Tournament of Books discussion

Space to discuss the 2025 TOB contender Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham.

Quick question: the other day, I forgot my copy of Margo at home. I have Great Expectations at work. I read about 35 pages that day and found it dull. Does it pick up? Also, "the senator"? "The rapper, the singer"?

Bob, I liked Cunningham’s writing, and David was very likable, but there wasn’t much story and it never really drew me in. I think it’s worth reading, the discussions were interesting enough, but I ended up DNF’ing halfway through (mostly because it was depressing remembering how hopeful everyone was in 2007-8.)

Bob wrote: "Quick question: the other day, I forgot my copy of Margo at home. I have Great Expectations at work. I read about 35 pages that day and found it dull. Does it pick up? Also, "the senator"? "The rap..."

I'm with you. I gave up. I may give it a second chance, since it looks like I will have time before March. But, eh. We'll see.

I'm about 1 hour into the 7 hour audiobook and I'm finding it quite dull as well... but I've got a four hour drive tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

I finished it, and can confirm as dull the whole way through

Yes, I was pretty disappointed in this one. It definitely had potential, but I couldn’t find the depth or anything to grab hold of for engagement.

I just reached page 44, came here to see if I should keep going. This will be a DNF for me. Snore.

I'm about to start this one on audio. A friend of mine DNF'd at 51% (her threshold) and I was hoping to come to this thread to make me feel more hopeful about it lol. Guess I'll be putting it on 2x speed and powering through. The audio is only a little over 6 hours long so it shouldn't be too bad.

I had to increase the narration speed for the last two hours but I finished it. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it did nothing for me. It was just... okay.

I finished it today and agree with all of you.

Dang I wish I'd read this thread when it was dragging in the middle. My favorite part was that it was short?

Goodreads called it a coming of age book, but did David actually grow? It mostly felt like a fictional memoir of his experience on the campaign.

Also, any interpretations of the cover? Between the title and the cover, the book was not what I thought it would be (heh don't name your book Great Expectations!)

I am 50 pages in, and so far I am not seeing any point at all to this story nor am I particularly enjoying the prose nor do I care about the narrator. It is my intention to finish it, just so I will not feel like I am fudging if I’m able to claim completion of all 18 books. But were it not for its inclusion in the ToB, I would DNF at this point.

Yeah, I wish this spot in the tournament had gone to another book. There’s not too much to discuss with this one.

I'm about a third in, and like yall are saying... it's fine. Perfectly OK. Nothing that actually has caught me yet.

The author (or the narrator) really wants to show off his artistic taste, though, doesn't he? I came in thinking that David was kind of a regular guy, but he's clearly a "went to private school, knew important people, had great taste in music and books and paintings" sort of guy. Which feels at odds with his, "I'm 20 and dropped out of college once I became a new dad" thing.

I will say that this did make me want to read the Dickens original. But I have David Copperfield first in the reread queue, though, thanks to Demon Copperhead a few years back.

Well this went nowhere.

I just finished listening to this as an audiobook, and I came here to see what others think about it. Personally, I enjoyed the story, and I think David grew a lot throughout the book in maturity and self awareness. It felt like a fairly typical “coming of age” plot, but setting the story in the midst of Obama’s presidential campaign was interesting to me. As with many “coming of age” stories, there was the sexual initiation (in this case, both with a peer and an elder) and the moral initiation (the campaign finance controversy). I also enjoyed the many tangents about education, religion, class dynamics, etc. While some of this read like a debut author trying to put all his ideas into one book, it also seemed consistent with a coming-of-age narrative where the protagonist is questioning and exploring his beliefs about various issues.

I just finished this and I really liked it. It's introspective and thinky more than action-oriented, so I can see how in a year of wild, event-filled books, it might feel dull in comparison, but I loved the change of pace and the depth. The way his Pentecostal upbringing reflected on how he saw the world, and his lack of direction really appealed to me.