Scared Money takes readers on the inner journey that every successful horseplayer must make to overcome the cultural baggage that gets in the way of becoming a winner.It is not only the story of a horseplayer/musician learning to trust his judgment and intuitive skills at major racetracks in southern California, Maryland, and Europe, but anyone who finds themselves scorned by society because they have set the goal that is considered taboo, especially when they could have opted for a safer route.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
``Scared Money is about... building the self-confidence necessary to prevail in a game where 98 percent of the players habitually get beaten,'' writes horseracing expert Cramer (Thoroughbred Cycles) in a preface here. And that's the problem with this first novel, the fiction-as-pedagogy story of a part-time jazz pianist whose full-time passion for the ponies, in Cramer's words, ``hopefully will allow readers to experience, rather than being told, what they must do to confront the ultimate enemy within''-i.e., lack of self-confidence. Along the way, narrator Matthew Bosch antagonizes his ex-wife, finds a new woman who can tolerate his obsession and meets a series of amateur and professional racetrack characters whose tales enhance his own. Bosch's battles with slumps, confidence problems and different betting techniques ring true, but the narrative, made choppy by secondary plots, clumsily told escapades and a breezy style (``Then there was hot and sassy Samantha, my new redheaded squeeze. The stats said that Sam would dump me....''), never quite gels.
Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Novel? No. Recommended anyway? Absolutely.,
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This review is from: Scared Money (Hardcover)
Mark Cramer, Scared Money (1994, City Miner Books)Scared Money professes to be a novel. That may well be true, but if so it's a novel in the same way The Celestine Prophecy is a novel, except that Cramer's book actually has something worthwhile to teach the aspiring risk-taker. Not surprisingly, Cramer's book centers on the risks inherent in playing the horses, but touches on risk in many other aspects of life as well (and the parables he spins as mini-morals to his horseracing stories are quite easily taken the other way). In other words, this seemingly vertical-market book is actually the most accessible piece of Cramer's horse-slanted writing; There's all kinds of things to be gleaned from here, and not just about horses. Matt, the protagonist, starts off as a casual horseplayer. He doesn't really change throughout the series of episodes that make up the book, but these episodes are designed to highlight one aspect of risk-taking each; change is probably not to be expected. Around Matt are an odd assortment of minor characters; horseplayers, jazz musicians, a nagging ex-wife. All are roped into these mini-morality plays in some form or another. All of the tales are effective, and get their points across without beating the reader over the head, but the end result isn't something that holds together as a coherent novel. A collection of parables, maybe (the Gospel of Cramer?), but a novel it isn't. Still, it's well worth reading not only for the horseplayer, but those who desire to take other risks in life as well. ***
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Definative Fictional Representation of the Horseplayer,
This review is from: Scared Money (Hardcover)
Mark Cramer has written a literate and wise book concerning the journey of a man to succeed in an unusaul occupation: a gambler who bets on horse races. This book is well written and is at its center a novel about the battles we all fight within ourselves. The protagonist fights his own self destructive influences as he searches for a path "with a heart."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mildly Entertaining, but Not Enthralling,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Scared Money (Hardcover)
I was able to find this title for only $2, so I took the plunge as part of an odd assortment of used books.
Mark Cramer is a well respected writer for horse racing. This is a fictional work about a musician named Matt who meets various characters at the track, as one does. Matt seems to always live on the edge and win exactly what he needs to. (I wish I could win when I needed to achieve a goal!) Matt's music career keeps him going and for some unknown reason, many of his music friends are also gamblers. He convinces his second wife to give up a good paying job and move on a lark to France. (Man, where did I go wrong!) Finally, he moves back to the US and questions himself after hitting a weird trifecta. (So okay, now I can relate!) Finally, he meets a writer for a newspaper and convinces her to put more conviction in her longshot picks and measure success by dollars and not wins. The book is choppy, but nonetheless a pretty easy read. The characters seems to come and go pretty quickly. This would be a reasonably good gift to a horse racing fan.
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