Tournament of Books discussion

Space to discuss the 2025 TOB contender The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft.

I found this compulsively readable, but also a bit messy.

I really didn't care for this one. It is way too disorganized, jumping from one idea to another without providing much context. I agree with Rachel - "messy " is a good word for it. I got frustrated with it. I see lots of people enjoyed it so maybe I just didn't "get" the author's intent.

Likely my favorite of the bunch, it won't win but I am glad to see it in here. I do think it was messy at times, and not everything seemed to have mattered, but I loved living in it for a few days.

Maybe I should clarify as favorite of the 5 I have read so far.

I just started this last night and I’m not very far into it - but I got a kick out of the idea that this is a fictional translation and then there are all these odd choices of words throughout the text. My favorite (so far) being the use of “trigger finger” rather than the more common “pointer finger.”

One more thing from last night’s reading. This passage comes on page 7:

“Enchanting at festivals, at conferences, at readings, she was often compared to a żar-ptak, the luminous peacock-like creature of Proto-Slavic myth that offered hope to the beleaguered and guidance to the lost.”

I looked up “żar-ptak” and it has a dual meaning. It’s considered a blessing, but also a harbinger of doom! The translator character that Croft embodies misses this distinction. I feel like there are a lot of these Easter eggs throughout the text and I kinda love it.

Brooks wrote: "One more thing from last night’s reading. This passage comes on page 7:

“Enchanting at festivals, at conferences, at readings, she was often compared to a żar-ptak, the luminous peacock-like creat..."

Oh man, makes me wondering how many of these I missed out on.

Brooks wrote: "I feel like there are a lot of these Easter eggs throughout the text and I kinda love it...."

Yeah, this book is filled with little moments like that. Remember that we are reading a "translation" of one character's text by a character who is featured in the text. And that leads to a lot of these little gems:

"I believe you," she said, peering into the eyes of my former best friend and placing her ugly perfect hand atop her lap.

[emphasis mine]

Once you know to start looking for them, you can find those "revisions" by the alleged translator sprinkled throughout.

Tim wrote: "Once you know to start looking for them, you can find those "revisions" by the alleged translator sprinkled throughout. "

One of my favorite bits about the book was the dynamic between these two translators.

I'm surprised by how few reviewers talk about Jenny Croft's relationship with Olga Tokarczuk and how that relates to the novel. Paul Fulcher's review is particularly helpful for this one: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

On Chapter 8 and turning my tablet on airplane mode because Libby wants this book back... Loving it so far. I tend to love metafiction like this. I get a pang of excitement every time I come across a footnote or have to look up a foreign word as some have mentioned.

This is one of those books I loved while reading but remember so little about that I think I should erase my review as thoroughly as the book has been erased from my memory of reading it.

I’ve forgotten nearly everything except the big thing that happens toward the end. Do you remember that part, Lark? ;)

Lauren wrote: "I’ve forgotten nearly everything except the big thing that happens toward the end. Do you remember that part, Lark? ;)"

Actually I don't! I know I have a lot of trouble sometimes remembering things consumed as e-books--it's like they don't really exist--and I read this as an e-arc but I must have been listening to good music at the same time, or reading very fast, because it's all crumbled away in my brain. Hmm. I erased my review.

This one just did not work for me.

I wanted to like this but it was a bit of a miss for me.

I strongly disliked this book, and I wanted everyone in the book to go get lost in the forest and die while eating mushrooms.

I'm only on page 17, but I am absolutely delighted with it so far! From what I can tell up to this point, the translator of the text is also a character in the text and she intensely dislikes the author of the text who is also a character in the text. The translator feels that she's being unfairly portrayed; so far she is fairly restrained, but I suspect her resentment will grow. I love this kind of tricksie-ness, especially in this case because it riffs off the whole concept of translation.

Ack I'm so mixed on this book! I loved the "translator is also a character who the author despises" but I also got quite lost often (for example, "the author" being either Irena Rey or the author of the fictional book that this fictional book is about). I found it confusing, including the ending. But I LOVED the translator's footnotes, loved the meta-ness of it all despite the messiness, and found the small window into the lives of translators really interesting.

So I don't know how to rate it? Not one I would recommend to others necessarily unless they were a little book nerdy like me.

I would also love to hear Croft talk about this book and her experience with translating Olga Tokarczuk's books. I bet it would make me appreciate the book more.

Bretnie wrote: "But I LOVED the translator's footnotes, loved the meta-ness of it all despite the messiness, and found the small window into the lives of translators really interesting. ..."

Echoing this!

My delight in this book continued past my comment here when I was on page 17. I gave it 4 stars, but the more I think about it, I wonder why I'm so stingy. FWIW, here's my short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This was, as said before, something of a messy book - the translators as a group seemed absolutely unhinged, like children let loose in an upscale boutique store. I couldn't follow their logic or their weird dedication to the author very well. That being said, as others have mentioned, the interplay between Alexis and Emi (as characters and as narrators) was a lot of fun.

Kyle wrote: "This was, as said before, something of a messy book - the translators as a group seemed absolutely unhinged, like children let loose in an upscale boutique store. I couldn't follow their logic or t..."

The characters were messy (to say the least!) and the very slippery concept of translation was woven throughout, so there was a lot for Croft to keep control of while not showing her hand. Quite a high wire act!

I really wish this one were able to keep up the energy from the first quarter of the book all the way through because I mostly loved the Knives Out for people who pay attention to book awards vibes of it all. Really lost steam for me, but I'll never think of translators the same again.

Reading this on audio was really hard: with all the characters; all the foreign language; and all the break-neck plot moves, there was no way I could spot the language play. damn.