Tournament of Books

The 2009 Tournament of Books is quickly coming to a close. In the semifinals last week, Tom Piazza's City of Refuge defeated Roberto Bolano's 2666 in a big upset (at least in my opinion). In the other semifinal match-up, Toni Morrison's A Mercy defeated Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country (another upset in my book since I think A Mercy is overrated).

The two winners of the semifinals now must survive the "Zombie Round" where they're matched up against books that received the most votes in the "Zombie Poll" but lost out in an earlier round of the tournament. Basically, this is a last chance at resurrection for those books. In the first Zombie match-up, Tom Piazza's City of Refuge defeated the Zombie choice of E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. The second Zombie match-up will happen tomorrow between Toni Morrison's A Mercy and Roberto Bolano's 2666. I'm very interested in this match-up because I think there's a significant chance 2666 will be resurrected and will move into the final match against City of Refuge, which is a repeat of the semifinal match-up but which may have a different outcome since it will be judged by all the judges rather than a single judge.