This
is the last opening round of Tournament of Books 2013 and will be judged by D.T.
Max who is the author of ‘The Family That Couldn’t Sleep’ and ‘Every
Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace’.
How
Should a Person Be? is fictional but also partly autobiographical. The main
character, Sheila, is a twenty-something playwright who finds herself unsure of
how to live and create. When Margaux, a talented painter and free spirit, and Israel ,
a sexy and depraved artist, enter her life, Sheila hopes that through
close--sometimes too close--observation of her new friend, her new lover, and
herself, she might regain her footing in art and life.
D.
T. felt that ‘in most senses of the word, Lauren Groff’s Arcadia is a better novel than Sheila
Heti’s’ with some ‘nice moments, nicely captured, such as ““Gingery Eden, her
pregnant belly enormous, cracks a bottle of pop over the hood of the Blue Bus
and rubs her back when she stands. The dazzle of her white teeth under her
copper hair makes Bit want to dance.”
However,
Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be? was so much more enjoyable for D.T.
He felt there was more truth in the way it was written and it was funny,
something he feels is underrated in fiction.
So
for D.T. the winner had to be How Should a Person Be?
Damn,I got this round wrong! Now I’m at 6 points.
The
next round is the quarter final round and will be judged as such;
March
19 The Fault in Our Stars v.
The
Orphan Master’s Son judged by Stefan Beck
March
20 Building Stories v. May
We Be Forgiven judged by Caity Weaver
March
21 Gone Girl v.
Beautiful Ruins judged by Kate Bolick
March
22 How A Person Should Be? v.
Bring
Up The Bodies judged by Saeed Jones
Judged
by Stefan Beck, who has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Sun,
the Weekly Standard, the New Criterion, the Barnes & Noble
Review and other publications.
For
me personally, I think it’s a no brainier on who wins this round but let’s see
what Stefan thinks.
To
start with he felt they were two of the most entertaining books he’s read in
ages. His idea of the target audience for each books made me laugh ‘Fault is
YA lit designed to make brainy teens cry themselves to sleep,
while Orphan is brainy spy lit designed to make middle-aged Stratford subscribers
drink themselves to death.’ Though, he did agree that their appeal is far wider
than that.
By
now we all know what The Fault in our Stars is about two kids with cancer and
The Orphan Master’s Son is about surviving in North Korea .
He
felt the two main characters in The Fault in our Stars, ‘Hazel and Augustus,
with their sarcasm (Augustus calls losing a leg “an excellent weight-loss strategy”),
tough-minded philosophizing, and occasional vulnerability, are terrific and Green’s
genius is to make Hazel sound superficially like a teenager (her cancer-ruined
lungs, e.g., “suck at being lungs”) but mostly like an individual, with
personality and interiority, fear and love, and vast reserves of wonder and
gratitude.’
For
Stefan ‘Adam Johnson’s plot of Orphan is too byzantine to describe in
even twice the space I have here, but that’s just as well. The less you know
going in, the more thrilling the ride—and, in any case, the plot is but a small
The author has not only interviewed defectors but visited North Korea himself
hence how ‘he captured the ugly spirit of a place ruled by secrecy, mythomania,
and brutality.’ One thing Stefan particularly loved was the ‘North Korean
nightmare for comedy, albeit of the coal-black variety, and makes the DPRK look
ridiculous as well as evil. Whether it’s the Greek chorus supplied by
propaganda loudspeakers, the disastrous diplomatic mission to a Texas ranch, or
the Dear Leader’s dialogue, Orphan earns more laughs than most books
actually trying to be funny.’
The
Orphan Master’s Son, as I expected won this round and goes through to the
Zombie round.
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