Tournament of Books discussion

Hello! Today's it's Round 5 and the end of our first week!

Today's match-up is judged by Topher, who chose between The Star Side of Bird Hill and Man Tiger: A Novel.

Here is a link to Topher's decision:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w...

And here is a link to our Tournament brackets:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y...

Thanks Topher! The decision is copied below.

The Star Side of Bird Hill, Naomi Jackson Vs. Man Tiger, Eka Kurniawan

By Topher:

I have to admit, when I was first given these two books to judge, I hadn’t heard of either one. This isn’t surprising, since I tend towards older books, and even though I’m a bookseller, I don’t keep up with the latest in fiction as well as I should. I also have to admit that I thought the decision between the two books was going to be fairly obvious, simply based on outward appearances. I was, of course, wrong.

I started Naomi Jackson’s The Star Side of Bird Hill with some apprehension. The story, from a purely superficial take was a bit too twee for me. Two sisters, sent by their depressed mother to live with their grandmother in Barbados, learn about love and heartbreak and family in an island setting surrounded by quirky local characters. On the one hand, this reading isn’t far off the mark, but I was impressed with what Jackson did with such a seemingly trite, albeit heartbreaking, coming-of-age story.
First, the two girls are extremely well drawn and original. At the outset, the story seems to center on 16 year old Dionne, but even more interesting is her 10 year old sister Phaedra, who is the stand-out character in the novel and she becomes the center of gravity by the end. Likewise, Avril, the girls’ mother, is a heartbreaking character and Dionne’s attempts to learn about her through the detritus of her childhood room drives much of the first half. The later parts, especially the reappearance of the girls’ father Erroll is less successful in my eyes.

The Star Side of Bird Hill is a first novel, and while it is a mostly wonderful debut, it suffers from some of the things that many first books do. Side characters are too often given a few quirks in place of real characterization and are shunted off too quickly. There is also a bit too much “writerly-ness,” as if Jackson is trying everything out at once in places. I’ll avoid re-hashing old arguments about MFA programs, but I will say that it is very obvious that Jackson is a (very good) product of one. Jackson’s prose works best when writing simply and poetically about Phaedra, her grandmother Hyacinth and the beauty of Barbados.

Man Tiger, on the other hand is a totally different beast (pun fully intended). On the one hand, it reads like a whodunit where the reader knows who done it and who is what done to from the first line. The story then traces the history of the killer and his family. Oh, did I mention that Margio the killer has a female white tiger living within him? While that description may, and has, reminded many readers and reviewers of other “magical realists,” to me there was something fresh about the matter-of-fact way that Kurniawan handles these magical touches. The tiger that lives within Margio, the killer, is neither given a fantastical back story nor is it fully explained at all, except by Margio’s grandfather who also had a tiger “wife” living within him.

The style of Man Tiger is also very different from Star Side. Brief, but dense, it has more in common with traditional oral storytelling than most “western” novels. There is little-to-no dialogue and the narrator moves from one time period to another extremely often. This, at first, can be a bit off-putting and I found myself trying to figure out where in time I was quite a bit. However, this quickly becomes not only less distracting and in fact is one of the primary joys of the novel. The story of the family and village, their history and secrets seem to all happen at once. This story leads to that one, a detour leads to a dead end, and the journey becomes more important than the destination. The main negative of this form of writing is that the characters can seem a bit flat. Since there isn’t much dialogue, we’re told what the characters are thinking, rather than shown.

That said, Kurniawan is the winner of this round. I have to admit that I didn’t love either novel, but Man Tiger was the more original and interesting of the two. The white tiger (a metaphor, a symbol, a bit of magic?) is the thing that will stick with me. While I’m very excited to read Jackson’s next novel, her first just barely missed today.

WINNER: MAN TIGER, EKA KURNIAWAN.

I have to say I agree with just about everything Topher wrote here. I would have picked Man Tiger as well. I listened to The Star Side of Bird Hill on audio and read Man Tiger in print, so perhaps that’s not a fair match-up on my part, but, then, I generally like books more on audio but I still would have picked Man Tiger. I love Topher’s point about how Kurniawan handles the unrealistic elements of the Man Tiger very matter-of-factly, and how easy it is to accept those elements. I loved the structure of the novel, which tells us almost everything about what’s happened, and it’s just the few details left out that we discover as we read and that matter the most. I enjoyed listening to The Star Side of Bird Hill, but Topher is right that it’s a much more traditional story, very well done, but not stellar. Not a stand-out. The plot felt meandering, and at times I wanted more narrative tension. But I did enjoy the contrast between life for the girls in Brooklyn vs. Barbados. Both Jackson and Kurniawan strike me as talented writers, but I would have given Kurniawan the edge too.

I too agree with Topher's decision and analysis.

Once again thanks for taking the time to write a thoughtful analysis.

After reading both books and I was they were matched together my picking of the winner boiled down to Man Tiger because I love books where I "learn" something, especially about about another culture.

The Star Side of Bird Hill was more of a personal novel for me as my family is from the Caribbean and while the circumstances for me was a little different - I have spent several summers (or at least part of them) in the Caribbean and thought that was well done.

Rebecca wrote: "I have to say I agree with just about everything Topher wrote here. I would have picked Man Tiger as well. I listened to The Star Side of Bird Hill on audio and read Man Tiger in print, so perhaps ..."

Thanks for this thoughtful essay, Topher. Thanks for posting, Rebecca.

If I could whoosh land two of these 16 novels in the final, one of them would be Man Tiger: A Novel. (The other would be Oreo, which isn't going to happen given that these novels are both in the same half of the tournament!).

I totally get your point though Topher about the lack of dialog and digressive nature of Man Tiger, and that these qualities make the novel a little flat in affect, and less accessible than other styles of writing.

With a lot of these novels (all of them?) actually there is something about each of them that you might call "flawed," where the reader has to decide what to think, and may land anywhere from thinking "wow this aspect of the novel totally ruins it for me" to "wow this aspect makes this book an amazing, unique read," and everything in between.

Yes!
Thank you for a great write up, Topher. I particularly like the point about the matter-of-fact style of Man Tiger, which I agree with completely. I'm a big fan of this one - for me, the style as you describe it made the magical / lore elements of the storytelling all the more compelling. The contrast really worked for me and I'm pleased to see it advance.

thank you for your great commentary, topher! :)

thanks Topher! Though I didn't manage to get to Bird Hill, Man Tiger was one of my favorites of the altTOB so I suspect I would have agreed with you no matter what! I had the same complaints and praises with an extra note that Man Tiger managed to pull of a near-perfect ending; difficult to do when you know 'what happened' from the start. For me, endings can make or break a book (or series)!

Amy wrote: "thanks Topher! Though I didn't manage to get to Bird Hill, Man Tiger was one of my favorites of the altTOB so I suspect I would have agreed with you no matter what! I had the same complaints and pr..."

Your comment on endings makes me laugh, Amy, because I can't for the life of me remember how any book ends. I remember liking the ending of Man Tiger, but I have no idea why! And unfortunately I got my copy through ILL and had to return it and so can't go back and check. Oh, well. I wonder if anyone out there would have picked Bird Hill? I think Bird Hill might have fared better against another competitor, but, so far at least, Man Tiger seems to be pretty popular in this crowd.

Rebecca wrote: "Your comment on endings makes me laugh, Amy, because I can't for the life of me remember how any book ends">
I felt the same way about The Mountain Story as well (that it made the story) though I could see other people disliking the ending as manipulative.

Forgive me for missing this!! Thanks for the kind words on my terrible writing.

I think both of these books suffered/benefitted from my pre-reading expectations. I had super high expectations for Man Tiger and sort of dreaded reading Bird Hill. But even though Man Tiger didn't live up to my hopes, and Bird exceeded them, I still think Man Tiger was just more assured, and it has stuck with me longer.

Topher wrote: "Forgive me for missing this!! Thanks for the kind words on my terrible writing.

I think both of these books suffered/benefitted from my pre-reading expectations. I had super high expectations for..."

I think your writing was great, Topher! I agree with you about having had high expectations for Man Tiger, and lower ones for Bird. Looking back on the books, I can see myself happily rereading Man Tiger and probably getting more out of it the second time, but I'm not sure I would want to reread Bird. I'm not sure a reread of that one would really be rewarding.

Topher, thanks for your insightful write up of these two books. I read 'Star Side' in the summer after receiving an ARC copy, so it is a bit distant in my mind. However, I do recall it fondly and I enjoyed it more than I thought was going to - I was pleasantly surprised. I just finished up 'Man Tiger' at the end of December and I had a bit of trouble getting into it but after the first chapter, I found the rhythm of the writing and was captivated by the story and the reason behind the murder. I loved the folklore quality of the tale. I felt that it 'really stuck the landing' with it's ending.

So I would have made the same judgement you did.