Tournament of Books discussion

Welcome to the second day and Round 2 of the Alternate Tournament of Books! :)

The match today is:
Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time vs. Michael Crummey's Sweetland

And here is Jane in BC's decision:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y...

The Alt-ToB brackets:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y...

The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson v. Sweetland by Michael Crummey

The task of being a judge in the Alt.ToB arrived just in time to break me out of a bit of a reading rut.

I began with A Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson which was not a book that I was aware of. Yet after I cracked it open, I realized that I had heard rumblings of the multi-year project initiated by the Hogarth Press to commission authors to write contemporary prose versions of Shakespeare’s plays. I simply didn’t realize that the first ‘retelling’ had debuted! Being a longtime Shakespeare viewer (I have seen many of his plays at live theatre performances over the years) and having studied some of his better-known plays in my younger days, I was keen to find out how Jeanette Winterson took to the challenge. However, I was worried because I do not recall having ever seen A Winter’s Tale performed and I have never studied it. Would I ‘get’ all the references? Should I read or view the original first? I opted not to do any preparation and jumped right in. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this delightful clever ‘cover novel’ of Shakespeare’s curious late play.

It is a zany story that swings from tragedy, to pastoral (Winterson’s ‘pastoral’ is set in New Orleans and a jazz bar), to comedy, to quick resolution. Winterson has very cleverly chosen to begin her reimagined tale in what is the middle of the play. (A synopsis of the original is kindly provided.) The opening chapter is told from the perspective of Shep, a musician, and his son Clo as they come upon a car accident and rescue infant Perdita. I found this opening to be very moving as Shep opts to take on raising the baby after revealing that he has lovingly euthanised his own dying wife to spare her from further suffering. From this opening I was hooked.

Throughout the rest of the book we are introduced to Perdita’s father, Leo a paranoid hedge fund manager so suspicious of his pregnant wife’s relationship with his best friend, Xeno that he accuses Mimi of infidelity and viciously attacks her. Winterson writes the violent scene with such emotion that I found it quite troubling. I enjoyed the reimagining of Xeno as a successful video game designer. And again, I felt that Winterson’s writing beautifully portrayed the game. The other characters in the book are also playful and imaginatively updated and Winterson creates a complex dynamic between the characters of Leo and Xeno that was an interesting twist.

However I did find myself taken out of the book on occasion, wondering how the elements and themes were handled in the source material. It left me wanting to visit the original. Overall I very much enjoyed this delightfully engaging little novel and I am looking forward to reading future releases in the series. I feel that Jeanette Winterson has gotten the project off to a wonderful start.

Michael Crummey became an instant favourite of mine after reading Galore. I was more than happy to return to Crummey’s prose and storytelling in Sweetland. He weaves the tale of the death of a way of life on a fictional Newfoundland island. In doing so he has created craggy protagonist bachelor Moses Sweetland, who becomes the final holdout in the government’s plans to resettle the small population off the island and leave it abandoned. (This is a very real scenario which is still ongoing in Newfoundland and Labrador http://news.nationalpost.com/news/can... .) Moses Sweetland’s ancestors have inhabited the eponymous island for a dozen years and Moses refuses to go.

Crummey has a deft literary hand at gradually teasing elements of the story out. I think this is one of the strengths of Sweetland. One example of this narrative device is the manner in which Sweetland’s appearance becomes apparent in the reader. Crummey touches upon the fact that Sweetland has facial scars, but not by describing his appearance outright. Instead it is through the actions of other characters to him and the comments that they make. It is not until more than halfway through the book that the story of Sweetland’s disfigurement unfolds, and how extensive the physical damage was. The accident that occurred off the island changed the trajectory of Moses’s life when he returned to Sweetland.

Like A Gap of Time, Sweetland swings from the present to the past as Moses recalls significant events from his younger days. In this way the reader gradually learns about Moses’s life. The reader is also introduced to a cast of eccentric characters on the island and how Moses’s interactions with his fellow islanders shaped him. Sweetland is a flawed character. He doesn’t understand women and his sometimes harsh treatment of his autistic great-nephew, Jesse, seems thoughtless. Moses spends much of the novel dwelling on the past, which is something, I believe, that we all begin to do as we get older.

Themes of time, family, and love permeate both of these books. Winterson’s novel is delightful and creative and she appears to have captured the tone and developed the themes found in Shakespeare’s play. However it was Michael Crummey’s gentle unfolding of what became a fully realized character in Moses Sweetland that will stay with me. His life’s trajectory, his bond to the island, and the vividly evocative description of the island and its dying way of life captured my heart. Sweetland is my champion in this round.

Jane in BC
Jane Dixon

Much thanks to Jane in B.C. for her careful consideration of the two books in question today.

Not necessarily many commonalities between The Gap of Time and Sweetland. The biggest thing that stuck out to me when I saw this pairing is that on a slate full of debut novels and relative newcomers, Jeanette Winterson and Michael Crummey may be the two biggest names on this list. As such, I wonder if the familiarity with the respective writers plays a role in how readers react to this pairing -- as well, of course, with a familiarity with Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.

I was not previously acquainted with Crummey, but there's something much more familiar to the outlines of Sweetland. It's opening scenes read something out of the screenplay for a mid-budget Oscar film, seems to beg for the sweeping shots into the island and a cast of venerable character actors in their best pullovers and accents.

I am very familiar with Winterson, and Jane rightfully isolates the opening scene of The Gap of Time as one of its most powerful: the elderly musician Shep, lost in grief wanders the streets of New Bohemia before encountering a lost baby, which he takes as a sign of new hope, new purpose, new life. That is the fundamental principle of Winterson's anarchic novel -- what is old is new -- as she reinvents Shakespeare's tale to a world occupied by Wall Street sharks and video game developers, pop chantueses and gardeners.

I think that's ultimately why I would've gone the other way with this decision. While Winterson runs into certain narrative unevenness with the original play, her work takes energy from the discontinuities -- she asks that the reader take a leap of faith to believe that the past can be redeemed. Her central character is Perdita, who will bring to happy ending a story that began with the ugly, toxic masculinity of her father and the passivity of her mother. If her happy ending plays into the power fantasies of Leo/Xeno, it is also a remaking of them in the shape of her adopted life, in the improvisational style of love, of hope, of jazz.

Sweetland on the other hand is an elegy. For Crummey's central character, Sweetland, moving forward would be a reproach to his choices (or lack thereof), so he clings past survival -- extinction. Sweetland is the more narratively even; its ending preceeds from its beginning as inexorably as a stone rolls down a hill. However, I can't help but feel that in the ease of its descent, Crummey takes the easy way out. How much easier it is to treat its subject as gone, and I found myself wondering more what happened to the characters that moved on -- that had to bring into clearer focus what traditions and customs that were truly valuable from the old way of life on the island and which were harmful, sexist, morbid.

Jane, nice job comparing two very enjoyable novels. I've only seen a few of Shakespeare's plays performed, so I listened to an audio reading of A Winter's Tale before tackling The G of Time and was glad I did. Having that context added a lot to the reading experience, and I plan to do it with other books in the Hogarth project, which I'm now eager to read.

This would have been a hard category for me to judge because I like both books. As you and many others have said, Moses is a compelling and memorable character, but I think I might have gone with Winterson based on the degree of difficulty and the choices she made in reimagining the characters and story for a new era and new settings.

Thanks for your thoughtful and well-written judgement, Jane. And Poingu & Jennifer, thanks for including The Gap in the Alt.TOB and bringing the Hogarth Shakespeare project to our attention.

Sigh. This is the match that I knew wouldn't go my way because my opinion of Sweetland is widely different from most of y'all's, and I was really taken with The Gap of Time -- both on its own merits and as part of the Hogarth Project. I especially appreciated it in light of what I see as the massive fail of the Austen Project, and am now really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the group of interesting authors will make of their plays.

Anyway, I knew my opinion here would vary, so I'm not surprised, but I'm still disappointed.

Jan wrote: "Jane, nice job comparing two very enjoyable novels. I've only seen a few of Shakespeare's plays performed, so I listened to an audio reading of A Winter's Tale before tackling The G of Time and was..."

I tried to find a DVD of A Winter's Tale since I wasn't familiar with it but no success locally. That didn't hamper my enjoyment of Gap although I was most appreciative of the synopsis at the start. I, too, will be looking into the other books in the Hogarth project! But as much as I enjoyed this book, Sweetland was the clear winner in my mind. There was something about the characters and place descriptions that made me feel I was really there among the inhabitants of the island.

Good job, Jane!

Once again another great commentary of the two great books doing "battle" against each other.

I am also in the camp that was rooting for The Gap of Time - maybe because I am a big Shakespeare fan.

Or maybe because the storyline of TGoT appealed to me more.

I appreciated all that was said about Sweetland and saw those elements so I still wonder why overall the book did not soar for me.

Thanks Jane in BC for the careful and thoughtful review of the books.

What a wonderful way to start my day as I savor my cup of coffee.

Jan wrote: "Jane, nice job comparing two very enjoyable novels. I've only seen a few of Shakespeare's plays performed, so I listened to an audio reading of A Winter's Tale before tackling The G of Time and was..."

What a great idea to listen to the play before reading the story!

I've read Sweetland but not The Gap of Time, so I can't really say how I would vote EXCEPT that my history with Winterson is not great and I liked Sweetland very much, so I probably would have agreed with this judgment. I agree with Jane that Crummey captured the island the island way of life very well. I was totally caught up in the story, especially in the second half. And the ending! I found it extremely powerful and moving.

thank you so much for your thoughtful decision, jane!! i really liked both books a lot. 'the gap of time' had more of a 'fun factor' for me while reading, and i felt winterson must have really enjoyed herself while writing (i hope she did, any way). but crummey's writing, and the atmosphere he created, were stronger and left more long--lasting impressions with me. so although it would have been a tough match-up for me to decide, i would have gone the same way.

Ha, interesting how divided the opinions are today. As I've already noted, I respect that Sweetland has the more traditional tale and the more broadly appealing narrative. But I couldn't help but be more excited by Winterson's playful modernity and her spirit of tweaking the sensibilities of Shakespeare to reflect her own preoccupiations and observations about our own times. Despite the fact that the beats of her story were obviously ordained by the play, I felt charmed, sueprised by her choices.

Whereas I felt that Crummey's story beats felt very predictable, even hackneyed at points. If well rendered, I couldn't help but remember, say, every other survival tale in which the dog died first, and the ending felt like a particular copout from the spare unsentimentally the rest of the narrative tried to go for.

Sorry for the late posting, and please put the blame for any technical difficulties this morning on myself. Everything should be up now for everyone, hopefully.

I didn't get into "The Gap of Time" like I did with "Sweetland". This would have been an easy judging for me. I'm surprised many would have picked TGoT, maybe I'll have to go back and try it again with less of a time constraint hovering over me.

Thanks for the link, I find it fascinating that this is going on and it makes the story more touching. I just hope nobody pulls a Sweetland for real.

Jane wrote: Winterson has very cleverly chosen to begin her reimagined tale in what is the middle of the play. (A synopsis of the original is kindly provided.)

Thanks for thinking about these books so carefully, Jane. Your review made me realize that Winterson's writerly choices in The Gap of Time are completely exposed, in a way that a regular novel isn't, because of the novel's direct association with A Winter's Tale. It gives the novel this whole other layer of reader engagement, of thinking about these choices, like: "now, why did she start in the middle of the play?" etc.

That aspect alone, the openness of it, makes it a very different read from Sweetland, in which so much is left purposefully murky and unexplained.

Great review, Jane! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and impressions - and for putting Sweetland forward, one of my very favourite books of last year (actually, 2014 for me). A lot of what you say about it resonates for me.

I'm grateful to the alt TOB for bringing the Hogarth project to my attention. I'm off to find out what other titles we have to look forward to!

I'm just wowed by the first two write-ups. Thank you Jane.

I started listening to The Gap of Time, but it just didn't grab me. Possibly it was the reading or just my ability to get involved in it at that moment. I'm glad people enjoyed it and like 'Under the Udala Trees' that I restarted my listening of, I may have to take a second look/listen.

That being said, I found Sweetland to be a beautifully rendered story with it's seamless time shifting, each story adding another layer and dimension to this curmudgeon of a man and his island of misfits. The lonely second half of the book really cemented it for me as a great novel as he grapples with being alone, a ghost haunting his home left with just his memories.

Beverly wrote: "What a great idea to listen to the play before reading the story!..."

Thanks, Beverly! I highly recommend doing that as a way to approach the Hogarth reimaginings. The version I listened to was done in 1961 and included Sir John Gielgud and Dame Peggy Ashcroft, so it was a classic! (Found it on iTunes).

Thanks Jane and Kaion for the opening comments!
This would have been a tough one for me but in the end I think I would have landed on The Gap of Time. I felt that Sweetland was perhaps the 'better book' with amazing dialogue, deft handling of time jumping and beautiful sense of time and place (I felt familiar with the island by the end) and that Winterson's effort wasn't perhaps as well executed. But, in the end, I just liked TGoT better... the themes were beautifully drawn, the characters were vivid (Pauline was one of my favorites!) and I personally didn't feel as disjointed as when reading Sweetland. I'm glad this wasn't mine to judge because I doubt my justification!

poingu wrote: " Winterson's writerly choices in The Gap of Time are completely exposed, in a way that a regular novel isn't, because of the novel's direct association with A Winter's Tale. It gives the novel this whole other layer of reader engagement, of thinking about these choices, like: "now, why did she start in the middle of the play?" etc...."

Great points, Poingu!! Being familiar with the original lets us read the new book on the two tracks of how it works as a "stand-alone" novel, and how the author reworked the original story. Double the fun, haha.

I think I'm one of the few readers who hadn't read either Crummey or Winterson before despite their status. And while familiar with Shakespeare's older plays, I have never read or viewed A Winter's Tale. With that in mind, I felt both authors did a great job orienting me to their subject matter without tons of exposition (Winter's Tale recap aside).

This is the Animated Shakespeare episode I watched to familiarize myself with A Winter's Tale: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpk2...

:)

Amy wrote: "Thanks Jane and Kaion for the opening comments!
This would have been a tough one for me but in the end I think I would have landed on The Gap of Time. I felt that [book:Sweetland|2..."

Vivid is right. Leo was so haaaaatable, but he definitely felt real to me. I guess I was more wary of being manipulated in Sweetland because it's a more "realistic" work; I couldn't help but feel that the characters were more generic-- i.e. Jesse was generically autistic, without actually having any of the more difficult hallmarks, or Sweetland was vaguely chauvinistic/racist without anything in the storyline to really challenge his old-fashioned views.

Great reviews of both books again! I admit to almost holding my breath while I was reading the first section. It captured the positives of Winterson really well ... but Sweetland held my heart and my mind for so long afterwards.

I am sorry to appear so late in today's discussions. I have been on airplanes.

Thanks for posting and hosting the discussion today, Kaion.

I appreciate reading everyone's insight and perspectives on these books. I feel very fortunate to have been handed two such wonderful books to pass judgement upon. I look forward to seeing what comes tomorrow!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Gap of Time and still reading Sweetland. The Hogarth Shakespeare retellings were already on my TBR. Winterson's was the first book so I was anxious to see how the process proceeded. It was a light-hearted, fun read. I can see where it may inspire people to become more familiar with Shakespeare. I have wanted to read a Crummey for some time so happy to have that exposure now. Since I am still reading it would not be fair to choose but I am really enjoying the language in Sweetland. Just want to curl up in the words.