The kudos that we receive around here tends to be of the, “hey, don’t you people have jobs?” variety. At least one of us does, in fact, have a job. We can prove it. A BGB contributor (not me) is featured prominently in this article regarding a marketing campaign for the local soda company. The story is getting picked up some well-defined circles and our person in fielding call for interviews, etc. Remember us for all of your Fortune 500 viral marketing needs.
Today, Match 2 of the The Tournament of Books Semi-Finals matches the-little-mystery-that-could One Good Turn against the literal 500-pound literary gorilla, Against the Day. Will Pynchon meet his match? Next up, the “zombie round” where previously eliminated books are brought back by popular vote to fight another day and eat tasty brains.
After reading today’s match up, which The Road won, I’ve got to seriously consider reading the book. Each round features entirely different judges gushing about the book in new ways. Here’s what the last judge, author Elizabeth Gaffney, had to say:
I stayed up all night reading it. I, who am not a softy, wept at the end. It made me want to change the world, to try to make sure it never comes to this. As a book, it’s awfully close to perfect. There is no sentence or word out of place. It is as well-crafted as a great poem, as riveting as any the most plot-oriented page-turner. I closed it with the thought that I would never forget it and the certainty that I would nevertheless want to reread it, both for the sentences and for the story.
Wow. Through the miracle of time travel, go back and read our own intrepid Dr J’s take on the post-apocalyptic novel.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Wow. The power of book reviews. Both Dr. J’s and Gaffney’s reviews make me want to read this book but I’m not in “that place” right now to read such a disturbing book.
Another one for the wish list.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I agree, a well written and well thought out review is a magical thing. Then there is Sacha Frere Jones review of the Pynchon book today. In dismissing the Pynchon book, of which he’d read only 300 pages, Jones admits to his own shortcomings - “…the Russians, for instance, have always had too many goddamn characters with too many names for my taste…” - if you don’t like Pynchon, fine, but you can’t simply bad talk all of the Russians!
March 27th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
After I posted my initial review I thought of a way to explain what (I think) Cormac is trying, with this book, to tell us about the world and our place in it:
It is so much worse than you think. But no matter how bleak it is, how pointless your existence may seem, there is hope.
A couple of months later, I still find this book exceptionally affecting. I think about it often.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
OK, “uncle.” I’ll squeeze this one in. Sometime. Check out tomorrow’s ToB. Pynchon is coming back in the Zombie round and will be going head to head with The Road. I expect The Road to fare well.