, Grover Gardner (Reader)

This debut novel by Shelby Foote, a major Southern writer whose masterpiece is The Civil War: A Narrative, introduces Hugh Bart, a farmer confronting life's problems in the postbellum South. Hugh's story is told through a clever blend of rich language and flashbacks that bring to life Jordan County, Foote's fictional Mississippi Delta community. Many of the remarkable characters introduced here will become staples of Foote's future works.

Highly praised both here and abroad, Foote's novels have been on bestseller lists in France and Italy. Whether writing historical narrative or novels, Shelby Foote clearly belongs to the first rank of American writers of our century.

Genres: Fiction

Audio CD

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. was an American novelist and a noted historian of the American Civil War, writing a massive, three-volume history of the war entitled The Civil War: A Narrative. With geographic and cultural roots in the Mississippi Delta, Foote's life and writing paralleled the radical shift from the agrarian planter system of the Old South to the Civil Rights era of the New South. Foote was relatively unknown to the general public for most of his career until his appearance in Ken Burns's PBS documentary The Civil War in 1990, where he introduced a generation of Americans to a war that he believed was "central to all our lives."

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audiobook, narrated by Tom Parker (not, sadly, the author – though Mr. Parker does do a wonderful job, I just missed Shelby Foote), begins with a lengthy 1986 preface by the author in which he discusses the genesis of this, his first book, and its impact on all of his other writing. Like many, I know Mr. Foote from Ken Burns's The Civil War, and one of the reasons (one of the many reasons) I bless the day I first saw that documentary is that it introduced me to the almost-shy, sly, witty man from Mississippi with the dashing grey hair and the twinkling eyes (actually twinkling!) and the brilliant way with a story. It was love at first sight. That man … Audible has been a wonder for me, allowing me to get hold of the volumes of The Civil War: A Narrative which I've never been able to justify the expense of before, as well as the novels I've never tracked down before. I embarked on this audio of Tournament unsure of what to expect, a little hesitant about whether I would love his narrative voice as much as his screen presence, and – most of all – wishing deeply that he had read his own work. (I might have mentioned that.)

My goodness, though. The book – which is only about 9 hours on the iPod – takes about 36 minutes to get to Chapter One. First there is a long, rambling – but really very enjoyable – preface by Mr. Foote about how the book (Mr. Foote's first) was written, how it was received, and how it was revived and revised, how people thought it was about his grandfather (it's not, mostly). Then there was a prologue which I admit left me completely baffled (but which makes good sense now that I've finished, and will be enhanced by a reread). But, I kept telling myself, it's Shelby Foote. Give it a minute. Or forty. I'm glad I did. It actually took longer than that for me to really settle into the story, but now – now I'm looking forward to more from Jordan County.

I kept thinking of that time in whatever-grade English when I had to do a book report and (spoiled for choice, unlike most of my classmates) picked one of my favorites, L.M. Montgomery's Mistress Pat. I loved that book (still do), and thought "Write a thing about it? Piece of cake." Then I thought about what was supposed to go into the paper. Protagonist, antagonist … plot. A plot was supposed to have an arc: a dilemma is presented, the main character pursues a solution, encounters difficulties along the way, and the predicament is resolved. Um. Pat's story was, as most of the LMM books are, more simply the tale of a life, anecdotal rather than linear, passing over large swathes of time to settle lovingly in to concentrate on a moment here, a week there. I wish I could remember how I dealt with the issue of "plot", if for no other reason than I'd love to see what kind of book review I was writing then – but also because Tournament is the same sort of book, in a bleaker cast. It is the story of Hugh Bart (Sr.)'s life, starting at a point near the end and reeling back to near the beginning. It is a few days told with vividly sharp detail of scent and color and sound and thought, a short hop to another span of days detailed intimately, a long jump to another, and a twist to leap backward for a while. It loops through the years like yarn a cat has had its way with, resting for a time on the birth and death of a child, a flood, a hunt, and then arcs up and over another span of time. It glances at a still moment on the porch here, a tragic episode now and a funny incident then and a revelation another time. It's a butterfly of a book, flying for a long time and landing when and where it will.

And it's a bad influence on my already metaphor-prone self.

I wonder if I would look at this book differently if I knew Shelby Foote had been in his forties or fifties when he wrote it? As it is, I feel as though there is a certain degree of self-conscious adherence to that phase he describes in Bart's daughter Florence in her late teens and early twenties (as well as another daughter in the course of the story), of reading and writing passionate poetry and spending much time alone thinking about death and fate – as though he recognizes the tendency in himself, and tries to turn it into something beautiful. He succeeds, for the most part, I think. There is a desolation about it all – one man works his whole life and ends up dying with almost nothing, and another man never really works at all and ends up dying with almost nothing. A man is ruined by the casual predacity of a stranger he trusted, and kills himself. Another man pours half his life into an epic project which ends up almost a joke. The women are suffocated and ground down; the men can do whatever they want, but don't know what that is.

Even so, it isn't grim. Honestly, it's not.

I haven't read much of "literary fiction" of the forties through the sixties, the kind that wins the literary prizes and is lauded by literary critics. I don't necessarily read for a Happily-Ever-After, or to see bad characters punished and good characters rewarded. I don't necessarily want "good" and "bad" characters – it's actually a positive thing when a book is filled, as this one is, with just ... people, each working his way through his life as best he can, not necessarily thinking about the future or anyone else or planning or sensing a Destiny, but reacting to occurrences and getting by. But I primarily read for simple enjoyment, and I just find it hard to enjoy a book in which – oh, heck, Macbeth said it best: "Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" dear-God-it-can't-be-only-Wednesday wishing-your-life-away-to-get-to-the-weekends aspect of life is something I get enough of outside of my reading; generally in my reading I want something which is not going to emphasize the horror of getting up every morning and dragging myself off to work I have no investment in. I can appreciate the writing and admire the skill in a book of "modern" bleakness, but in my fictional world I'm happier if at least some of the people I'm spending time with have a something better in their lives.

Tournament is not a "tale told by an idiot", not by a long stretch. It is sharp and incisive and, often, funny – and, more often, a little heartbreaking. No: this is a tale told by a genuine Southern raconteur, a modern bard using a genuine pen dipped in ink. It is a tale told by someone who knew Hugh Bart, with the chronology of thought, one incident leading to another to another, not adhering to the calendar but to the evolution of a human being. I'm going to remember these characters and their moments in the book's sun.

I have loved Shelby Foote for a long time. It makes me happy that I can, in the end, love his first book as well. With writing like the quotes I leave you with, how could I not?
… … … … … … … …
…From their beds the townspeople and transients would hear the music and voices, the shrill empty laughter, and would toss and curse or lie quiet and regret.
… … … … … … … …
He wore the dignity and detachment which the insecure assume to guard against intimacy and possible insult, and he had begun to put on weight, flesh building a barrier about the robust frame, encasing the still-hot blood.
… … … … … … … …
…Then a locomotive came from the north, the direction of the break, balancing a plume of steam on its whistle.
… … … … … … … …
His Negro fireman sweat-drenched behind him, the engineer leaned out of the cab, shouted the news to way stations off the telegraph line, and pulled the throttle open again: a short, violent screech of the whistle and, chuffing, it disappeared down the track as suddenly as it had come, dragging a dirty bank of smoke over its shoulder like a dog running with one corner of a blanket in its teeth.
… … … … … … … …
[The water] came like an immense plate being slid over the ground, shallow, opaque, innocent-looking, flecked with foam and littered with chicken coops and fence rails.
… … … … … … … …
…He walked the dim narrow sidewalks of the Vieux Carre and heard voices, mellow and soft with sin, waft down from the lace-work wrought iron balconies over his head.
… … … … … … … …
He wore white flannel trousers, tight in the legs and seat, the cuffs rolled above his ankles, and a blue-and-orange blazer that was belted across the back. His shoes were needle-tip, light tan, turned up at the toes. A wide-brimmed boater, worn slantwise, glinted in the sunlight; it had a candy-striped band and a length of string that drooped to the buttonhole in one lapel to keep it from blowing away. Bart followed, looking at the blazer, the hat, the narrow shoes, the orange-clocked violet socks. People all along the station platform were turning, rubbing their eyes. "You look like a dude in that rig," Bart said. "It's what they're wearing, papa."
… … … … … … … …
Perhaps the comet had something to do with the change. Dragging the long broad hazy tail it had flared into the northwest sky above the river, a warning sign hung up by God to signify impending judgment. Newspapers carried features predicting the end of the world. Preachers thundered in the pulpits. It was coming soon, and sinners had better get right. On the night when the earth was scheduled to pass through its flaming wake they would all be burnt to cinders in their beds, or choked by the poisonous gases. The night came and passed, however, and people emerged into a dawn that was much like the one of the day before. Mostly they were elated at having been spared the fire from heaven – but they were a little disappointed too. There was not even any stardust in the streets. Whatever else it was it was certainly anticlimactic.
… … … … … … … …
Bareheaded, awed, they stood waiting while it was loaded onto the hack – this was at Mrs. Bart's direction: "It has to be horse-drawn," she'd told them.
… … … … … … … …
The four walls are gone from around me, the roof from over my head. I'm in the dark. Alone.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering how early in his career he wrote this, this is actually pretty good. It feels well paced and like an alright reconstruction era historical fiction that focuses on a man and the family he comes to have. If you like mildly interesting perspective-shifts, its good for one rereading, maybe (so long as you don't have this given away). Many characters aren't very complex but we also get very deep looks into them even when they're just sidecharacters. The author has described the whole book as fundamentally about the inherent loneliness everyone is constantly experiencing, which I do feel like is a lot more of a closer to universally applicable theme. However of course there was a sentence that had at least 5, at most 7 colons (semicolons included) and then another with 2 semicolons and 2 colons, not necessarily in that order. Honestly however to me this made the reading experience more enjoyable.

[Ben Denison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did I just find my new favorite author? Too early to know since I’ve only read one novel and one third of his civil war trilogy, but I love the way Foote tells a story. His knowledge of the south, southern thought and ways is amazing and his ability to communicate it in his special way makes reading his stories a delight.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his preface to the 1987 reprint of "Tournament," author Shelby Foote describes it as a "young man's novel," and a foreword by Louis D. Rubin Jr. notes the influences of Marcel Proust and William Faulkner on Foote, a Mississippi novelist like the great one. Rubin says "Tournament" owes more to Proust, but Foote's subsequent novels bear a stronger Faulkner influence.

My take on "Tournament" is that it reads very much like Robert Penn Warren — "At Heaven's Gate," say. Not bad company either. As for it being a young man's novel — "thrashing around in the wilds of the English language" as Foote puts it — it is that, mostly to the good.

"Tournament" chronicles the life of Hugh Bart in Foote's fictional Jordan County, Mississippi, from the 1880s into the First World War. For Bart, "There's a world of misery no one hears about." Bart is briefly a sheriff, then he rises to become a wealthy landowner, then dabbles in shooting competitions and gambling. The early parts of this novel are a bit wobbly. Foote tends to follow and tell exhaustive backstories of people who enter Bart's orbit: a man he had to shoot, a man he lends money to, his son's girlfriend. But when Foote focuses on Bart, the novel shines. I sure as hell didn't think I had a four-star novel on my hands at the halfway point, but feel like I did by the end. As in Faulkner and Warren, "Tournament" is less about the story — there isn't a riveting plot as such here — than the telling.

As the novel progresses, Foote increasingly flashes the kind of writing that would make novels such as "Follow Me Down" so strong:  "Hugh imagined them standing in the crisp, clear, empty air looking out over the white lawn at the house beyond with the full moon balanced on its chimney like a globe on the nose of a seal." Foote describes a train disappearing down the track, "... dragging a dirty bank of smoke over its shoulder like a dog running with one corner of a blanket in its teeth."

First published in 1949, "Tournament" was the first of six Foote novels, which tend to get completely overshadowed by his monumental, 20-year odyssey producing the nearly 3,000 pages of "The Civil War: A Narrative." That pedigree eventually gained Foote fame via appearances on Ken Burns' great "The Civil War" documentary, but still the readership for his novels is distressingly paltry. I know it's hard to find, but only 37 reviews of "Tournament" on Goodreads as of this writing? Really?

"Tournament" is no mere first-novel curiosity. It's flawed, but if you stick with it, it's legitimately good.

[Ray Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tournament is Shelby Foote's first novel. In the preface he explains that his publisher put him off, but he ultimately rewrote much of the book and pushed ahead with its release. It is a tale of a Mississippi planter during the period of the Civil War to the early twentieth century. Foote explains that it is an exploration of the character of the men of the region he grew up in. His own grandfather had been a planter who died before Foote was old enough to know him. While the main character was thus inspired by his desire to know his grandfather, Hugh Bart is a composite, and the story paints a lovely picture of the people and culture of the region.

As Foote tells stories to develop his characters, one finds oneself transported. Life was by no means easy for planters on the Delta. Drought and flood, disease and bankruptcy placed the odds against an honest farmer trying to raise a family and keep his land productive. Bart has four children, one who dies as an infant and three stories we learn. His wife is something of a background figure. Nevertheless, the story traverses Bart’s life and the 70 or so years from before the Civil War to after the Great War. The timeline is not linear, but in the end the reader is left with a strong impression.

I enjoyed Tournament. I can imagine Foote’s lyrical southern accent telling the story. The book is as good as a trip to the Delta. There is some real drama, adventure, duck hunting and shooting tournaments. Foote is not shy about speaking in vernacular, so there are some vulgar words used, but not to excess. Keep in mind he is writing in the 1940s about the 19th century and speaking the language of the "Jim Crow" era deep south. I always like to note, since I am a high school teacher, there is nothing in this book that would keep me from recommending it to a young person. I’m not sure a young person would stay with a slow southern portrait of life on the Delta, but there is no explicit sex, excessive violence, or vulgarity. Shelby Foote is brilliant, and his first novel is an enjoyable introduction to his work and his musings on life on the Mississippi Delta of his youth.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really had difficulty deciding how to evaluate this book. It didn't have that much of a point to it, much less a plot. I was tempted several times to quit before I finished. But, ultimately I stayed with it and am glad I did. I finally decided not to evaluate it as a traditional novel, but rather more as what I studied years ago as "local color," beautifully written.

It's basically the story of one man and his family. It's got a touch of Faulkner, without the depth, but more attractive characters. (less)

[Drew Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. One of Foote's best novels and a great Southern tragedy. It follows the life of Hugh Bart, a naturally gifted man whose decline is precipitated by his success. The writing displays many of Foote’s best qualities and made for an enjoyable read, but it has a few flaws as well, one being Foote's bookends and, arguably, his theme—that of each man's essential loneliness—which left something to be desired.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a follow up to "Shiloh," I embarked to read Shelby Foote's debut novel, "Tournament." The novel travels through the senses of a grandson who hears stories of Delta characters from a man named Billy Boy. The grandson is told about his grandfather, Hugh Bart, mother, Kate, and a plethora of interesting individuals surrounding the Lake Jordan plantation, Solitaire. By and by, Asa Bart understands through Billy Boy's retellings that stories are just as important as life itself.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelby is best known for his Civil War narrative but this book, his first, really showcases his genius as a writer. A Faulkner type story of the Mississippi delta, it was a great read and one that is largely unknown. Highly recommended.

[Anne Bigelow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story

[John Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely well written, but my least favorite of his novels.

[Blaik Ogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and can't explain why. Such a beautiful story.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty darn good. The plot has faded since I read it, but I remember I enjoyed reading it.