Smackdown Books 2021

Ordinary Hazards
We Dream of Space
If These Wings Could Fly
We Are Not Free
The King of Jam Sandwiches
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team
The Companion
Punching the Air
Show Me a Sign
Land of the Cranes
Furia
Dragon Hoops
When Stars Are Scattered
Snapdragon
The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark
American as Paneer Pie
Tune It Out
The Gilded Ones
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
Switch

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Okay kids, cutting to the proverbial chase: I vote for The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green to move on to the next round the Smackdown. I'm pretty sure Dia is in love with this book, and I can understand that -- its a touching story; not necessarily a weeping-in-my-chair-touching, as suggested, but a sensitively crafted vignette just the same.  But in truth, 'The Fault' could have won by acclamation because I disqualified Inside Out & Back Again, by Thanhha Lai, due to suspicion of literary larceny.

Is it fair to dismiss a perfectly adequate novel simply because it so closely resembles another?  John Fogerty might think otherwise, but I think so.  Take Ru, by Kim Thuy (first published in French in 2009), the story of a Viet family who settles in Canada upon fleeing strife in their homeland.  Written in an unorthodox format, the novel follows their acclimation to North American mores for which it won a Governor Generals award.  Given that 'Inside Out' was published in 2011, and follows much the same course, in much the same way, can we really accept that Ms. Lai was simply ignorant of the existence of another successful work written about a subject in which, ostensibly, she must be vested?  I think not.

I will freely admit that 'The Fault' is not my favourite Smackdown contender (more of which anon), but it it acquits itself admirably in the company of Ms. Lai's knock-off.

As for a zombie pick, notwithstanding the fact that I haven't even finished reading it, I pick The Raven Boys.

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