Thursday, March 12, 2009

More Upsets at the Tornament of Books

I think the judges must be trying to create controversy in this year's March-Madness-style Tournament of Books. A couple days ago Louis de Bernieres’s relatively unknown novel, A Partisan’s Daughter, won over Joseph O’Neill’s critically-acclaimed novel, Netherland. Yesterday, Mark Sarvas's Harry, Revised beat Booker Prize Winner The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. To continue in the spirit of controversy, Tom Piazza's City of Refuge beat Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth in today's match-up. If you're interested in judge Mary Roach's reasoning, read the full report.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree that the first two upsets you mention were just that, but I couldn't be happier about today's verdict. I thought Roach gave a thoughtful account of her response and reasoning behind her decision and when she said Unaccustomed Earth was repetitive? I was right there with her. Like one of the commentators said, I think UE would have better lent itself to a novel.