Tournament of Books discussion

Oct 20 - Cloud Atlas v. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Oct 21- A Mercy v. The Sisters Brothers
Oct 22 - The Orphan Master's Son v. The Sellout
Oct 23 - The Underground Railroad v. Normal People

QF#1 decision: https://themorningnews.org/tob/superr...
(Whew, I can make ONE correct prediction!)

I started tracking the zombies that are left over in the finals thread, but I'll drop it in here in case anyone is curious what's left:

2020 - Normal People (Optic Nerve)
2019 - My Sister the Serial Killer (Warlight)
2018 - Fever Dream (Lincoln in the Bardo)
2017 - The Underground Railroad (Homegoing)
2016 - The Sellout (The Turner House)
2015 - Station Eleven (All the Light We Cannot See)
2014 - The Good Lord Bird (Life After Life)
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son (The Fault in Our Stars)
2012 - The Sisters Brothers (Open City)
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad (Freedom)
2010 - Wolf Hall (The Lacuna)
2009 - A Mercy (City of Refuge)
2008 - The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Remainder)
2007 - The Road (Absurdistan)
2006 - The Accidental (Home Land)
2005 - Cloud Atlas (The Plot Against America)

Just curious why our quarterfinal bracket (the Google doc here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... ) for Wednesday (Oct 21) shows Wolf Hall v. The Sisters Brothers. Isn't it supposed to be A Mercy v. The Sisters Brothers?

QF #2 judgement: https://themorningnews.org/tob/superr...

Thank you, Bretnie, I like that.

At this point, the only books I am really rooting for are Sellout and Cloud Atlas. Most of my favorites are gone. Pour one out for Good Lord Bird, My Sister, Goon Squad, Wolf Hall, and Sisters Brothers.

QF #3: https://themorningnews.org/tob/superr...

Kyle wrote: "At this point, the only books I am really rooting for are Sellout and Cloud Atlas. Most of my favorites are gone. Pour one out for Good Lord Bird, My Sister, Goon Squad, Wolf Hall, and Sisters Brothers"

Could I ask you, as a personal favor, to start rooting for =Normal People=?

...consider it done.

Haha! Yes please Kyle, since the TOB gods appear to hear and spite you! I’m still upset about NP knocking out MStSK so it needs to go down HARD tomorrow!

Kyle wrote: "...consider it done."

Well, thanks for trying....

The Sicha, Chancellor, and Rosner were a few of the best judgments I can remember reading. This was not.

I definitely blame Kyle.

But hey, it was cool to see Jenny in the booth! Great job Jenny Icommunicating the ARGH feelings we all have about that judgment! Thank you for adding a thoughtful judgment in its place. :)

Oh dear QF#4: https://themorningnews.org/tob/superr...

wow it's like she's channeling Jonathan Franzen

I feel like I've been trolled.

This judgment made me want to crack my computer over my knee. Colson Whitehead "for children"? Not to mention how upsetting using that phrase pejoratively is. I am incensed.

If The Orphan Master's Son falls to that boring, frustrating thing that I refuse to give any more of my brain space over to, I'm quitting the internet.

Aaron wrote: "This judgment made me want to crack my computer over my knee. Colson Whitehead "for children"? Not to mention how upsetting using that phrase pejoratively is. I am incensed.

If The Orphan Master's..."

I share all of these feelings. Have you already read The Nickel Boys? Probably my favorite Whitehead.

I didn't care for Underground Railroad but Nickel Boys was spectacular.

And as we all know, the struggle re: slavery does not hold a candle to the struggles of two white kids to figure out whether they should have sex or not

wow that was a really shitty judgment, just a complete lack of effort and insulting to anyone who actually liked either of those books. jesus.

Off the top of my head I can’t imagine handing either one of these books to a child but maybe that’s just me

The mistake Colson Whitehead and Sally Rooney made was not reading Crispin's book first:

https://bookshop.org/books/the-creati...

Bretnie wrote: "But hey, it was cool to see Jenny in the booth! Great job Jenny Icommunicating the ARGH feelings we all have about that judgment! Thank you for adding a thoughtful judgment in its place. :) "

Thanks Bretnie - I spent ALL DAY yesterday reading the comments. The first wave was just sheer, pure, anger, and I was not surprised.

In all the discussion we got more into the zombie rounds and it made me super excited because what if my dream round happens:

Normal People and Cloud Atlas win another round
Cloud Atlas wins to its zombie but NP does not

The final would be Cloud Atlas vs. Optic Nerve! I would love to see it. But I think expecting Normal People to win one more time when it has been slowly drowning from collective disdain... it's a lot to ask. I still love you, Normal People. xoxo

After some thought, I think that the reason I hated this judgement so very much was that the Judge had a Camille Paglia-esqe I'm-too-cool-to-engage-honestly-with-the-books style of writing that hit all of my nerves.

I'm going to pretend it was never written and move on. Glad for the folks who love NP, but wish it had gotten there honestly and that both books had gotten a fair hearing.

Alison wrote: "After some thought, I think that the reason I hated this judgement so very much was that the Judge had a Camille Paglia-esqe I'm-too-cool-to-engage-honestly-with-the-books style of writing that hit..."

Your thoughts hit home with me. I haven't been following all of this closely, or read all the books, but this judgement was really dismissive and arrogant, and that's a real shame for both books.

The first sentence felt like a slap in the face. So insulting to me as a reader. So I have to wonder who she was writing for.

lark wrote: "The first sentence felt like a slap in the face. So insulting to me as a reader. So I have to wonder who she was writing for."

That was my thought as well. As a believer that all books have worth to someone, it's very hard for me to value reviews that seem to convey that if it's not to the reviewer's liking then it's somehow unworthy overall.

lark wrote: "The first sentence felt like a slap in the face. So insulting to me as a reader. So I have to wonder who she was writing for."

I'm imagining the only books acceptable to her are dour, plotless novels in which the protagonist gazes agonized at their own navel, trapped in inaction by their reluctance to take agency like a common juvenile.

I have no reservoirs of kindness in me right now it seems, except to say that I would probably read this book.

Funny, I just read messages 25-29 right after reading today's (imho brilliant) judgment, so my first response was recoil - how could anyone see Judge Gurba that way??!! Then memory kicked in and I remembered Crispin - who I can see as a deliciously smarmy character in the Timothy Cavendish chapters of Cloud Atlas.

The string of fantastic judgments is picked up again today!

@Lauren

Yes, I went on a Whitehead kick this year and read all his books except for the really long one. Honestly, I love them all except Zone One, but yes, The Nickel Boys is outstanding -- one of the 3 books out of my +100 stack this year that made me truly sob.

Can I just say thanks to all the deities that N*rm*l P**ple did not end up winning the whole thing? I think that might have broken my brain 2016 election-style. (Though how a thoroughly B-tier Morrison novel ended up steamrolling... that's a different conversation, and one worth having IMO.)

Aaron wrote: "a thoroughly B-tier Morrison novel ended up steamrolling... that's a different conversation"

Yeah, there was something a dissatisfying about how things shook out this time. (And not just because of Judge Crispin.) I really didn't think =Normal People= would come on so strong now that people had a few months to reflect on it, and while I'm down with Toni Morrison, it just doesn't feel like that was one of the most interesting four books in brackets.

It seems like the Tournament, which was meant to shake up the idea of book prizes, ended up doing what all the book prizes do - giving us the forgettable book of the moment and the established name brand.

I think you hit the absolute nail on the head there, Tim, with the "established name brand" comment. Not that either was my favorite book in the tournament, but I would have LOVED to see something like Fever Dream or MStSK go to the end. These two choices were very disappointing and showed a lack of imagination all around.

Eh, A Mercy may be a "B-tier" Morrison, but I'd put Toni Morrison's B Tier up there with almost anyone else's A Game. Sometimes, all the acclaim is for a reason.

I do think that Normal People had a bit of a home court advantage in being the most recently published book--it hasn't really had to stand the test of time and continued relevancy in the way that many of the other books have. And I say that as someone who thoroughly enjoyed Normal People. Will I enjoy it just as thoroughly 10 years from now? Who knows!

Natalie wrote: "Eh, A Mercy may be a "B-tier" Morrison, but I'd put Toni Morrison's B Tier up there with almost anyone else's A Game. Sometimes, all the acclaim is for a reason.

I do think that Normal People had..."

True although I think we have all lived at least a decade in this year.