I know, this year's literary March Madness is a snooze, but I'm particularly interested in Round Seven: Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach versus Tom McCarthy's Remainder. (I've been calling this round the Battle of Britain.) I've never read anything by McEwan (nor have I ever really had the urge to do so), and Remainder was pretty good, despite getting silly about halfway through, but after putting Round Seven's judge, Ze Frank, through the Google wringer, I'm going to make a prediction: Remainder triumphs.

Comments

[Stephen]

I always think of McEwan as an acquired taste, which is odd because he is hugely popular. But I think you should give him a try, maybe start with one of his more accessible novels like "Saturday".
But I haven't even heard of "Remainder" so what do I know.

[Brandon]

Every time I see "Atonement," I'm always tempted to pick it up, but then I end up thinking, "Am I ever going to get to this book?" Maybe his popularity is why I don't really want to read him; I often find popular books and authors--and I don't mean popular in the Stephen King sense--to be disappointing. I'll be honest: if I read McEwan, I'll probably set the bar so high for him that, inevitably, he's going to fail in my eyes. But he might surprise me, when I finally feel the itch to read him.

As for "Remainder," I highly recommend it. It's a strange book, and like I said, it can get silly at times, because the narrator takes things way too far. But I'm willing to forgive the book's minor faults in favor of the big picture.

[Pete]

I see some McEwan backlash coming, with the trendy vote going to McCarthy.

[Adam S.]

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccckkkkkkk.

I'm here to inform you that Hitting On Girls in Bookstores has officially launched. After my time away from the blogosphere I got bored (very bored) and decided to just jump on the idea.

Stop by and let me know what you think. It was our brain child after all.