Poll

I'm still reading Correction after it's surprise upset in Round 1, and I still love it.

Achebe's book is important to me, and I admire it a great deal, but my heart is completely with Bernhard again. What a stunning book! I'm voting for it!

Voting again as if Correction were Old Masters. (And because I wasn't all that keen on Things Fall Apart. Would have been awesome for The Palm Wine Drinkard to be in its stead... that would have changed my vote.)
I'd really like to read Correction soon if I can fit it in though.
Great to hear you are enjoying it so much Trevor.

To my shame I have read neither - so my vote will depend on the strength of the arguments put forwards .... anyone prepared to argue for Things Fall Apart?

. . . not me, Gumble.

I've read the book a few times, and I always admire it a great deal and think it's important, but it's never quite hit me.

Well, Things Fall Apart certainly has value as a book which is about social structures, politics, colonialism - it's about things out there in the world, whereas Correction is, I'd gather, more inward looking, about the (rather tormented) thoughts of one character. And of course there are not so many books left from outside Europe and the USA (and more will be lost by matching some against one another (i.e. Midnight's Children v Palace Walke). So keeping it in for geographic variety is another point in favour of the Achebe.

No contest.

OK - well based on the views of those who have commented so far (and I will be very surprised if Paul does not weigh in for Corrections) I am voting for Corrections

I found Things Fall Apart a bit of a slog; I'm not sure it's held up so well. I've yet to read Corrections, but I've read other Bernhard, so I'm happy to cast my lot in for this one.

Gumble's Yard wrote: "OK - well based on the views of those who have commented so far (and I will be very surprised if Paul does not weigh in for Corrections) I am voting for Corrections"

Well it was me who nominated Things Fall Apart and I do think it is both a wonderful and important book. If it were up against pretty much any other book in the tournament I would have no hesitation in voting for it. And while the The Palm Wine Drunkard may be a better book it just didn't have the same impact on the western perception of African literature (see e.g. this paper https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...).

But this is Thomas Bernhard, slayer of Garcia Marquez.

So I'm a bit torn to say the least.

I'm voting for Things Fall Apart as of now if only to even up the score to a respectable level, and will save my arguments for Bernhard for the later rounds.

Against Achebe and his antithetical interpretation of HoD. He's still wrong.

As no one has made a case for the Achebe within the thread itself, here are two GR reviews I think are very good (and not too long):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Ctb wrote: "Against Achebe and his antithetical interpretation of HoD. He's still wrong."

HoD ...? I should know but right now can only think of A Handful of Dust.

For me, Achebe is the more important writer of these two, and I have to vote for him - looking like a lost cause at the moment...

Antonomasia wrote: "As no one has made a case for the Achebe within the thread itself, here are two GR reviews I think are very good (and not too long):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.good..."

Thanks. This quote from the novel rather sums up Achebe's theme (and indeed the origin of the book's title):

“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

Gumble's Yard wrote: "To my shame I have read neither - so my vote will depend on the strength of the arguments put forwards .... anyone prepared to argue for Things Fall Apart?"

I'm prepared to argue for Things Fall Apart, but sadly from the rather compromised position of not having read Correction.

However, I have read every Booker winner. I realise Things Fall Apart is not a Booker winner, but if it were it would be in my top 5. It is an extraordinary book, and has passed my personal 'top test' of being every bit as good on the second read through. Highly recommended.

Correction: the sixteen seed that made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

Deservedly so!