Customer Reviews

Bob the Gambler

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book as soon as it came out, have recommended it to friends, and just now purchased another copy as a gift. It's one of the best books I've read in years. The characters are so acutely observed, the dialogue so on target, that I got carried away with it. The well-written gambling scenes made my hands sweat at points. And the ending -- the ending is absolutely perfect.

The night after I finished this book I found myself before a slot machine in a small casino. I had a feeling and put a quarter in. I won and won again. I stuffed the quarters in my pockets but there were no buckets available. When I lost two quarters in a row I left. Unfortunately this was a dream and I awoke empty handed. Bob the Gambler is a beautifully observed, enviably perfect novel by a master who doesn't seem flashy because he stays within his means. It is also a surprisingly, even surreally loving story. The novel centers around the fissioned nuclear family of down-on-his luck Biloxi architect Bob Kaiser, a plump transplant moved by the Mississippi coastal decay before it was invaded by "gussied-up Motel 6 hotel rooms [and] an ocean of slicked-back hair," his pretty, witty, and wonderful wife of nine years Jewel, who is tough and stable, and yet the first to thirst for casino action, Jewel's daughter RV, an amazingly rendered, very sweet fourteen year old mid-90's teenager whom Bob adores, and Frank, the family dog. All the principals, as well as Bob's mother, whom we meet later in the book, are expert at the art of the cryptic tough-talking but secretly loving epigram. One of the great charms of this book is the depths of love of the family members both concealed by and revealed by their fragmented banter and quips. There are some wonderful moments and descriptions of daily life and teenage rearing, the euphoric swirl of casino gambling, and the decrepit Mississippi coast. The lasting impression one is left from this book, aside from the controlled brilliance of Barthelme's prose, is in my opinion a meditation on the meaning of money vis-à-vis love. Bob's wife's name, Jewel, is a token of facets of wealth unobtainable by any number of markers or wild infatuation-like risks; theirs, an irreducible love that includes and absorbs others (such as RV) in its understated wake, is the multicolored antithesis of liaisons such as those between David Duke (who make a cameo appearance)-and a sprightly young thing-of any coupling that can be price tagged, exchanged, or discarded. The casino and noncasino lights that surround Jewel, in her preternatural (and perhaps ultimately unrealistic, or at least extremely rare) stability, enact a preciousness beyond money and its temporary accumulations. They symbolize the nonmonetary values of the gift of being, the privilege not of accumulating but of existing-of the privilege of being alive, a spectator of phenomena in a world whose mortal decay, far from being its downfall, guarantees the preciousness of the light show it displays. Anyone who has taken junkets to Atlantic City may have noticed how on the flight there everyone chatters; they are full of excitement on hope. The way back is different. Everyone, or almost everyone has lost. They are quiet-until the plane lands, at which point they clap. Why? Because, although they have lost their money, they are newly appreciative of the far more precious gift of being alive. That is the mini-miracle, the lottery ticket, the stiff Barthelme hits for us in this wonderful paean to human frailty and true, tough love. In a way, Barthelme, his heart bigger than any red chip, says in this book the exact opposite of comedian Steven Wright's quip, "You can't have everything, where would you put it?" Barthelme says (with mathematician Paul Erdos) you do have everything, you have it all, already-you are infinitely rich.

Barthelme nails the perfect disasters of a gambling addict. His compassion, detail and heart sit Ray and Jewel down on either side of me as we bet ourselves into bliss and oblivion. I'd write more but I don't want to give anything away...except to say that I've never read as clear and tender a description of the workings of the mind of anyone in love with the action.

Barthelme's latest may mine some of the same territory as his other books, but he handles the dark world around the pathetic gambling boats on the Gulf Coast so deftly that it all plays like a miniature masterpiece.

In a bizarre way, this is a pretty uplifting little book. On one level, Bob the Gambler is a simple story, sad, and totally believable: A middle-aged man and his wife lose a lot of money gambling. On another level, it mocks the American belief in luck. Things don't work out sometimes. They just happen and it doesn't get better. The great revelation, though, is voiced by the wife who says that for all our planning and hoping, the future has something for us that we didn't plan and THAT'S OKAY. There is no mention of God here that I can recall, yet our characters certainly manage to rise to a more spiritual level as a result of their trials.

Life is just rolling along, everything's GREAT!!!! until they decide to set foot in the casino. The expected mayhem ensues within a relatively short period of time. Nothing ever is as it seems, and Bob finds out that his biggest "loss" was really his biggest way out of everything.

I just finished this book last night, ten years after it was first published. A friend recommended it and since I was a huge fan of Double Down by the same author, I immediately purchased it and read it in one night. The characters are all very likeable, colorful, but never particularly struck me as real and I couldn't tell you why. Barthelme writes beautifully, no doubt about it. His prose is detailed, descriptive and certain scenes are easily visualized, even for a person who has never been in that part of the country. I agree with the reviewer that the most exciting part of the book is when Ray and Jewel are actually in the casino. At one point when Ray is there by himself and bankrupting his future, my palms were sweating and I felt like I was right there with him. The book was wonderful until the last chapter, which felt endless and despite all the descriptive prose, incomplete. But by that time, I no longer cared how it turned out for Ray, Jewel and RV. Had it not been for the last chapter, I would have given this book five stars.

I thought this book was very well written and entertaining. I do have two comments however. First, I thought it was at its best when the Ray and/or Jewel were actually at the casino, and less interesting when the plot veered away from that (although the John Larroquette scene certainly was funny). Also, I was somewhat confused as to what the author intended the reader to conclude as to the fate of the main protagonists. Was it: (a) they had overcome their gambling addiction and were going to live happily ever after? (b) they never overcame their addiction but were going to live happily ever after anyway? or (c) they couldn't overcome their addiction and were doomed to a life of misery and depression? Certain parts of the ending seem to point to each of these conclusions. Any thoughts?

Gambling that brings you on the riverboat and gives you a glimpse of WHY people do it w/o maudlining out in a 12-step quagmire, ennui that doesn't make the book drag, hilarious man versus teenager (as funny/insightful as richard ford got it in Independence Day), interesting take on close/distant couples, and Mississippi like it is-- channel surfing, fast food eating, forget the mimosas and petticoats. And Piggly-Wiggly for one and all.

Barthelme's new book is fantastic. Rich in detail like his earlier "Two Against One," and chilling in its ability to paint the down and out life of its characters.