50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Review-a-Day

ToB: Big Machine vs. The Year of the Flood

by Review-a-Day, March 21, 2010 12:00 AM
Big MachineBig Machine by Victor La Valle

Reviewed by Tournament of Books

The Morning News

Powell's Books and The Morning News present the 2010 Tournament of Books

The annual NCAA-style battle between literary titans rages on! There are some serious contenders this year, including The Lacuna, Wolf Hall and The Year of the Flood. Review-a-Day is bringing you a week at a glance -- every Sunday through March. Tune in each week for our featured battle, see how your favorites fared and catch up with fun commentary and other tidbits from The Morning News.

Another week has passed and we have made it to the end of the opening round with some truly exciting results.

From The Morning News: Opening Round Re-Cap and Quarterfinals Preview

*********

This Week's Featured Battle

Battle Date: March 18, 2010

__________

Big Machine, by Victor LaValle

VS.

The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood

__________

Judged by

Kate Ortega

I raced through The Year of the Flood. Absolutely gobbled it up. I have read one or two others of Atwood's books, and while I knew going in that her interests and mine do not always intersect, I was surprised at how gripped I was by the story, a romp through an endangered future world with a small group of zealous environmentalists, members of a sort of cult called God's Gardeners. With the corporate and government worlds melded into a sort of Big Brother, intent in its gene-splicing experiments, the Gardeners' leader is predicting a catastrophe along the lines of Noah's flood as God attempts to purge the earth, yet again, of man gone wrong.

So when it came time to turn to Big Machine, I was worried, for LaValle's sake. But let it be said: This man doesn't need anyone to worry about him.

In Big Machine, Ricky Rice, an early-middle-aged black man with a checkered past, tells the story of how, one day, he received an anonymous free bus ticket to Vermont, decided to take it, and then fell into a sort of rabbit hole where God was, perhaps, a voice emanating from a cave, scholars spent their days clipping articles from newspapers, and homeless men were being organized to stage a massive attack on society. It is a crazy story, and throughout, Ricky Rice thinks it's just as crazy as you do.

Both books have an otherworldly quality to them, and both delve deeply into religion and beliefs about self-sufficiency and fate. The Year of the Flood alternates points of view; about half is the third-person story of a middle-aged woman who spent much of her adult life as one of the Gardeners, and the other half is told in first person by a young woman who spent her childhood with the Gardeners. But I wasn't racing through the book because of its writing; the third-person parts are good, but the voice of the younger narrator, in my eyes, falls flat.

(Read the entire review by Kate Ortega)

*********

Winner: Big Machine

*********

Additional match-ups from this past week:

  • March 15

    Wolf Hall v. Logicomix

    Judged by David Gutowski click here for comments and outcome

  • March 16

    Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned v. The Anthologist

    Judged by Molly Young click here for comments and outcome

  • March 17

    A Gate at the Stairs v. The Book of Night Women

    Judged by Max Magee click here for comments and outcome

Your Tournament of Books Quarterfinalists!

March 22, Alex Balk

__________

Let the Great World Spin

VS.

The Help

__________

March 23, Jane Ciabattari

__________

The Lacuna

VS.

Burnt Shadows

__________

March 24, Meave Gallagher

__________

Wolf Hall

VS.

The Anthologist

__________

March 25, Carolyn Kellogg

__________

The Book of Night Women

VS.

Big Machine

__________




{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Most Read

  1. Best Fiction of 2020 by Powell's Books
  2. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
  3. Midyear Roundup 2021: The Best Books of the Year (So Far) by Powell's Staff
  4. The 11 Best Places to Read by Will Schwalbe
  5. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: Pacific Northwest Edition by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

  • Interviews
  • Original Essays
  • Lists
  • Q&As
  • Playlists
  • Portrait of a Bookseller
  • City of Readers
  • Required Reading
  • Powell's Picks Spotlight

Post a comment:

*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
  1. Please note:
  2. All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
  3. Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2022 POWELLS.COM Terms