Literary Time Period Nominations & Vote • November 2017

[sun surfer]

Help us select what the MR Literary Club will read in November 2017!

This is the last Time Period category month (of this Time Period cycle at least) that will have a starter vote to choose the time period. There are only two options currently eligible, and after one is chosen this month only one will remain. So, our next Time Period month after this (in May) will use the final option with no starter vote needed.


The category for this month is:

Time Period
1941-1960, as chosen by vote


We will begin with a one-day vote to determine the time period. As soon as the time period is determined nominations will commence. Nominations can be set in and published in any time period, but they should be written during that time period.

The time period vote will close exactly one day from this post; even if the final tally doesn't occur immediately after voting closes, no votes made after that time will count.

Time period votes will be made by post. You will have a number of votes to cast equal to the number of time periods minus one - i.e. ONE. Any extraneous votes per person (past their maximum) won't count. Votes cannot be changed once they are cast.

Once voting is complete, the count will be tallied and a winner declared. If there is a tie, first listed wins by default (i.e. the oldest).


Notes:

-Previously chosen time periods currently ineligible:
1981-2000
1801-1900
1901-1920
1961-1980
1921-1940
BCE-1500

-The period of 2001-Present is its own category (Contemporary) and therefore not eligible for the Time Period poll.


Once the time period is determined:


-Nominations will run for around three days.-

You may offer up to two nominations. All nominees (so long as they are within the category) will move forward to the vote with no need for support from others.

Once nominations are complete, voting will begin and also occur in this thread.


-Voting will then run for four days.-

I will make a post in this thread to open voting. The vote will close exactly four days from that post; even if the final tally doesn't occur immediately after voting closes, no votes made after that time will count.

Votes will be made by post. You will have a number of votes to cast equal to the number of nominees minus one, which will be specified when the vote begins. You may give each nominee one or two (or no) votes. You may vote all at once in one post or vote in separate posts at different times, so long as you have more votes remaining to cast. You may use any number of your possible votes up to the maximum. Any extraneous votes per person (past their maximum or more than two for one nominee) won't count. Votes cannot be changed once they are cast.

Once voting is complete, the count will be tallied and a winner declared. In the event of a tie, there will be a one-day run-off vote, also in this thread. If the run-off also ends in a tie, then the tie will be resolved in favour of the selection that was nominated first.


We hope that you will read the selection with the club and join in the discussion.


What is literature for the purposes of this club? A superior work of lasting merit that enriches the mind. Often it is important, challenging, critically acclaimed. It may be from ancient times to today; it may be from anywhere in the world; it may be obscure or famous, short or long; it may be a story, a novel, a play, a poem, an essay or another written form. If you are unsure if a work would be considered literature, just ask!


The floor is now open!

*

Time period voting closed. Final results-

• 1501-1800
  Votes- 0
• 1941-1960
  Votes- 2

Nominations are closed. Voting is closed. Final results-

• Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty, 1946
  Post / Goodreads / 320 Pages / Votes- 5
  
  
• A Legacy by Sybille Bedford, 1956
  Post / Goodreads / 360 Pages / Votes- 0
  
  
• The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley, 1953
  Post / Goodreads / 307 Pages / Votes- 1
  
  
• The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, 1949
  Post / Goodreads / 183 Pages / Votes- 1
  

[sun surfer]

Both look good to me but since our last winner was the older BCE-1500 I'll vote for the newer 1941-1960 this time.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I vote for 1941-1960.

[sun surfer]

And the winner by unanimous vote is 1941-1960.

Nominations are now open.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My first nomination is Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty published in 1946.

From the back cover:

"The nickname of the train was the Yellow Dog. Its real name was the Yazoo-Delta. It was a mixed train. The day was the 10th of September, 1923-afternoon. Laura McRaven, who was nine years old, was on her first journey alone."

So begins Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty's portrait of a large and clamorous Southern family living on their plantation in the Mississippi Delta, and into whose midst Laura McRaven, whose mother has just died, is thrust. When Laura arrives, the Fairchilds are preparing for the marriage of Dabney, not the oldest but the prettiest of the Fairchild girls. Drama leads to drama, revelation to revelation. The result is a sometimes riotous portrait of a Southern family and the motherless child who learns to become one of them. Eudora Welty's first novel remains an American classic.

She has been on my TBR for awhile.

Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was born in Jackson, Mississippi. She worked as a photographer during the Depression and published her first book, a collection of short stories, in 1941. In addition to short fiction, Welty wrote novels, novellas, essays, and reviews, and was the winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. By the time of her death in 2001, Welty had established herself as one of the most important and beloved American writers of the twentieth century.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My second nomination is A Legacy by Sybille Bedford published in 1956.

A Legacy is the tale of two very different families, the Merzes and the Feldens. The Jewish Merzes are longstanding members of Berlin’s haute bourgeoisie who count a friend of Goethe among their distinguished ancestors. Not that this proud legacy means much of anything to them anymore. Secure in their huge town house, they devote themselves to little more than enjoying their comforts and ensuring their wealth. The Feldens are landed aristocracy, well off but not rich, from Germany’s Catholic south. After Julius von Felden marries Melanie Merz the fortunes of the two families will be strangely, indeed fatally, entwined.

Set during the run-up to World War I, a time of weirdly mingled complacency and angst, A Legacy is captivating, magnificently funny, and profound, an unforgettable image of a doomed way of life.

Here is a little about the author from her Goodreads biography.

Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March 1911 – 17 February 2006) was a German-born English writer. Many of her works are partly autobiographical. Julia Neuberger proclaimed her "the finest woman writer of the 20th century" while Bruce Chatwin saw her as "one of the most dazzling practitioners of modern English prose."

[sun surfer]

I nominate The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley, 1953.

From Goodreads:

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley's finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend's beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years. The inspiration for the brilliant Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, The Go-Between is a masterpiece—a richly layered, spellbinding story about past and present, naiveté and knowledge, and the mysteries of the human heart.


I also nominate The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, 1949.

From Goodreads:

A few years after its liberation from French colonialist rule, Haiti experienced a period of unsurpassed brutality, horror, and superstition under the reign of the black King Henri-Christophe. Through the eyes of the ancient slave Ti-Noel, The Kingdom of This World records the destruction of the black regime--built on the same corruption and contempt for human life that brought down the French--in an orgy of voodoo, race hatred, erotomania, and fantastic grandeurs of false elegance.


The Carpentier doesn't seem to be available as an ebook, but I thought it sounded interesting enough to give a nomination as I'm fine with a pbook.

Nominations are wrapping up; I'll leave them open until I've prepared the vote.

[sun surfer]

Nominations are closed and voting is now open!

Voting will close exactly four days from this post.

Each person has THREE votes to use.

Please refer to the first post for all other information.

[sun surfer]

I give-

1 vote to Delta Wedding
1 vote to The Go-Between
1 vote to The Kingdom of This World

[fantasyfan]

I'll give 2 votes to Delta Wedding.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I'll start with 2 votes for Delta Wedding.

[sun surfer]

A little over two hours left for voting. It's looking like a runaway but everyone who's voted so far voted for it so it'd be a good choice. Also, I don't believe we've had any U.S.-set selections yet this year so this would be a nice change of pace. I think we've only had one U.S. author as well, which was Hisham Matar who as we gather after reading The Return was born in the U.S. but has spent his years in Libya, Egypt and the U.K., and the book had almost nothing to do with the U.S. Not that we haven't had plenty of U.S. authors and settings in other years, but still I just happened to notice this about 2017. Also, Welty would only be our second female author selected this year, after Enright last month.

[sun surfer]

Voting is closed and the winner is Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty. I'll have the discussion thread up a little later.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I agree with your comments. It will be something different. I think it will be our fourth book in this time period this year: Cider with Rosie (1959), Lucky Jim (1954) and Loving (1945).