Jennifer Egan wins the Tournament of Books

Jennifer Egan's "A Visit From the Goon Squad" was declared the winner of The Morning News' annual literary competition, The Tournament of Books, on Monday. At left, a photograph of Ms. Egan.

Egan bested Jonathan Franzen's bestselling "Freedom" in a head-to-head contest at The Morning News, after each book climbed to a final berth.

As winner, Egan will not take home the tournament's legendary, if fictional, golden rooster; instead, a donation will be made to Heifer International, which sends chickens and other livestock to families in the developing world.

The Morning News' panel of 17 judges decided between the two books: Egan edged out Franzen in a 9-to-8 victory.

Egan also beat Franzen -- as well as Hans Keilson ("Comedy in a Minor Key"), David Grossman ("To the End of the Land") and Paul Murray ("Skippy Dies") -- at the National Book Critics Circle Awards, held in New York in March.

Regular readers of the L.A. Times books coverage might recall a photo snafu we had at the time, when a photo of Jonathan Franzen initially ran with our coverage. This, as you can see, is Jennifer Egan, author of "A Visit from the Goon Squad."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Jennifer Egan in 2006. Credit: Knopf

Comments

[Polomoche]

Looking forward to reading all of these novels. Not a big fan of Egan. Find she writes cliched stories about uber-affluent and generally horrible people, constantly resorting to formulaic plot twists, cliffhangers, etc. When she drifts from the Hamptons her characters become even more cliche. Franzen's 'Freedom' was a well-written novel, difficult to put down, but the comparisons to War and Peace (initiated by the author himself) are positively ridiculous. Come to think of it, if you want to read a truly beautiful novel, exploring the human condition in the deepest way, extraordinarily written, well try War and Peace. Read the greats then work your way backwards to the present.

[Matt]

I was totally not expecting this win at all. I would have put the money on "Freedom" though "A Visit From the Goon Squad" is an infinite amount times better. Like, "Freedom" is really "The King's Speech" of literature from last year: it's a competent work, it tells its story well, and its comfortable in its ambitions. But it's not cool or inventively delivered; it's barely a document of our time. It felt like historical fiction more than anything.

So I'm really glad that Egan won. Well-deserved.

[Nora Kindley]

The win is well-deserved, and while Freedom is an excellent book, the format and the story are not as unique as Egan's Goon Squad. I have Skippy Dies and am looking forward to this as well.