Tournament of Books discussion

QUARTERFINAL 1 The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo versus The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
Judge: Darryl Keeping :Darryl is a high school history teacher originally from Grand Bank, Newfoundland, Canada, currently living in Paradise...no, really. It's a town in Newfoundland as well. Stereotypically, he's a huge hockey fan (go Leafs go!) and maybe not so stereotypically, he loves professional wrestling! He discovered the ToB (and subsequently the alt. ToB) through the awesome podcast So Many Damn Books!

When I first heard of the Tournament of Books and subsequently, the alt.ToB, I jumped at the opportunity to read novels beyond my usual mystery/thriller fare. Some of the books I read (hello, Gutshot!) left me less than enthusiastic about this new reading adventure. Others (well good day, A Little Life!) challenged me in a way I never expected. I was apprehensive about both The Core Of The Sun and The Portable Veblen based on the synopses I read and the snippets of reviews I’d encountered. “Finnish weird” is not the section I run to at my local bookstore. And pictures scattered throughout a book about a woman who fights (embraces?) her mental illness by engaging in conversations with a squirrel? Oh. Boy. I’m very happy and relieved to report, however, that these two books, while very different in scope and theme, were two of the best books I have ever read and made this decision a very difficult one.

Let’s begin with Sun, written by Johanna Sinisalo is the story of Vanna/Vera, a young woman living in present day/near future Finland. This vision of Finland is one of a repressive, dystopian nation that has genetically altered women to be subservient to their male counterparts. These women, known as elois, were taught from an early age to sew, cook, and clean. They also learned how to properly apply makeup and dress in fashions that would attract men, known as mascos. Vanna and her sister Manna/Mira live on a rural farm with their grandmother Aulikki. While Vanna looks like an eloi, she is actually a morlock, a woman with interests beyond the narrow scope of an eloi. This is considered undesirable in Finnish society and therefore potentially dangerous for Vanna. Aulikki protects Vanna from government scrutiny while raising her as the person she is. Manna, an eloi, clashes with her sister occasionally, due in large part to their natural differences. Manna goes missing and Vanna begins consuming hot peppers for the high provided by capsaicin, the active element in the spicy food.

First, I must commend the translator, Lola Rogers, on a fantastic job with this book. I’ve read books translated from Norwegian (foreshadowing?) in the past and there always seems to be something of the author’s voice lost in the translation. While I wouldn’t dare speak for the author, I feel as though her “voice” is fully intact with this translation. The topics of feminism, patriarchy, dystopia, and drug abuse that are brought up throughout are fully realized.

The point of view of the novel switches back and forth from Vanna to her boyfriend/friend/ partner in crime Jare. Jare worked as a farmhand for Aulikki and discovered the truth about Vanna. The jump from Vanna to Jare as narrator gave the novel the perspective of a female and male protagonist, allowing for two unique looks at life in Finland in 2016/2017. “Big Brother” is always watching, with the government watching the every move of its citizens, ensuring that they don’t engage in the practices of other countries. Everything from what you wear to what you watch on TV is controlled by the government.

One question I had while reading Sun was: Is Sinisalo extrapolating from her own personal experiences in her home country? From all accounts I’ve read, Finland is a leading country of the world in many areas. Maybe Sinisalo sees something within the country that compelled her to write this novel.

Sinisalo also dedicated some chapters to documents from the Finnish government or excerpts from books explaining the current situation in the country. I enjoyed these chapters and felt that they provided an organic way to give the reader some background on how Finland got to this point. I loved the fact that the author used capsaicin as the drug of choice for Finland. Where else but in a repressed, social-backward country would a hot pepper be a drug? The whispers and rumours that in other countries, people actually put peppers in and on their food was very amusing. Vanna’s experiences with these peppers, especially the genetically engineered version that lends its name to the title, made for slightly uncomfortable reading, in a good way. Hot foods are a challenge for me and the descriptions of the effects in terms of heat were spot on.

I sometimes felt frustrated with the book when it came to the “pepper engineers” who were working to create the hottest peppers imaginable. I felt the book lagged in these sections as the author described the purpose of the development of the peppers and the end game that would result.

I also would have liked the book to focus more on the Vanna/Manna relationship. This may seem like an odd request given the fact that so much of the book is focused on that very relationship. Still, I felt that the arc of Manna’s story was not fully realized through Vanna’s flashbacks and unreceived letters.

Aside from these minor quibbles, Sun was a fantastic, immersive read that made some salient points without driving them down the reader’s throat like a...hot pepper.

In The Portable Veblen, we are introduced to Veblen, a young woman named for a philosopher/social anarchist by the name of Thorstein Veblen. Veblen’s love interest is Paul, a doctor working to improve the lives of wounded veterans while struggling with a crisis of conscience. Veblen’s mom is a self-involved hypochondriac, her dad is a mentally ill Vietnam vet and she counts among her friends a gray squirrel who may or may not be convincing her not to marry Paul.

With a synopsis like that, I honestly can't believe how much I enjoyed this book. With all the eccentric elements, this novel still really resonated with me. The characters felt real and their issues were relatable. Veblen struggles to discover what her life is beyond her intrusive mother and whether or not that life includes Paul.

Mental health is treated with seriousness and respect in this novel. There are no easy answers, no neat bows to tie to the conclusion. Life is tough, families can suck the joy out of you sometimes, and you can often only depend upon yourself. If you're lucky, though, you sometimes find someone to wade through the muck with. Veblen’s parents both struggle with varying degrees of mental illness and Veblen herself can't help but wonder if the things she says and does indicate potential mental deterioration for her. She has a bevy of medications that she takes for depression and anxiety.

Veblen is a strong character with a struggle between living the carefree life she desires and determining if being married is worth the strife. It's a real question that many people struggle with and the author does so with heartfelt moments and a little humour.

Paul has some real family issues as well, none as resonant in his life as the struggle to be recognized by his family over Justin, his mentally challenged brother. Paul has felt marginalized most of his life because his parents spend all their time taking care of Justin. His complaints come off as petty at first but the reader soon discovers that Paul may have a point.

I wasn't a huge fan of the pictures throughout. They were a little too on-the-nose and they didn't quite feel necessary to the overall enjoyment of the novel.

Both novels feature unique female characters and I enjoyed joining the authors as they unfolded the intricate parts of their lives. With its dystopian outlook and commentary on perceived gender roles in today's world, I'm giving the slight edge to Sun.

Winner: The Core Of The Sun by Johanna Sinisalo

Commentators:
Amberbug *shelfnotes.com* : Book blogger for shelfnotes.com by night, boring desk job by day. Amberbug started blogging a few years back when she realized free books sent to your doorstep wasn't a book lovers fairy tale but gifts from the publishing gods.
Jan : Jan is a freelance marketing flack who gets paid to learn stuff, interview people way smarter than she is, and write about technology trends in healthcare, education, supercomputing, and other fields. She lives with her husband in the Portland suburbs, and their favorite date destination is Powell’s City of Books.

Jan: So, Amber, here we are in the quarter finals with The Core of the Sun and The Portable Veblen, which defeated The Girls and Sweetgirl to get here. Would you have predicted that outcome?

Amber: I was hoping The Girls and Sweetgirl would make it further but in all honesty, I enjoyed reading all four of these books. I liked how Darryl pointed out that these were two of his favorite books now. That warms my heart that the alt.TOB can shove a book into the hands of a reader who would have never picked it up otherwise.

Jan: I thought The Girls would go to the finals based on general buzz, but I loved having an upset right off the bat in Round 1. I liked The Girls quite a bit until the end, when it got into some cheap psychologizing to the effect that any girl could have done what these girls did. I don’t buy that, and the level of “insight” reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock facing the camera at the end of the original Psycho, where he explained the character’s psychology in language and concepts so Freudian it probably would have had Sigmund himself rolling his eyes. I liked Veblen—not quite as much as I liked Sweetgirl , but still, any of these four books would have made me happy. But Core and Veblen it is, and Core advances. I’m happy with that choice, although I would have been happy with the other choice too. Can you tell I’m stalling for time here?

Amber: Haha, no I think most of us can agree that we have a good selection of books here.... not to pat ourselves on the back or anything. The selection process was quite a bit different than I thought going in and it's hard thinking of all those books that didn't quite make the cut, Overall, I think this grouping was well worth it. I do think having an upset in the first round was exciting.

Jan: Had you read either book before the Alt Tourney got going? I had read Veblen back in May and really liked it. It reminded me of those screwball comedies of the 1930’s. The quirk almost threatened to overwhelm me, but managed to stay just this side of insanity. I loved all the pharmaco-military-industrial complex shenanigans, and I loved that it ultimately settled down to say some thoughtful things about family, marriage and commitment. But since I read it four months ago and my detailed book-memory lasts about 2 days, I’m not sure I can say too much more about it. (Is there a name for this particular form of brain fade?)

But Core!!! That book surprised me! Like Laurus, it completely flew beneath my radar, and was a very happy surprise when I read it for the Alt Tourney. As with Judge Darryl, it was not the kind of book I tend to read. (Darryl, hello, welcome and thank you for your judgment. Also, yay, mysteries, and yay for the A Little Life shoutout!!) Veblen and Corewere both four-star reads for me, but Core brought that extra jolt that comes when a book genuinely surprises and delights you. Which is what Core did, starting right out with the first pages where our heroine is being creative about how she’s gonna get her chili pepper high. So I’m with Judge Darryl on this decision. And I certainly second Darryl’s shoutout to Lola Rogers for her translations. I could easily have believed the book was written in English.

Amber: I definitely agree with Darryl on this one. I was not as enamored with Veblen as most, although I have to agree that it has value. I think I mentioned that before. I respect the book and see what others like about it but I just didn't enjoy the reading experience. I know you don't always have to enjoy the journey to value the destination but I went into the book with one idea (the book jacket blurb made it feel like it would be something else entirely) and found a clearer, improved picture upon completion.

On the other hand, I had a blast reading Core and could see myself picking it up again (maybe after I finally read Troll:A Love Story). I was happy Darryl mentioned the fact that Core brings up some cultural issues with Finland. That was really insightful.

Jan: I was glad Darryl brought that up. I could easily see some of the attitudes Sinisalo portrays in the eusistocracy—the tamping down of intense emotions and outlawing even hot chilies as being unhealthy or too stimulating—growing out of a paternalistic or benevolent authoritarianism, but do you know if she’s reacting to any particular issues or elements of Finnish society?

Amber: I'm not very familiar with the issues Finnish society face but now I'm curious. This will definitely be something I'll be checking out and hopefully this discussion can continue in the comments.

Jan: Have you read Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and did Core give you flashbacks? It certainly did me—not in a bad way, but just in how plausible some of this stuff seemed. I thought Sinisalo did a great job of doing what speculative fiction is supposed to do, i.e., make us ask, “What if…?” And with genome sequencing on the verge of going mainstream, I can easily picture a society deciding to breed women for submissiveness and beauty. But I felt a bit uneasy with how Sinisalo described the elois, because she seemed almost anti-female in the way she put a negative spin on any traditionally feminine characteristics. Maybe I was reacting to something that wasn’t there, but it did leave me questioning.

Amber: Yes! I've read almost all of Atwood and you could say I'm a little obsessed with speculative fiction, which is probably why I loved Core so much. I think Sinisalo was trying to show us how important it is to break free from labels and traditional values more than coming across as negative. It's hard to argue about gender roles without giving a little push against tradition. I have to say, as much as I like Sinisalo, Atwood did it better (in my opinion).

Love the judgment & commentary as always...and thanks for mentioning the translator, which I neglected to do in Round 1. Lola Rogers definitely had a lot to do with how engaging & readable 'Core' waa. Glad to see it advance.

I really enjoyed both of these novels, and I'm really not sure which way I would have voted on this one. I think...I may have gone with Veblen, if only because there were quite a few literal LOL moments for me in that novel, this one being my favorite:

“You can make other friends. This squirrel isn’t a character in a storybook. Real animals don’t wear shawls and top hat and write poetry. They rape each other and eat their own young.”

Thanks Darryl! Thanks Jan and Amber!

I really enjoyed reading both of these books. I think with each of these books though you need to be in the right mood. If I were judge I'd be worried that I just hadn't been in the right frame of mind to be receptive to the charms of one book, or the other, and that I might have chosen completely differently if I'd read them at another time.

poingu wrote: "If I were judge I'd be worried that I just hadn't been in the right frame of mind to be receptive to the charms of one book, or the other, and that I might have chosen completely differently if I'd read them at another time. "

ditto Poingu! I liked every book in the first quartile but could see where another mood or over-saturation would have put me off certain styles and stories. This year I read The Nest and The Past and was surprised to like them both, especially after already liking Fates and Furies from TOB but I can tell, the last one tipped me over the edge where I couldn't take one more upper-crust family drama right now no matter how brilliant. That actually might be why Sport of Kings was such a non-starter for me.

(though I'm pretty confident I'll be making the attempt again after the commentary here and high likelihood of TOB selection.)

by the way, just a reminder that the live bracket is always here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

I just want to mention that I feel The Turner House beat out both The Nest and The Past for me, at least in terms of the way we live now.

Judy wrote: "I just want to mention that I feel The Turner House beat out both The Nest and The Past for me, at least in terms of the way we live now."

oh hands down! The Turner House was a 5-star read for me and I was rooting for it at the TOB finals!

For what it's worth, I loved The Girls and really expected it to be one of my two. That said, I'm happy to have read Core and probably would have chosen it against Girls too!

I'm so glad that Core of the Sun is advancing!

It is very Atwood-esque to me, also, in really great ways, yet distinctive enough not to just feel like an imitation. (Did anyone else feel drawn to eat particularly hot peppers while reading it?)
I did certainly enjoy Veblen, too, but totally agree with this judgment!

I have a serious, but maybe dumb(?) question... how do you know if you're reading a good translation? Like, there have been several mentions about the great translations of both Core and Laurus. But if you can't read the original language, and there aren't other English translations to compare against, how do you know? How do you know what characteristics to assign to the original text versus the translation?

I believe the translator for Laurus commented here, yeah? Can you/she give your perspective?

(And if I should take this question elsewhere, please feel free to bump me there. Thanks!)

@Ehrrin - One easy measure is if you could easily believe that the book was originally written in English. If understanding just seems to flow and dialogue feels right for each character you usually have a decent translation. It's more than just having a good vocabulary in each language but an ability to understand what the intent and feel of a scene was meant to be and ensuring the translated language conveys that sense. I'll use a couple of extreme examples to show you what mean...
When I read Dante's Inferno I stopped at one point and marveled at the translation. This is a tale in verse with not only rhythm but rhyming and each stanza seems perfect in the translated version. A footnote tipped me off to thinking about the lack of available rhymes between English and Italian that would match both the expression made AND the feel (there is a lot of humor as well as a lot of gross-out). Meanwhile, I read a book this year that I really appreciated for content and what I think the intent was but I eliminated it from the tournament because one of the words placed in a character's mouth was completely out of character for her. I suspect it was a literal translation but it didn't fit and it actually hurt the "message" of the book. The intent was missing. Great translation vs good but imperfect translation.

... eliminated for the shortlist, not the tourney. I admire the translations in the tourney greatly!

QUARTERFINAL ROUND 2 book:[The Vegetarian] by Han Kang versus Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
Judge: Melanie Green :On June 30, 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted at Melanie Greene that she was “so awesome.” Other highlights of her life include her Irish husband, who she met at the English university where they earned their creative writing MAs; their Texan sons; her career writing contemporary romance novels; and her blue and yellow bicycle.

I’m excited about leaping from the commentariat to alt.judging. Since running across the TOB a few years ago, I’ve devoted many engrossing, thought-provoking hours to the Rooster-based communities here on Goodreads. (I’ve also learned to arrange my working life to maximize my free time in March, and accepted that I now look forward to mid-December more for the TOB long list than for my birthday.)

We all know the joy of empty brackets waiting to be filled. Reading up on the contenders, jumping from library site to library site to place holds on all the titles, developing a taste for coffee to better survive those stayed-up-too-late-reading hangovers. When I evaluate my brackets, I love the game of ‘how can I force these two books into a compare/contrast scenario?’ For the alt.TOB opening round, we had the spare, stressed voice of Sweetgirl against the silly, sweet voice of The Portable Veblen. The battle of vowels with LaRose and Laurus. Surreal Not Dark Yet and too-real-for-me The Sport of Kings. But then we got to my round, and suddenly my game wasn’t so easy to play.

Beatlebone and The Vegetarian. A colorful spinning-top of language and fantasy, and a collection of rough splinters disguised as a novel. They inhabit entirely different spheres. Here’s the best comparison I could make: Beatlebone gnaws on marrow. The Vegetarian’s roots pry apart seemingly solid foundations.

My husband is Beatlebone’s ideal reader. He’s an Irish-born Beatles aficionado, always ready with a tale about the lives of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. My love for him forced a level of tolerance from me as I read; marriage is about compromise, after all. I do, of course, like the Beatles as music-makers, but I am not much of a cult-of-personality person. Hanging the framework of a novel on John Lennon’s shoulders is a fun conceit, but he has to be more than a cipher with a familiar face. And with all the playful language and deft spins through myth and lore and philosophy this novel takes, it isn’t tethered to much at all.

The plot: the character John Lennon exiles himself to the West of Ireland in search of some island he owns. Or, as the novel puts it:

But now it’s the Maytime again and he’s come over a bit strange and dippy again—the hatches to the underworld are opening—and he needs to sit on his island again just for a short while and alone….

This is in the late 70s, when Lennon’s ivory tower of New York domesticity and fame is messing with his creative mind. The island, he figures, might let him reset, so into the countryside he goes. Ructions and disruptions and complications ensue.

Much about Kevin Barry’s book amused me. If it was Horatian satire, I would have danced through it—it does skip along rapidly—and come away satisfied and a bit breathless. However, throughout all the price of fame woefulness, drunken revelry, and alternative therapy, Barry never lets Lennon off his throne. Neither was Beatlebone a satisfactory quest. Lennon’s island is both elusive and illusive, and Lennon himself is too busy passively accepting whatever he’s told to drive any of the plot. It’s a shame Lennon is always a passenger, because Kevin Barry can write beautiful sentences that almost let you forget your cares about plot and character, and he is clearly (too clearly, as one section of the book proves) as enamored with the Beatles as my beloved husband.

The Vegetarian is My Kind Of Thing from the get-go. It is centered on a woman whose quiet implosion sends ripple effects across her family, all of whom are shocked to discover how little power they wield. Yeong-hye’s life as the novel opens is internal and constrained, defined by her service to tradition and expectation. Her husband, smugly, calls her “the most run-of-the-mill woman in the world.” She “made for a completely ordinary wife who went about things without any distasteful frivolousness.” And, indeed, there is no frivolity in what’s to come.

When Yeong-hye’s gruesome nightmares lead her not only to embrace vegetarianism, but also to be repulsed by any hint of meat in her life, her hide-bound husband is at first bemused. As her habits and appearance change, he is increasingly frustrated by her refusal to bend to societal norms or his will. A crisis comes, and the story switches to her brother-in-law’s perspective. Another crisis, and her sister takes over the narrative.

Each shift echoes Han Kang’s tightening of the screws on Yeong-hye’s world. As she loses more of her humanity to her dream of becoming vegetal, her family swirls ineffectually around her. They are full of misguided—or guided—attempts to bring her back to a version of herself they recognize, or can use, or approve of. The men approach the struggle with firm, if vastly differing, ideas of what Yeong-hye needs and how she should behave. They don’t know, as Han Kang does, that they are showing us the worst of themselves. Yeong-hye may not know it, either, because she has retreated into her own interior. Their actions to and around her only register insofar as they resonate with her dreams. Her sister, though she is better at thinking through Yeong-hye’s motivations, is stymied by the disconnect between what Yeong-hye wants and the demands of normal, run-of-the-mill life.

Yeong-hye is too deeply embedded in her new self to return to the ordinary, and despite the objective horrors of that self, it’s hard not to root for her. I ought to want her family to win. For ordinary, everyday life to win. I emphatically do not. The fact that I want the vegetarian to win echoes the fact that in this match, the win goes to The Vegetarian.

Winner: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

nomadreader (Carrie D-L) :Carrie is an academic librarian by day and an avid reader of literary fiction and mysteries by night. She spends the rest of her time goofing off with her rambunctious and sweet 2-year-old Hawthorne (and her spouse), traveling, cooking, drinking wine, cooking, or watching documentaries (and most often doing more than one of those.) Since 2007, she has blogged at http://nomadreader.blogspot.com

Nicola : Nicola is a 44 year old British transplant who arrived on the shores of Connecticut 11 years ago and never left. A self confessed Americaephile with the eclectic reading tastes that can be expected from growing up on a diet of Thomas Hardy and Stephen King. Favorite book of the last 12 months - The Tsar of Love and Techno.

Carrie: Hooray! The Vegetarian won! Or rather: hooray! Beatlebone lost! We spent a lot of time discussing our thoughts on these two books in their first round judgments, so I won’t rehash my thoughts here. I thought Melanie did an excellent job weighing the merits of both novels. I still have no desire to pick up Beatlebone, but her judgment helped me understand why I should buy it for my husband, who will love it.

Nicola: These books are opposites in so many ways - The protagonist is Male vs. Female; solipsistic vs self sacrificing; viewed through their own lens, viewed through others. A book for women, a book for men. The Vegetarian is more universal, it speaks to the subjugation and judgement suffered by women at the hands of others - I think a lot of people can relate to that. Beatlebone has a smaller universe of people who could relate to the book - perhaps men of a certain age, suffering from first world problems. The best book won.

Carrie: I think she liked The Vegetarian more than I did, but I found myself screaming, “yes!” in the last paragraph of her verdict. There’s something delightfully subversive about this novel, and while I didn’t love it, I find myself thinking I love the author and the kinds of things she thinks and writes.

Nicola: Exactly! I think I’m going back for a second read of The Vegetarian. I think it could improve with age and knowing where the novel is going to end, I think I could enjoy the scenery on the way there a bit more.

Carrie: And with that, our official commentary on the judgments is over, and we must comment in the comments. I’m rooting for The Vegetarian, the tiny book in our section of the draw that packs a powerful punch.

Yay! I'm a fan of The Vegetarian, and an anti-fan of Beatlebone for all the reasons mentioned above in the judgment and commentary.

I think this is my favorite round of judgement and commentary, also. Judge Melanie's gorgeous writing in her judgment illuminates the differences in these two novels, and shows them as stark opposites in so many ways. I loved some of the language in Beatlebone, but fiercely disliked the book as a whole. She captured all the reasons why. And Carrie and Nicola further fine-tuned those differences (i.e. man vs woman, outward vs inward, etc.)

I keep repeating this, but I'm totally blown away at how fantastic this alt tournament is! I'm so happy to have stumbled on it when I was hunting for something to keep me going after the last ToB (my first) wrapped up. You folks are amazing. Thank you for all the work that has gone into putting this together! ❤

@Amy, thank you for responding to my translation question! I'm going to be more cognizant of 'listening' to the translation as I read more translated texts. I'm starting Laurus today, and this will make me a better and more informed reader.

Really smart and cogent judgment by Melanie, and backed up by the commentary. And I'm glad to see 'The Vegetarian' advance but distressed it will be facing 'Core of the Sun,' since I was blown away by both of those books. . .

Beatlebone was a DNF for me, and I came into it thinking I would really love it. In fact, out of all the books on the shortlist (that I hadn't previously read), it was the first one I got from the library because based on the description I thought I would enjoy it the most. I did not, and I'm glad to see it knocked out of the tourney. Great write-up and decision, Melanie!

I'm waiting to board a plane to Ireland right now, but won't be able to hunt for any islands while I'm there. I'm sorry to miss the conversation for a few days, and glad y'all agree that I'm right & my beloved husband is wrong.

I love the commentary - this group is so wonderful!

Melanie, wonderful judgment, even tho I disagreed with it. (I loved Beatlebone!) But really, you got a tweet acknowledgement AND praise from LMM, I bow before you! Have a wonderful time in Ireland!!!

poingu wrote: "Thanks Darryl! Thanks Jan and Amber!

I really enjoyed reading both of these books. I think with each of these books though you need to be in the right mood. If I were judge I'd be worried that I j..."

You are most welcome, Poingu! I have really enjoyed being a commenter (commentator?) in the Alt Tourney, and appreciate everyone's kind words. Love the Alt Tourney!!! (And the real one, of course!)

Ha @Jan! I knew you'd be jealous of the tweet! :)

I want to thank everyone who chose these 16 books--they are amazing. I love how international they are.

Also, I totally love Morning News TOB, but if I were to wish for any improvement, it would be for them to become more aware of the international wonderful-ness in fiction that is out there. Even they know this is a problem--they usually put some kind of caveat in their intro to the round of 16 that it's english-heavy--it's good to know they're working on it.

QUARTERFINAL ROUND 3 Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen vs. The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan
Judge: Katie O’Keefe :

The Associate of Small Bombs is an enthralling book. Each section feels tightly focused on the unique perspective of the narrator, but added all together gives the reader of sense of scope. It’s like having a five course meal in one book, and I couldn’t put it down. It was detailed, and the details felt researched and lived in, that is, until I reached chapter 12. By happenstance, I also attended Santa Clara University and oddly enough despite the college being named specifically all of the easily googlable facts about the school were wrong. It would be very hard for Mansoor to have a roommate on the football team, since the SCU football program disbanded over a decade before. It would also be difficult for Mansoor to return for his third semester as a sophomore, since the school is on the quarter system. They were small things, but they threw me off, and they made me wonder if he was so comfortable relying on presumption for the US college experience, how much of that reliance on “common knowledge” rather than facts was also coming through the details about Delhi and the criminal justice system.

Not Dark Yet is the polar opposite of The Associate of Small Bombs. Where Bombs is wide, trying to cover all aspects and every attitude as realistically as possible, Not Dark Yet is narrow and has the feel of the fantastical, like a dream sharply remembered that will soon fade. All that matters is Brandon’s thoughts and feelings. The world, and the natural disasters occurring in them are only as fleshed out as they affect Brandon. Is his boyfriend cheating? Does his boyfriend know that Brandon cheated? Why does Brandon’s long suffering boyfriend stay with Brandon? What exactly is happening environmentally? The answers to those are never given, as the world exists completely in Brandon’s isolated mind. It’s a short, gorgeous story that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. I must confess to a bias, due to personal experience I have little patience for stories about PTSD written by authors who have never killed a fly, while they are often sympathetic, they are usually sensationalized and inaccurate, but I didn’t feel that way about Not Dark Yet. It allowed Brandon’s PTSD to live in the background and color his actions without controlling it. It’s a quiet story, about a gay soldier trying to thrive in a dying world, and it’s quiet, matter-of-fact progressiveness deserves praise. But the narrowness of the book demands that the reader care about Brandon and want to spend time with him, and I never felt that. Brandon’s relationships with the people in his life, with his boyfriend, with his professor, with his brother all felt flat, which may have been a deliberate choice in emphasizing his emotional disconnection, but it resulted in me as a reader not being invested in his life or story.

These two books have little in common, they are trying, and most succeeding in completely different goals, and I enjoyed them both quite a bit. But a few days after finishing, Not Dark Yet had faded from my mind while The Associate of Small Bombs, despite having more flaws still kept my imagination going days and weeks later, it was a full meal while Not Dark Yet was a delicious, dessert nibble that I loved and then faded from thought.

Winner: The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan

Commentators:
Kristin-Leigh :Kristin-Leigh explains mobile app marketing to tech brands by day, reads compulsively by night. She’s trying to tackle 125 books before the end of the year and is particularly focusing on female authors and first-time novelists. Recommend her your favorite book about haunted houses/weird-sentient-buildings-and-landscapes!

Sarah Tittle After a career in NYC publishing, Sarah relocated to Minneapolis to start and grow a family, who are the only people she loves more than books.

Kristin-Leigh: You can start! I assume we're both well pleased with the verdict?

Sarah: Yes of course. I would have been shocked otherwise. And I thought it was a very good write-up. I'm not sure I agree with her exact reasons for choosing Small Bombs but there's no doubt that it's the better book; and getting nominated for National Book Award is sort of confirming.

Kristin-Leigh: Yes! Small Bombs has been getting really favorable reception from the fancy critics as well as fans, which is nice . I thought our judge’s note about Mahajan getting SCU totally wrong was interesting. Maybe he should've used a fake school name?
(Or just Stanford, where Wikipedia tells me he studied himself...)

Sarah: Yeah, I kind of wondered why she got hung up on that. Although if the author had picked MY school, I may have had the same reaction. But I don't even remember those details. They seem inconsequential.

Kristin-Leigh: Yeah I think that's the kind of critique that feels warranted and can totally ruin immersion if you're familiar with the place/thing (like watching a Hollywood action movie set in your city and realizing they've moved the I-90 tunnel to be right next to the Space Needle for no reason) but feels picky if you aren't. It made no difference to me in this case, I don't know Santa Clara from Harvey Mudd from UCLA! To me Mansoor's college experiences felt emotionally real and authentic, which is what really made those sections impactful for me. Which I would contrast with NDY and Brandon, who had a lot of traits that to me seemed pasted on for effect but not really carried through in an authentic way. His untreated epilepsy(?), his gritty sniper-who-had-to-kill-some-kids-why-are-they-always-kids veteran backstory, etc. I was never really sure what the "point" of those elements was - was there a deeper meaning than the overall aesthetic appeal (the prettily and stoically suffering leading man)?

Sarah: It's interesting comparing these two books as opposed to NDY and [bookSport of Kings]. There's more to chew on here. Like disconnection v connection, lack of specificity v details that are palpable. Both books address important, scary realities but the intimacy of Small Bombs totally won me over.

Kristin-Leigh: Which is funny because you'd expect the book with like 5 different narrators on several continents to feel less intimate than the lone-recluse-living-on-a-mountain-thinking-about-stuff novel...but it's totally the opposite. Small Bombs felt very personal. Both books dealt with characters who have PTSD, too - you're right, there are a lot of interesting comparison points. Unfortunately I'd say Small Bombs is stronger on any that come to mind for me.

Sarah: I know. Though in a way, NDY kind of pulled off a clever trick--showing us close up a person that we really just don't ever get to know. Sort of like looking at him through the scope of a gun. I would give the author points for that. So much better than, "He was so sad he thought he would die" or whatever. Whereas Bombs was so effusive, so full of feeling and emotion--almost messy with it. I react better to that kind of book in general, but I think this writing style just worked better in Small Bombs than NDY’s distant omniscient but close third person P.O.V. There are some tight lines in Small Bombs. Here's one: "That's the meaning of having survived the bomb. I didn't survive at all. I just spent longer dying."

Kristin-Leigh: Small Bombs has some great lines. It reads like a bestselling literary novel - it feels very current and witty, with a comfortable multi-narrative format (see: Let the Great World Spin, Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, etc), some Jonathan Safran Foer-esque emotional moments between characters...I guess a critic could call it formulaic in some ways, it's so easy to list out authors (beloved authors, whose books I really like!) Mahajan's writing here reminds me of. Which isn’t necessarily a flaw, just a remark!

Sarah: But I think it's really ambitious as well. Admittedly, the author is writing about his country of origin, but the difference between Delhi and Kashmir alone made me swipe over to Wiki to familiarize myself with the geography of India and the geopolitics of India/Pakistan and Hindu v. Muslim. You could teach an entire multi-disciplinary college course on this book (can you tell I've got a kid taking a freshman seminar in college?). NDY was so much easier to follow, but also so much easier to say, hmm, that's interesting, and move on. Virtuoso versus, I don't know, pretty good effort? Not that I'm grading these authors. I just think NDY was simplistic and a little slow and Small Bombs was, ‘Oh man, I have to pay attention to this one.’

Kristin-Leigh: Yeah, if Mahajan takes on a familiar format, it's still so well executed. The pacing was great, the character choices were great, the settings felt very vivid (book-SCU felt like a real college, even if it didn't line up with real-world-SCU). NDY maybe took more risks in terms of style, but it fell flat often for me.

Sarah: You know, I actually liked NDY better when comparing it to Small Bombs than when I was comparing it to Sport of Kings.

Kristin-Leigh: Interesting! How so?

Sarah: I guess they both felt dark and, um Male? Is that a thing?

Kristin-Leigh: I'm drinking haterade where NDY is concerned, so I wouldn't say I liked it less or more in any circumstance. Did you mean male as in very dominated by male characters?

Sarah: Haha. No, male as in male point of view, and as in, mannish, like men need to prove themselves? Masculine but in a weak sort of way? The women come off better in both novels.

Kristin-Leigh: Both works seem very preoccupied with masculinity and insecurity around masculinity.

Sarah: Yes, insecurity.

Kristin-Leigh: Building bombs because your girlfriend dumped you, etc

Sarah: Oh god. Can you imagine a woman doing that?

Kristin-Leigh: Ha!
I'm sure some woman somewhere has...nobody feel the need to post news links in the comments please, I have enough darkness in my Chrome tab collection right now with the presidential debates coming up.

Sarah: :) An interesting tidbit; Not Dark Yet is the title of a Dylan song.

Kristin-Leigh: I was wondering what the title was taken from! Sometimes the references are more obvious (or quoted at a meaningful moment in the middle of the novel, like SB does).

Sarah: Last stanza:
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb/
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from/
Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer/
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there/

Kristin-Leigh: Well that seems like an almost direct inspiration for the novel, wow!
Basic plot summary right there.

Sarah: Yup. So I guess that's sort of why I'm giving it 1/2 more stars than before (2.5?). Anyway, I think we can wrap this up, no?

Kristin-Leigh: I think so! thumbs up to Katie and the QF3 verdict! Not Dark Yet was aesthetically interesting but skin deep for me.

Sarah: Yes, nicely written and reasoned. I think this one might go all the way. Small Bombs I mean.

Kristin-Leigh: You never know! It's up against some great competition, including one of my top books of the year so far! (The Vegetarian, if I’m allowed to promote a different bracket's competitor! It really blew me away.)

Sarah: Oh, great. I'll give that one a try. I just finished LaRose and really loved it, but Louise Erdrich is sort of the Meryl Streep of the lit world.

Kristin-Leigh: LaRose is my other favorite of the year so far!! High five for great taste, or great minds thinking alike, or something along those lines. ;)

Amy wrote: "Ha @Jan! I knew you'd be jealous of the tweet! :)"

Ha ha, yes, especially when I looked at the context of the tweet and saw it referred to Melanie's having FRONT-ROW SEATS at Hamilton!!!

Nice jobs, Katie, Kristin-Leigh and Sarah! Bombs felt like a courageous and important book, in addition to being so well written. I love the shout out for Let the Great World Spin and Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist. Heart was on our long-list for the Alt Tourney, but it seemed similar enough to Bombs that we didn't want to have both, and there was more enthusiasm for Bombs. At least that's my recollection.

I can see the comparison about feeling a main character and not. I have not read Bombs. But I was blown away by Not Dark Yet. It is true that Brandon is not a character you could get close to. That WAS his character! For me, that was part of the brilliance of the writing. It showed me how someone who is that disassociated feels and behaves and a good bit of why. I feel there are many more such people in the world than we realize (or want to realize.) As a reader, I saw the world the way someone like Brandon does.

This judgement and commentary has me wondering--is it possible to really show a character's PTSD/dissociation while also making them likable and/or someone you can connect with? I find Brandon's character interesting and fairly unique, and I appreciated how well he inhabited that isolation, but ultimately I just didn't care about him or the story, and so it was a slog to read.

I'm excited about tomorrow's matchup now that I'm well into Laurus (and really loving it!)

I am a big fan of Not Dark Yet so although I never expected it to beat The Sport of Kings, I am still sad to see it go. The book did such a great job of setting a scene and a sense of ill-ease for me... all without ever clueing one in to the time and place in which the events occur (no placenames, no chronological markers). so this could be future-looking sci-fi or a case could be made that this is current. I thought Brandon connected more with 'the earth' than people which made the environmental events more urgent than the personal drama in his life. It is the opposite to the way most of us feel no matter how tuned into this particular issue. I never really decided if this was due to some trauma or personal defect in his life or if the author is challenging (indicting?) us to pick up our awareness to something that could impact us far beyond our daily personal struggles.

Amy wrote: "I never really decided if this was due to some trauma or personal defect in his life or if the author is challenging (indicting?) us to pick up our awareness to something that could impact us far beyond our daily personal struggles.."

Amy, I think it was both.

i liked Bombs on paper and then revisited as an audiobook and found it suddenly sounded like it was trying too hard--it sounded over-written, and stilted. Audio slowed me down to the point where my high opinion altered itself and I ended up feeling like it was a good debut book but I wouldn't give it any prizes.

I still think it's quite worthy as the winner of this round though--I felt that Ellingsen in Not Dark Yet wrote too many cliche's--for instance "A flash of excitement ran through him" in the very first sentence. Such lazy writing pulls me out of the story in the same way you were pulled out of Bombs, Katie, by the things Mahajan got wrong about SCU. I go to math lectures at SCU all the time w. my son so I know the school pretty well, too. I think it's a legitimate strike against him not to take more care with the facts. It's a unique school.

I still haven't gotten to NDY but I'm pretty sure I would have picked TAoSB too. I found the book powerful and I appreciated all the different viewpoints, even the one of the bomb itself.

QUARTERFINAL 4 Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam versus Laurus by Evgenij Vodolazkin
Judge: Sara :Sara is a reader from Austin, Texas who became hooked on ToB in 2010 after it introduced her to Marlon James’ amazing The Book of Night Women.

Everything leading up to this point in the tournament has surprised me. I expected almost every decision to go the opposite way, and I thought today I would be judging Oyeyemi against Edrich. Such a complete reversal has left me somewhat disoriented, and the books themselves, Laurus and Bright Lines, contribute to that feeling. Both are trips through landscapes and worlds I know nothing about. Reading these books in the dry heat of Texas, the colorful streets of Brooklyn, lush beaches of Bangladesh, and wintery Russia all seem equally far enough away to be beyond my comprehension. This is why we read, to bring the world closer, to make the outer and inner worlds of others understood and not exotic. Both authors had huge tasks ahead of them, to successfully bridge the gap between my world and their imagined one, to make me sympathize and understand such disparate experiences.

With Bright Lines, Tanwi Nandini Islam whisks me away to Brooklyn. This is the Brooklyn of artisanal cat litters and beard wax, but also the older Brooklyn, made up of a diverse array of families who have lived in the area for decades and are still hanging on to their community while embracing the new. Anwar Saleem owns a pink apothecary, partially supplied by concoctions he makes using his own garden and seed bank. His daughters Charu, Ella and their friend Maya take long bike rides to the beach. The mother, Hashi, runs a salon that serves as therapy for drug dealers, family members, and more. I felt like I was in a foreign country even before the action moved to Bangladesh for the latter part of the novel.

In contrast, the concerns and archetypes of the characters felt very familiar. There is the culture clash between immigrant parents and their children. Young women explore their sexuality in various ways. Family members try to connect with their lost history. None of these plot lines are exceptionally unique, but Nandini Islam makes them special through the characters. The characters stretch out to fit these tropes but also to defy them. For instance, the relationship between Anwar and his children is complicated by his enthusiasm for marijuana. What could be a more typical story of a father trying to succeed in order for his children to have better lives in their new country is complicated when Charu’s teenaged boyfriend smokes pot with him. Nandini Islam continually takes what could be cliches and then surprises the reader with extra dimensions.

Why then, did I continually feel like I could never really grow close to these characters? I blame the emphasis on the setting, on Brooklyn and Bangladesh themselves as characters. Unlike Anwar and his family, they never seemed to stretch beyond the stereotypes. Strange side characters and excursions seemed added to the narrative for no other purpose than to add flair or hipness to the locale. These elements were added at the expense of the parts I care about, the Saleems. Decisions are made and hearts are mended and broken sometimes in less time than it took to describe a Brooklyn street. When one character betrays another and is forgiven mere moments later, they even say that it must have been the shortest betrayal in history. With such a cast of characters, I never felt that I could dwell on any one long enough to “feel” the impact of what they were going through. The writing was not the type that brings you inside a character’s head with one poetic line. It kept me at a distance, on the surface. It left me outside, on the streets.

Laurus also dipped me in an environment far from my culture, one that I’m only aware of through reading. Instead of the sweaty coasts of Bangladesh, it transports the reader to plague-ridden medieval Russia to follow the life of the holy fool, Laurus. Instead of a cast of characters like Bright Lines, the book follows one focal character. Whereas I could immediately sympathize with the problems that the younger Saleem women faced, Laurus was an alien to me. He is a holy fool, an ascetic miracle worker, and the emotional challenges that he faces are so foreign that I didn’t foresee myself connecting with the work. His entire mindset was so extreme as to be alien. How was I supposed to be touched in a human way by someone barely human? Yet, I felt I was. How Evgenij Vodolazkin pulls this off is beyond me. Sometimes it seemed like half the book was list of herbs and fanciful medical uses for them. And yet through all that, I felt that I got to understand Laurus better than the much more human characters of Anwar and Ella in Bright Lines.

Unlike in Bright Lines, no betrayal in Laurus could be the world’s shortest betrayal. In Laurus, all time happens at once, so all betrayals, and all forgivenesses, are eternal. There are long, plodding sections of the book where nothing much happens; Laurus walks a great deal, suffers, heals some plague victims. He is just walking, but each of those steps and miracles is informed by everything that has happened to Laurus prior. When something happens to him, it matters. And so I care. The lines of cause and effect are much clearer than in Bright Lines, connecting action straight to feeling and back to action . Not even a step seems purposeless.

I realize how unconvincing my recommendation of this book sounds, recommending a book about plague-ridden Russia over the vibrancy of Brooklyn, but it’s really that contrast that wins me over. Laurus could be so dreary, but the human touches in the writing surpass its subject matter to draw me in. There’s humor and upheaval and tenderness, delivered through Vodolazkin’s writing and Lisa Hayden’s translation. It adds a brightness to the book that matches the aptly named Bright Lines and then surpasses it with its sheer density of feeling. This round goes to Laurus.

Winner: Laurus by Evgenij Vodolazkin

Commentators:
Amy : Amy spends all day in front of computers playing with Powerpoint and Excel, so the alt.TOB has provided her an excellent excuse for using spreadsheets for her reading and tourney organizing!
Jason Perdue : Jason has been following the TOB since the very first year. Jason travels for his current job and always finds the best indie bookstores to support. In the past year, Jason been to City Lights and Green Apple Books in SF, The Strand, McNally Jackson, and Greenlight Books in NYC, Book People in Austin, Hatchards and Daunt Books in London.

Amy: So I'll admit that I am still working my way through both of these, but I feel like I have a sense of them. I really thought LaRose had a great shot at making it further in the tournament but the little presses seem to be surprising us against well-known authors. Once I knew Laurus won, I was somewhat hoping that it would face off against Not Dark Yet because I see such similarities between Arseny and Brandon. Arseny roams while Brandon holes-up but they both remove themselves psychically and physically from the world. But while I found Brandon's distance intriguing and eerie, I had a difficult time empathizing with Arseny/Ustin. That being said, I think I would have made the same decision. Laurus is just… I don’t know, Bigger? in every aspect. Also, the execution is amazing. But I love Bright Lines’ characters more!

Jason: I’m surprised to hear that. I was engrossed in Arseny’s odyssey and spiritual reckoning. Laurus might be the largest discrepancy between the description and the actual book that I can remember. “Holy fool in medieval Russia cures plague-ridden villages; walks a lot, talks very little.” That does not sound promising. But I was won over within the first few sentences. It’s dense while being highly readable. I didn’t think this matchup was even close.

I’d just like to say that I’m going to refer to the thrice-named main character as Arseny even though Sara decided to refer to him as Laurus.

Amy: I’ll follow suit. Do you think though that Arseny actually lives different lives with his different names? Especially in mystical traditions, names hold power… and one of the other fools made a big deal of returning Arseny’s name to him after he’d lived as Ustin for awhile. Perhaps Arseny holds that name whenever he is starting anew? (it was right before he left for Jerusalem)

Jason: I’m not too sure about the name changes. To take his beloved’s name felt like a transformation into a spiritual person and releasing his past life. I’m sure there’s a tradition that I’m not aware of that informs this much more than I know.

Amy: I agree, that the apparent unpolished-ness of debut Bright Lines doesn’t stand up to the maturity that is Laurus, and yet I think I found that rawness refreshing. While I felt removed from Arseny, the characters in Bright Lines seem to be to be straining to connect with each other and I felt near instant affection for them. I see where the number of minor characters and side vignettes could distract our judge and others but I usually found them descriptive of the cultures the primary characters were living in (which I saw as first generational immigrants vs. their partially assimilated children). In contrast, our judge asked of Laurus, “How was I supposed to be touched in a human way by someone barely human?” I think I had the same question.

Jason: In my commentary in the first round win for Bright Lines, I said that it was resonating with me long after, and it still is. The atmosphere and vivid sensory experience of it is hanging around. I do agree with Sara that it wraps up rather neatly. I think I came to Bright Lines thinking it was YA, and I have a high tolerance for neat endings and moral simplicity in YA that I don’t usually give. That said, YA or not, it never reached the depths of rich literature that Laurus does. I never felt there were “long plodding sections” in Laurus, even realizing that if I had to describe them in my own words they would be long and plodding.

Amy: Those "long, plodding sections of the book where nothing much happens" actually lost me. Perhaps my attention-span was just too short but I liked the manic energy and possibility of Lines' characters, especially Ella and Charu, and I despaired of Arseny's inaction. Instead of finding each step holy, I found it wasteful. Meanwhile I found seemingly ridiculous scenes such as Charu's boyfriend sneaking in the window via a tree he later falls from rather beautiful in the immediacy of these teens' feelings (hormones) and actions (sneaking around).

Jason: I see where the contrast in the books can make Laurus feel like a chore. There’s a vibrant, youthful recklessness to Bright Lines that makes Laurus feel brooding and melancholy by comparison. But I would argue that the deeply emotional relationships Vodolazkin creates between Arseny and his grandfather, his “bride” Ustina, then his Italian traveling companion were some of the most heart-wrenching and loving pieces of writing I can remember. I felt what he felt. His transitions seemed realistic and probable. I never felt Vodolazkin was writing with a disdain for the superstitions and bumbling rationals of its inhabitants. That faithfulness to these characters is admirable. It would be so easy to laugh at them, give ironic smirks at Arseny’s ridiculousness. But in medieval Russia, none of that was true. This kept me in the period and kept me engaged with his wanderings.

Amy: You might have just helped me figure out my problem, because you just hit all my favorite parts of Laurus and I despaired that each was so short. Arseny just never gets a break with his close relationships… I mean his grandfather was probably a long stretch of time but it doesn’t compare in page length to his time spent as a hermit in the convent garden. The same goes for poor Ustina… what a lovely interlude (if I did think he was quite careless with her life) but she is already gone as soon as we have a feel for her.

Amy: YA is pretty great at describing the urgency of feelings and passions while straining against adults who have ‘forgotten’ what that feels like. From many a YA story or even rom-com tale; the viewer/reader is on the side of love and ‘authenticness’ and rooting for the madness. As a grown-up and in ‘grown-up’ stories, it's so easy to find that behavior foolish, but we forget how different it looks from their perspective. When the story is flipped (let's say told The Notebook style, it is a LOVE story, and the adults are jaded and playing things too safe and not really experiencing life. It seemed to me that the teens of Bright Lines are trying to really live, that Anwar would really like to do the same but has his responsibilities and that other adults are trying to restrict living. And so reading Arseny's self-limitation starkly contrasted.

Jason: As a father of two daughters, I always have to try to remember the immediacy and self-centered emotional world of being a teen. Also, that the world feels much more black and white, right and wrong when you are that age. Love is do or die. Bright Lines captures some of that raw emotion. Ultimately, it then forces them to return to Brooklyn without parents and having to navigate an adult world. I do think that fact, that grief, is glossed over and we’re not really brought in to understand exactly what that would be like.

Amy: Didn’t we all say to ourselves, “When I’m an adult, I’ll never say/do/act XYZ!” Number one on that list for me was “You’ll understand when you get older!”

Amy: I was also strongly reminded of impatiently waiting for Sam and Frodo to leave the shire in Lord of the Rings. For an epic journey, they don't even leave Russia for the first 200 pages and I was eagerly anticipating the travel due to the map at the beginning of the book. Some of it was my demand that Arseny do something ... maybe I need to practice my breathing or meditation or something. Everyone else seems to have enjoyed the stopping and smelling of the roses and the unmoored-from-linear-time feel of the story.

Jason: Haha. This is a contemplative book about spiritually seeking meaning as the world around you dies. Not anything I understand for sure, but for whatever reason I was in the head space when I picked it up that I was ready to accept this premise and gladly embark on this life journey with Arseny. That said, the premise is not what makes this great. It’s the writing, the characters brought to life in a way that I can feel their bodies, smells, emotions in a way I have rarely experienced. I was a bit afraid that I’d forgotten what I loved about this book since it’s been a good month and five books ago. But just getting into it here I’m reminded of the deep emotions I felt the whole time and the quiet I felt after finishing it.

Jan mentioned in the comments on the Beatlebone win that it was included because it was a love it/hate it choice from the data analysis I did of Goodreads scores. But really, Laurus was a book that wasn’t on any of our lists, except Poingu, and it was off the charts in the love it/hate it category meaning that it had overwhelmingly higher 1’s and 5’s vs ho-hum 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s.

Amy: Yes, I’m really glad we included it! It is so unique and as said before, so vast in scope! I appreciated the judge pulling out some of the visceral details of place from these two books… they were perfect examples of how easy it was to immerse yourself into the noisy Brooklyn neighborhood or quiet medieval Russian countryside.

Jason: It’s amazing how these things work out in the end, isn’t it? Laurus and The Association of Small Bombs are my two favorite books in the tourney. (I’m only half-way through TAoSB, but it’s winning me over page after page. If I’m not finished with it by the time this posts I’ll be surprised.) I love the odd sensation of the Alt-ToB’s intentional surprises, if that makes any sense. It feels random, but I know we plotted these books in a way with thoughts about how they would match-up in subsequent rounds. I don’t envy the judge having to make that decision. But so far, most of the winners have been pretty clear to the judge. That said, I don’t think any of us expected Laurus to resonate through two rounds like it has.

wow, just wow...thank you Sara and Amy and Jason! Beautiful and thoughtful comments that made these books resonate all the more for me.

I just want to add a "me too" to what Poingu said, along with thanks to Poingu for bringing Laurus to everyone's attention. I am really enjoying the high quality of the book talk in the Alt Tourney.

Sara, nice job judging, and yay for The Book of Night Women! That was my first TOB as well, and I freaking loved that book. I'm still carrying a grudge against the jackass judge who made his choice in that round based on the books' covers, because judging was just too haaard. Harumph!

Amy's comment that "Laurus is just… I don’t know, Bigger?" sums up my general vibe as well. Great commentary.

we move into the final showdowns with Semi-final Rounds today posted here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'd like to point out to the crowd in case it wasn't noticed... all 3 of the translated books moved into semi-finals! another surprise in our judgments as we selected 10/16 US novelists for the shortlist!

Jan wrote: "I just want to add a "me too" to what Poingu said, along with thanks to Poingu for bringing Laurus to everyone's attention. I am really enjoying the high quality of the book talk in the Alt Tourney..."

Thanks Jan but I want to add that as much as I loved Laurus I was very shy about putting it forward as an alt.tob option, and when I gave you and the other alt.tob organizers some suggestions for good alt.tob reads, I left it off my list! So it got there by other means.

poingu wrote: "as I loved Laurus I was very shy about putting it forward as an alt.tob option, and when I gave you and the other alt.tob organizers some suggestions for good alt.tob reads, I left it off my list! So it got there by other means. ..."

Oh, interesting! So, @Amy, @Jason, @Amberbug, were you aware of it already, or was it Poingu's enthusiasm for Laurus that made us eager to include it? It was definitely not one I had been aware of.

@Jan - I challenged @Poingu on her original shortlist (why did you not include the book you called 'all time favorite!?') so it snuck into the longlist.
Then @Jason did his statistical magic on the list and Laurus came out highest rated on Goodreads and we took another look at it for the final shortlist :)

Amy wrote: "@Jan - I challenged @Poingu on her original shortlist (why did you not include the book you called 'all time favorite!?') so it snuck into the longlist.
Then @Jason did his statistical magic on the..."

Thanks, Amy. I am really impressed with all the thought and effort that went into picking the short list--especially your spreadsheets and Jason's statistical analysis. Very cool!!