Talk:If I Survive You

A fact from If I Survive You appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 26 October 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that NPR favorably compared a story in Jonathan Escoffery's debut book If I Survive You to Moby-Dick?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2023/October. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/If I Survive You.

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Vaticidalprophet talk 14:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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... that The New Yorker called Jonathan Escoffery's debut book If I Survive You "thrillingly free"? Source: Waldman, Katy (2022-08-29). "Jonathan Escoffery's Surprising Stories of Desperation". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
- ALT1: ... that NPR favorably compared part of Jonathan Escoffery's debut book If I Survive You to Moby Dick?" Source: Corrigan, Maureen (September 9, 2022). "'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America". NPR. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/United States Conciliation Service

Moved to mainspace by Wanterlust678 (talk) and The ed17 (talk). Nominated by The ed17 (talk) at 19:29, 27 September 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/If I Survive You; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

Bold the article link please! Most of the article is an unreferenced plot summary - is this acceptable? Johnbod (talk) 00:39, 28 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
- @Johnbod: I've expanded the lead and reception section. Thanks for pushing me on this! I've also found another potential hook that's probably better than my original proposal and added it above. Ed ^{[talk] [OMT]} 18:24, 29 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  - Thanks! I'n not reviewing this, btw. Johnbod (talk) 19:40, 29 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting book, on fine sources, no copyvio obvious. I like ALT1 but how about getting "sink or swim" into it? I'd also like to see "book" somewhere in a hook. Can we drop "favorably", as a bit ambiguous? Further ALTs below please. - Please make at least a stub article for the author. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:37, 7 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Gerda Arendt: How about this?

ALT2: ... that NPR favorably compared the sink or swim spirit in part of If I Survive You to Moby Dick? I added "book" to ALT1, but it doesn't fit well in ALT2.

I like "favorably" in there ironically because I think it lessens the ambiguity, showing that it's a positive comparison. :-) My preference is for ALT1, which I think is easier to read, but I don't feel extremely strong about it.

Re: the author, I haven't assessed their notability since I was working on the draft version of this article months ago, but it was my sense that that time that they were not yet. Most sources focused on the book, not him. Ed ^{[talk] [OMT]} 02:10, 9 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, and I formatted ALT2 for a promoter to find it. At present, I'd also prefer ALT1 over both others. My problem with it is that I had overlooked the little word "part" and misunderstood that the whole thing was compared favorably to Moby Dick, and see the danger for other hasty readers as well. My idea was to replace it by a more precise description of which "part", be it "spirit", or "aspect", or what you'd come up with. I believe that ALT2a should still say "debut book", and for my taste also have the name of the author, if we want informed readers, or do we want to "sell" the thing by its good title alone? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:39, 9 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Gerda Arendt: I see where the disconnect is! "Part" is intended to mean "one chapter". Although I suppose in the context of a short-story collection it could be "story"...

ALT3: ... that NPR favorably compared the sink or swim spirit in a chapter of Jonathan Escoffery's debut book If I Survive You to Moby Dick?

ALT4: ... that NPR favorably compared a story in Jonathan Escoffery's debut book If I Survive You to Moby Dick?" Ed ^{[talk] [OMT]} 03:32, 10 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much for thinking further. ALT4 preferred, because it serves the additional information of a story collection elegantly. I won't strike the others but do hope that will be the solution ;) --