Tough Call Y'All (Too much Self-isolating with Tiger King/Ozarks)

Well, as befits this late stage of The Mighty Smackdown, this was a tough one for us. I had actually bought Moonrise for my daughter last summer, I think, and it’s a book that is solidly in my recent wheelhouse of social justice literature. So, I went in expecting to love it and I wasn’t disappointed; it is a powerful and evocative novel and while it deals with specific circumstances that few of us could imagine - nevermind, experience - it is a meaningful way into a larger discussion about what happens when the facade of equity in a society starts to crumble in real time. It’s easy to feel smug as we cast a weary - and wary - eye towards the crumbling republic to the south, but this book speaks to the emotional and physical costs of inequity that are really universal. It also seems to provoke me to be preachy and didactic, apparently. 

Patron Saints of Nothing, on the other hand, was a book I had never heard of and wasn’t too excited about reading, but as it morphs fairly quickly from a coming of age story into a deeply felt detective story that - as all great detective stories do - moves both inward and outward I became pretty captivated and invested. As we talked through the competing merits of these two excellent books it was actually remarkable how much they have in common despite some surface level differences. At the heart of Patron Saints of Nothing there is also a deep and abiding concern with social inequity and the complexities of any discussion of crime and punishment. 

It is, perhaps, the latter that makes this such a difficult decision because both authors resisted the temptation of writing a one-note feel good response to extremely complex circumstances. If we look at the characterization of Joe and Jay, the warden and Tito Manning, and perhaps, most notably, Ed and Jun, we see authors who recognize that there is no simple classification of saints and sinners and, to paraphrase Bryan Stevenson - who Crossan mentions as an inspiration for Moonrise - these characters are more than their worst - and even their best - moments. The final pages of both books are framed by letters and if we go back to read these - as I did in attempting to break this tie - you’ll see that the letters and the specific circumstances surrounding them help unify the narratives, providing both closure and reflection. Both texts are also characterized by prose that is accessible and at times beautiful - with Crossan’s being literally more lyrical at times - and a big part of this is a tip to each author for creating authentic voices, particularly for their teen narrators. 

So, I realize we’re kind of spinning our wheels here. We really liked both books and we’re going to attempt to eat our cake and have it too by moving Moonrise forward on the grounds that it is perhaps moderately more accessible to a wider-ranging audience through its prose poem delivery. We would like to offer up Patron Saints of Nothing as our zombie pick, though (Or Moonrise if the big vote swings the other way - this is our cake-eating and having) except for Sara who love, love, loved We’ll Fly Away, so that is 4 zombies for the runner up here and one for We’ll Fly Away.