tob 3/31 final all judges Station Eleven chosen 15-2 over ATLWCS

books 2015 tob championship 3-31 Tuesday

         //after these notes, put all ~ by day ~ on dlww?  tag books.  can call up posts by tag, and do a cmmd-F to find certain cmmts, cmmters that I noted (as already has come up th I look for cmmts, not knowing wh day and thus wh document to look at).
also have uncopied notepad notes today of BradMcGinty really v smart, and ItsOnlyZach (to whom McGinty says he missed his cmmts )  may want follow these two? and Tim /i think their disqus only show cmmts on tob, after scroll down thr this year, come to last year...
have followd ImaniToo (who lives in Jamaica, had strong crit of Untamed State, and high praise for Marlon James) and also teedle /these two do have cmmts elsewh so probably can read other things they post at other times year  
~may want change Disqus digest settings. currently seems will get email every time ppl I follow make a cmmt.  ~ can just delete though...









_____________________________
as go noted judges I distinctly liked:

*Victor Kool AD Vasquez //   my fvr judge I think? the one I am  and will remain int in.. int to see his forthc novel Okay
*Victor LaValle   /ok so fair that I conflate bcs both Victor and both cap V in last name.  // is my ~second fvr judge. author of Big Machine. friend of Marlon James  and his decision was my fvr in its outcome and what he wrote choosing Annihilation.
and I liked write up pretty well?
-Alice Sola Kim
-Amanda reader judge - see @akmcclen.
and sure -Merrit  I'd read more writ by him.
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/Before the panel of all the judges votes, we get the longer writeup of final (17th) reader judge:
she writes v well! I like her 
ToB 2015 Reader Judge Amanda McClendon lives in Houston, Texas, where she works full-time for a library and part-time for a tiny Baptist church. You can read her random missives on religion, coffee, and Doctor Who on Twitter at @akmcclen.

I work for a largish public library system. Station Eleven and All the Light We Cannot See both have request lists in the lower dozens—more than most books in the stacks, but they’re not Fifty Shades or the next Harry Potter.
It took me a while to get into the actual plot of Station Eleven. The prose itself is amazing: vivid and sensory without being a laundry list of description. And most of the characters and their interactions with one another felt real; these are people I could know, albeit ones thrown into extraordinary circumstances.
Until the book’s third act, though, the storyline didn’t really cohere for me, the narrative strands touching briefly without actually interweaving with one another. (And actually, I felt the same way about the interviews in Silence Once Begun, which would have been an interesting foil to this.)
//seen cmmt re this elsewh. ImaniToo? th the narratv ~nonstraightfwd structure d n seem add anyth, whereas tht in Silence Once Begun the way structured was essential to telling its story.   <But then it clicked: I’d initially approached it as a straightforward sci-fi doomsday story, and so the thread about the actor Arthur and his long cord of failed relationships kept getting in the way. //I'd probably feel like that.  more int in ppl living after-the-end// Except for the initial encounter between all the characters at the theater on Arthur’s last night, it felt like reading two entirely different books, a genre piece and a work of literary fiction.
I don’t really know why it took me two thirds of the book to let go of that notion, but once I did, I got it. The survival of the human race in this book isn’t, in the end, the point. It’s the catalyst for a discussion of personal and cultural memory, personal and cultural loss, and how we are transformed by trauma /well that is my int/.
...for this guided meditation, I owe Mandel and her band of wanderers a debt.

I’ve been reading Anthony Doerr’s columns for The Morning News for ages and was already a fan when All the Light came out.  ...Marie-Laure’s experience of the world through sound and smell and taste reminded me in the best way of books I read as a kid, that delight in how the world works. 
Werner’s story, though, I could have almost done without. ...He’s so passive as a character, letting life happen to him until he finally makes a couple of crucial and ultimately tragic choices near the end. And the plotline of the lost diamond served mostly to create a sense of danger that wasn’t really necessary...
//yay going to choose Station 11. wh I am smwh int in. feel rather disint in ATLWCS. I do guess St11 will overall win, get more judges votes.  just a guess though, and not an especially confident one.//
I stayed for Doerr’s writing, though— ...“…a spotlight has been shined into a wedge of bloodshot water, and the sky has become the sea, and the airplanes are hungry fish, harrying their prey in the dark.”
//eh. just not for me. ~ bcs not into pictures, visual descriptions, 'imagery'. not into metaphor? maybe of int if more about thought than vision and about psychology rather than evoking an image.//
Station Eleven ultimately*  had more substance for me, its characters more actively involved in deciding their own fates, their emotional lives more explored. Crazy cult leaders aside, its loose ends got tied up more securely for me. All the Light was pleasurable, but the ending and the interactions between Werner and Marie-Laure smacked too much of the manic pixie dream girl trope. /huh y. was it about
//huh y. was it about ATLWCS th someone said cld see as a movie starring whatsher name a~ toute fr amelie.  (see most evth said about this bk seemed encourage my disint.)
Station Eleven gets my vote. Fellow judges, you can take it from here.
right okay then here go!

Matthea Harvey poet: five books of poetry, and she teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. earlier chose Bone Clocks over Adam/
Given my equal love of fully imagined /is it?/ post-apocalyptic futures (Station Eleven) and miniatures (oh the little houses with secret compartments in All the Light We Cannot See), this was a hard one. I loved that both stories had objects (objectively precious, or made precious by a person’s attachment to it /nicely said/) at their centers. Despite Doerr’s gorgeous prose, I was ultimately* just a hair more astounded by Mandel’s intricate tracking of characters, observations such as a dog looking “like a cross between a fox and a cloud”/y I like th/  and the heartbreaking Museum of Civilization /int/.

*note two for two on judge concluding w "ultimately"

Elliot Ackerman, author of the novel Green on Blue, served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.  earlier chose Brief Hist over All the Birds Singing.  /I am going to guess he'll give it to St 11... more substance./ Remarkably, both novels come together beautifully, making this a tough judgment. But with the Mandel, I felt a level of emotive force in the writing that surpassed the Doerr. The characters inhabiting the post-apocalyptic world of Station Eleven felt more true than those inhabiting the historical world of ATLWCS.

yay.  is *anyone* going to give it to ATLWCS?  who wld I guess?  someone whose taste most unappealing to me....
and in past I has thought that TMN structured this list of judgements to be suspenseful, as wld be here, three in row for St11, start to ask as I am if anyone will choose the other way.  and now wld be time to have that, so tally becomes 3:1.  not 4:0.  but, seems they are going to go in same order as they had the judges' matches. so cannot be arranged for suspense.  (am not sure anyway that d n go in such order in past.  if so, maybe this time d n need arrange bcs all were for St11! I'd like that. but maybe I want 11-6. as one cmmtr said St11 11 and All the Rest to ATL)
so let's see..

yep next judge is in order:
Elisabeth Donnelly is Flavorwire’s nonfiction editor. /hmm she earlier chose ATLWCS /saying wh abt it? liked it?) over Wittgenstein Jr /seems easily cld like th less, without liking ATL much. y: Iyer’s college students remained opaque and evanescent, and the hero worship of Wittgenstein that turns into something more /what? am int to th extent. may want to skim. so I wld prob choose Wittg over Doerr {did nothing for me as a reader. I closed the book thinking that academia was a joke.  ...re Doerr: I am not mentioning the book’s weak link, something about a rare jewel and the mad German who’s after it, although it does turn the wheels of plot.  [but mostly praise:] You close the book with surging emotions, something like faith, and for that, All the Light We Cannot See is a feat.}  //still my guess is she will choose St11, will she?    no.    though  says ~ bcs St11 came to her at one of worst weeks of life, she says. so:/
even if {St11} is a singular, new-feeling take on survival after the pandemic ... { ATLWCS is re } how humanity can survive during times of horror.   Doerr wrote sentences that will haunt me. /eh (not me). <<<

//and huh! so though in order by matches, indeed it built the way I'd expect if arranged for suspense. so now 3-1.  ..and well maybe I'll stop going so slow now, thinking re each judge.   I enjoy my attentive looking-at-angles slowness, but by time get to cmmts, everyone will be gone ~ wh is okay, but maybe nice get there while still bit of live-ness. 
I think I've done this slow move thr judge cmmts maybe just the once before. remember at semcoop.  maybe 2010.  though also I think maybe read w suspense when was Accidental. ~vs Homecoming by Sam Lipsyte wh I also liked, but was I rooting for Accidental, or?  I was int enough to read both.  that was 2006? first year I happened on tob. its second year.//

Stephen Marche novelist and a columnist for Esquire   only speaks to St11. w praise. cool.  4-1

Victor LaValle    //my ~second fvr judge. author of Big Machine. friend of Marlon James (to whose Book of Night Women, Big Machine lost in tob~2010).  and his decision was my fvr? Annihilation (yay! wh I like) over Dept of Spec (eh wh bothers me most personally of these bks. and I like wh he said, that of most int to him was her psych ~torment, and the mystery of wh th was, wh happening. yes. that is my int. (always) (a mystery is so good bcs someone is lkg for sth, actively) //  
I admit I am glad this final judgment is a goliath-versus-goliath battle. My natural tendency to support the underdog doesn’t apply.  //y :) my tendency too//   Station Eleven is engrossing and meditative /yay. meditative for the win./while All the Light We Cannot See is thrilling and brilliantly drawn. Both are, in the best sense, sentimental novels. = Both risk looking foolishly hopeful, about love or art, and they’re infinitely better for it. It was, finally*, a question of scale that solidified my decision. /hm~/ Somehow a small slice of the apocalypse left me feeling fuller than a large serving of a world at war.
5-1

Alice Sola Kim fiction has recently been published.. /chose AUS over St11. but here I will as I keep doing, guess she will choose St11. and I think I liked her writing in judgement. lkd her up. 
ATLWCS acknowledges the horror and mind-boggling unfairness of war, but only within the dictates of the consolatory story it tells. Thus, it is ultimately* a very predictable story; nothing about the book ever surprised me. Earlier this month, I made the hard choice to ixnay Station Eleven, which I’m jazzed to encounter again here. Old pal! I enjoyed its sense of wholeness and its control over a sprawling constellation of actors and events, but I especially loved the strange and gorgeous details of its world—a city in an airport, a way of life //I like ways of life// in a self-published comic book series. My heartiest human-to-zombie high-five to Station Eleven.
/yes, very nicely said!  I do like her. look up & read some of her stories.
6-1   and nb 3 'ultimately's 1 'finally' ~now 2 counting below:

Christina Bevilacqua is the Director of Programs and Public Engagement at the Providence Athenaeum, a 19th-century library, where she presides over a weekly salon /earlier chose Redeployment over Silence Once Begun. don't think I distinctly liked her; but not against? (I guess I wld hv liked Silence Once Begun to go fwd, hear more abt it, but d n know wld not agree if go back to her judgemnt)  hmm my feeling about her ~ 19th C huh ~ seems poss will choose ATLWCS. no:
both books....  characters in global catastrophes navigating blasted landscapes, both comforted and besieged by memories of lost worlds; characters coming to terms with the world via artistic renderings of reimaginings of it; even a talismanic, heavy round object  /wh was wh in St11?oh ~ paperweight ~ snow globe? / that carried meaning from one character to another. My vote finally* goes to Station Eleven, for reading the present as though from a knowing future, for making the familiar strange and the strange familiar, for apprehending and articulating something we can’t quite see.
7-1   nice.... and still going in order, right? so cannot be arranged intentionally for upset.   /also I am still going v slow. only and almost halfway. 8 votes of 17.

Tayari Jones is the author of three novels, most recently Silver Sparrow. MFA faculty at Rutgers. /earlier chose Those Who Leave & Those Who Stay over Evth I Never Told You.  so, as I wld hv. but wld hv to go back to know if liked wh said.   maybe I did because I like this!:/ 
My favorite novels are twisty and gritty-glam /gritty glam? sounds good but these are that?/, so I really loved these two books. ATLWCS is crazy popular and I completely see why everyone loves it so much. I loved it that much. This book goes down like cool water because it was beautiful, engaging, and also just a tiny bit familiar /above: predictable/. Station Eleven is a little fresher, braver, and despite the apocalypse, more lovely. Further, Mandel is a demon for plot, and I am here for it. Give that woman the Rooster!

8-1  tipped past halfway, and through the opening round judges. eight to go.  (and ATLWCS only wins if all eight are for it.) 
(and so far the only vote for ATLWCS is from someone who says St11 came to her on worst week of life and so.)

Manuel Gonzales  quoting ATLWCS  "she flips back to the first page and starts again,” which is the exact same reaction I had when I finished Station Eleven. 
9-1   //ah so right here, that's the game. of 17 votes, so as soon as one has 9, it has won.

Meg Wolitzer [author of The Interestings] ..the inventiveness and exploration of ideas about survival and art give Mandel’s novel its indelibility.  Station Eleven amazed me with its sharp and emotionally true reimagining of nearly everything we take for granted in the world, and so, finally*, it’s the book I chose.     10-1     /and now 3-3 tie btw 'ultimately' and 'finally' (I prefer finally don't I well was tallying bcs I dislike 'ultimately' but it is fairly used in each instance here.)

Jessica Lamb-Shapiro has written for...  /chose An Untamed State over Annihilation.  so, understandable, but I wld hv chosen Annihil. and she's the one who contraversially said dn like scifi (but then, as cmmtrs agreed, did give a fair change to Annih. and I tht like CDHermelin I think says that maybe even was set up for unexpected choosing of th.  anyway:/
All the Light delighted me with its fresh take on a familiar subject, pacing, plot, and multitude of natural-history facts.
Station Eleven won me over with its humor, emotional specificity, and the fact that I never knew at any moment what was going to happen next.  
I liked All the Light a smidge better, so that’s how I’m casting my vote.  //oh. ok. 10-2    <<<

Victor Vazquez / Kool AD my fvr judge I think? the one I am  and will remain int in./
ATLWCS is an ornate textural World War II meditation. As far as those go it’s accessible, interesting, and at times surprisingly nimble. I would call it “audacious” and/or “ambitious, but not to a fault.”
Station Eleven is a novel, distinct romp; a weavy, casually post-apocalyptic novel of manners. They’re both solid trips  / :) / but I found Station Eleven to be more distinct: newer, bolder, altogether the superior read.    11-2  and huh I am thinking all the remaining judges may go w St11 also.   so lkg at 15-2 numbers I like!  or maybe 14-3. (only guess at poss exceptn is J Courtney-Sullivan (bcs? ~ her bks are not v int to me? so.)

Laura Cogan editor of ZYZZYVA Literary Magazine.  /chose Brief Hist over Paying Guests.  which I for sure wanted.  think I liked her.
novels that take worldwide catastrophe as the backdrop for a highly improbable series of interconnected events. ..whereas Mandel’s apocalypse is fictional, and therefore has the luxury of setting (and succeeding on) its own terms; The way ATLWCS treats its historical circumstances, particularly its superficial treatment of fascism, renders the book inescapably problematic for me.  12-2

J. Courtney Sullivan author of  Maine /whSudie I got, I lkd at ~/  and The Engagements. /to be movie prod'd by Reese W/
...Mandel’s story felt more original to me. /alright!  13-2

Nicole Cliffe a co-founder of The Toast. 
I am still utterly and completely the lyrics of “Oh, Yoko!” about Station Eleven /chose it over Brief Hist (wh I say seems the outstandingly best bk of the tournement, th I wld most hv liked to win; but so it is nice th did only lose to a book she *really* likes/, it is the winner of my heart and my vote /nice upfront/, so let me devote my allotted words to saying nice things about ATLWCS.   ...  14-2

and! do we get  my preferred 15-2 numbers?
Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields  /who *already* didn't like ATLWCS and only chose it after slamming AUS along w it.{ "at least its gang rape sequence is over quickly, never mentioned again, and has no consequences at all. That is why I would rather be forced to reread All the Light We Cannot See—even if I have to carry it around for another week!—than have to reread An Untamed State."}
My friend Emma Straub /name v fmlr, but I d n recognize her novels, so dunno why/ says Emily St. John Mandel has “major chops,” and so she does.  Mandel and Doerr both like to bounce around their story chronology.. but Mandel’s purpose is to contrast the times before and after her influenzapocalypse, whereas Doerr is just withholding information, which gets precious. /y. ATLWCS sounds precious. amelie./   Station Eleven fits comfortably into what Brian Aldiss [distinguished SF writer] disparages as the “cosy catastrophe” genre, which means —unlike my two earlier tournament books—no gang rape. I like it that way. So sue me.
15-2 !!   /did ppl guess th?  I saw guesses re closer splits, not sure even higher th 11-6 but must hv bn a few.  any 17-0 ?? 16-1 ?



Kevin:   Because of a scheduling anomaly, Station Eleven was the only book in the tourney that John and I haven’t talked about /Elliott & Laura did the cmmtry on its opening round loss to UAS and on its zombie win over Brief  Hist/, which means there is no textual evidence to contradict me when I say it was my favorite book in the ToB this year. I loved All the Light We Cannot See—Tony’s words work a kind of hypnosis on me. But Station Eleven just hit all of my pleasure centers. It was so elegantly constructed, and because Mandel keeps returning to our world—the world before the disaster—you are never able to let go of your heartbreak. Throughout this story you constantly feel the loss of everything we (in real life) love.  //evth civilized - will I feel that?



commmmmmentary booth  still to read




-cd hermelin: I'm so happy! I thought Station Eleven would win this year, not because of trying to predict things with logic, but because it was my favorite of the tournament. What an incredible book!
And thanks to the tournament for A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall, and All the Birds, Singing, and Silence Once Begun, and Wittgenstein, Jr., all books I would not have encountered had it not been for this year's list!
--drew: Ditto! Kind of gobsmacked by the margin of the win, but, hey, I'll take it. A well-deserved winner.


-interested:  I am so surprised that the judgment was so lopsided! I did like both books, but hearing all the judges give the edge to Station Eleven actually made me respect it a little bit more.
The most important thing to come out of this year's event, though (as always), is that I got turned on to books didn't have the huge media presence of these two finalists. Wittgenstein Jr, Brief History of Seven Killings, and Annihilation -- just finished the trilogy and it was amazing //cool!//.


-muppetlove: Another shock at the landslide win


-I'm just getting around to reading A Tale for the Time Being, so I'll probably finish Station 11 just in time for TOB 2016. Still, it's so very nice to know I have great reading in my future!



-Name:  I read the first Chapter of Station Eleven and could get no further. The prose was clunky and the entire set up painfully awkward and clunky. Everyone is drinking the Kool Aid on this one, and they're wrong. The most over-hyped novel since The Art of Fielding. /huh./  hmm well I am encouraged to trust Name bcs going to disqus find cmmt elsewh ~guitar tutorials  requesting "anyth by Tracy Chapman or Jaon Armatrading.
//and huh, (frequent) cmmtr kerry (hungrylikeawolf site is his) upvoted this Station 11 drinking koolaid cmmt. so went to disqus to see if he said negative things re Station 11. ah ha, in pre-tourn:
Kerry 24 days ago    I am torn between hating Adam without reading it (from descriptions, I almost feel obligated to hate it) and hating Station Eleven although it probably deserves more to be ignored than to be hated. I am thinking Station Eleven, because it will go farther and, so, will give me more time to let the hate out.
and then
Kerry 16 days ago
I agree with Judge Kim. An Untamed State deserved to advance over Station Eleven. I agree with her assessment regarding the "thread count" of the prose in each work. However, despite cliches, idealized characters, and fairy tale elements, the book demands an emotional response and practically wrings compassion out of the reader. Station Eleven is more like the snow globe, even a well-made one, in that it doesn't ever really do much though it is a pretty thing. I think they had different ambitions, both worthy, and An Untamed State came closer to full attainment even though, it was inferior from a purely technical standpoint. I predicted a different result, but am pleased to be wrong.
//note this.  his positive words re AUS. he became one of the ones most speaking to idea that the prose in AUS is not good.  got contentious w caroline pruett saying ~ -yes you've made yourself quite clear.  /and right there made me like her less, after wh all her posts seemed to contr to that./ 
-I think we are muddling things with the nice thread count metaphor. I don't think the dispute is between luxurious, silky prose and sparse prose. Rather, An Untamed State is cliche-ridden, the dialogue is soap-opera-ish (as someone said), and the prose is otherwise unwieldy. Cliches are not a stylistic choice, at least, I have heard no reason why cliched prose helps theme, character, or plot in Untamed in any way. It's just a flaw.
But, despite that, the book had an enduring emotional impact on me. I preferred that aspect to Station Eleven, a mildly engaging story which shallow-dives its most interesting ideas using pedestrian, if sometimes florid, prose.
//ah I remember th cmmt. 
--Marinus (Naoko JunDo) in reply:  While I haven't read Untamed State, I know what it is to forgive a book even extremely deep flaws because its emotional core rings true.  And, much as I did like parts of Station Eleven, I think Mandel used good writing to disguise ultimately cliched ideas, to the detriment of that emotional core.
-Kerry: JunDo, I denounce you. And by that, I mean I love you.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________purchasing Station Eleven.
//and so do I not bother to purchase Station 11?  am only thinking of buying bcs:
Lizzy • 10 hours ago   -Station Eleven is $5.99 on Kindle today.          
wh I am surprised I am the only one to upvote.  and wh will last til 3am (end of day pacific time).  figure for $6 just get?  wld buy sth at grocery on whim for.  hmm but then I pause over 9.99 for a book, just a few dollars more.  and I do think, mom wld prob like this, and pretty likely to read it.  so.  she wld prob just buy it herself though to hv on ipad, even if I offer her my kindle.   //  actually:
 www.themorningnews.org/article/america-you-are-the-biblioracle   (Nov2011)  John Warner asking get other ppl reading:  If you’re a Kindler, give the book as a gift to that person. All you need is their email address; all they need is a smart phone or tablet.
/oh. and y on az "Give as a gift."  just has you put in email addr.  ok. patandmanoli at html.  /no info specifically re kindle gift right here, just th can exchange for gift card of same value.

//well few hrs later, and just before 3am, read opening chapter - at first ehhh bcs starts descriptive.  but fr end of sample reading backwrds I was into it. so:
Print List Price:
$24.95
KindlePrice:
$5.99
You Save:
$18.96 (76%)

Thanks, maria! Station Eleven: A novel will be auto-delivered wirelessly to [[maria's Kindle]] via Amazon Whispernet. You can go to your Kindle to start reading.        2:57pm  (Wed 4/1 oh Apr fools huh)

Want to read somewhere else?  Read now in Kindle Cloud Reader or Deliver to another device  [maria's 2nd iphone | maria's iphone | Kindle Cloud Reader | Kindle Reader for Mac /do I have this on cmptr already? or maybe just offers bcs registers that am accessing az on a mac/]  DELIVER
Instant Order Update for maria christina cassimatis. You purchased this item on March 31, 2015. View this order.  Order Summary #D01-6429691-2203805
View Order:   Digital Order: March 31, 2015   Status: Pending      Recipient: maria christina cassimatis          Items Ordered     Price Station Eleven: A novel [Kindle Edition] By: Emily St. John Mandel Sold By: Random House LLC     $5.99
//note az t8m// 
//also, huh, after 3am still 5.99.  for another day? longer?   or just a min late to update: no 3:11 still 5.99 ok well consider getting for mom.  tomorrow.


As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all.
so Arthur is pre-apoc; Jeevan is during; Kirsten is after (15 yrs later).
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LISTEN TO PODCAST  especially for Vandermeer (of Area X trilogy incl Annihilation).
-aliceunderskies • 10 hours ago
TOB 2015: the year whose comments are likely to be least worth rereading in years future. Too nasty & repetitive, too often. So interesting that Vandermeer picked up on it and critiqued us for that on CD & Drew's radio show*... I personally have a lot of regrets about really great possible topics of conversation that never happened. No hard feelings, but, you know, I just have regrets, and that's the first time this has happened.   *Check out their podcast, So Many Damn Books--it's good, and I am on tenterhooks for their tournament wrap up interviews!    <<<<