Compulsive [Paperback]

Jim Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998

COMPULSIVE follows the journey of Don Curtis from secure family man and business owner to compulsive gambler. The extreme highs and lows he experiences and the lengths to which he goes to attain them. Although a work of fiction, many readers will recognize their own feelings and emotions; the daydream of winning a lottery dances through many of our heads. However, the compulsion to win is a nightmare.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's not much comic relief in this exacting but schematic depiction of one man's seduction by the compulsion to gamble?a single-mindedness that adds to the tension but also narrows the narrative into a set piece. Accountant Don Curtis can't stand his golf partner, Jeff Stevens, but that doesn't stop him from asking Stevens's advice about betting on football games. Curtis is soon seduced by the prospect of winning big, and he manages to ignore the prospect of losing his shirt. Though Curtis starts losing badly?at poker, at casinos, at the race track?he indulges in heady fantasies about recouping his losses. On a trip to Las Vegas, Curtis veers uncontrollably toward the inevitable rock bottom, which doesn't seem quite low enough for him. He flirts with the expected vices of a loser determined to win everything back: cocaine binges and adultery. Curtis's life before his gambling addiction is not fully rendered, leaving the reader unsympathetic as his behavior becomes more and more desperate and repulsive. His free fall into a world of deceit, denial and addiction is punctuated by dreams and fantasies that are essentially textbook Gambler's Anonymous credo. There are not many surprises in this faithfully observed and competently told story, which never approaches the manic intensity of Donald Barthelme's Bob the Gambler, or rises above the level of a cautionary fable.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

COMPULSIVE is the fictional account of one man's gradual descent into the world of compulsive gambling. It takes him through the incredible highs and the crushing lows of the "gaming" addict. Many readers will recognize their own feelings, their own addictive tendencies as they follow Don Curtis into the exciting, neon-splashed world of the gambler. -- Publisher Comments

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 265 pages
• Publisher: Western Reflections Pub Co (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188945916X
• ISBN-13: 978-1889459165
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,875,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the last 40 years or so, I have considered myself a writer...a storyteller...and for the last 12 years or so, a published author! Accounting put beans on the table, but writing was, and is, my passion! (It's difficult, bordering on really weird, to be passionate about accounting...)

Anyway, writing has come easily to me. When everything is working, when I am really cooking, writing fiction is very much like reading fiction. When that happens, and it is truly magical, I have no idea what is coming next. My wife loves to tell the story about an evening long ago, when I was writing my very first novel, "The Killer Instinct". The computer was in another room, and I appeared with a strange look on my face.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"One of my characters just died!" I responded.

"Weren't you planning that?" She looked at me incredulously.

I thought about it, and said, "No. I knew that I didn't like him very much, but I had no idea that I was going to kill him!"

She just looked at me strangely, but then she does that a lot anyway.

I have since written 13 books, some of them fiction, some of them photography, some of them history books. One of them is a collection of my short stories. As I was writing the various novels, if I would get blocked, I would jump off and write a short story just to keep the juices flowing. It worked!

I wound up with 4 novels, ranging from a satire of every spy and detective novel ever written, to the story of a man being destroyed by compulsive behavior, to two action/adventures set in the high country of Colorado. The history books deal, in words and historical photos, with the histories of Glenwood Springs, Marble, and Redstone in Colorado, and Tombstone in Arizona. The photography book is a visual feast of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

The short stories range from children's stories to ghost stories to horror stories to love stories to humor to some that defy description.... The short stories and the children's stories can be found in a Kindle book called "Uncle Jim's Brain".

Please look around, sample some of the Kindle books, and let me tell you some stories!

Thanks,

Jim Nelson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars frighteningly accurate real life tale of addiction at work, June 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Compulsive (Paperback)

Jim Nelson tells a frighteningly accurate tale of addiction at work, where personality changes take place, lying becomes a way of life, and other addictions are added to provide a combination "rush". The gradual changes in the individual are described exceedingly well where at the end the individual cannot imagine life without his/her best friend, companion, and comfort, leaving all the previous parts of his/her life behind. It is clear that the only possible solution to this situation is total abstinence, with a support network. As an addiction professional I was amazed at the clarity of description of the addictive process, and I recommend this book highly to all.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A required read for gamblers, August 25, 2000

By 

Chris Troise (Harrison, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Compulsive (Paperback)

If you are a gambler this book should be required reading. Nelson's writing style is engaging and accurate - he captures the feelings of gambling right down to the excitement that just walking into a new casino can generate. He accurately portrays all the little things that go along with gambling - the new "friends", the new social events to attend, the new feeling of acceptance with fellow gamblers, the comraderie around a table. Just like smokers also enjoy unwrapping their cigarettes, and tapping them, and holding them, gamblers enjoy a lot of little side things that make the whole package hard to give up.

A lot of what the main character goes through is very typical to all gamblers - unfortunately his compulsive personality takes over and gambling turns into an addiction for him. We see his slow decent as a gradual process - the final destination is something he would have run away from back when he was starting but by the end it all seems normal to him. You may scare yourself by recognizing the parallels to your own life. How far along are you in his progression? How many of his rationalizations have you already used?

My view of casinos has changed after reading this book. I was focused too much on my own story - an occasional casino day tripper taking advantage of cheap food and drink - and didn't consider all the compulsive personalities out there that casinos help ruin. If you want to put down your last thousand dollars on a bad bet the casinos will gladly call you "sir" and give you a free drink! Just imagine if a similar thing existed for drug addicts - imagine seeing someone in a tuxedo giving someone lying in the gutter a new syringe of heroin for three thousand dollars and calling him "sir" and making him feel important. It would be outlawed instantly and the tuxedo guy exposed as the fraud that he is! But as it is, it is "OK" and legal.

So, as you go out there and buy lots of gambling books explaining how to play and what the odds are, etc., I recommend that you also get this book and see if you see a side of yourself that you might not want to. But so much better to find out in a book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A frighteningly realistic story of compulsive gambling., September 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Compulsive (Paperback)

It is all here....from the initial small bets, "just for fun", to the rush of winning, (the worst thing that can happen to anyone with an addictive personality), to the larger and larger wagers, to the eventual crushing losses. I would be very surprised to learn that the author was not in fact a compuslive gambler. He hints at that in his foreword.

The subtle, insidious slide of the compulsive gambler is portrayed very well in the book. The truth is in the details...the rationalizations, the hiding of money, the lying and self-deceit that takes place as the disease takes over more and more of his life.

See if you recognize anything of yourself in the pages. It will certainly make you think twice about gambling.