Tickets to the Devil [Hardcover]

Richard Powell (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Devyn Pr (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910791414
• ISBN-13: 978-0910791410
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,101,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fun, light book., February 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tickets to the Devil (Paperback)

Tickets to the Devil was a fun read. The characters are likable, quirky, and remarkably easy to visualize. The story revolves around a contract bridge tournament, but you don't need to be a bridge player to appreciate it. I thouroughly enjoyed Powell's humor, and I'll never hear Danny Boy again without smiling.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as dated as I feared, February 23, 2002

By 

Andrew J. Lazarus "polymath at large" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tickets to the Devil (Paperback)

I recently bought this to reread after 20 years, maybe because I've just resumed playing bridge regularly! Sure it's a little dated: the details of the bridge, the prices, and especially the sexual dynamics, but it's fun.

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating glimpse into a human cesspool, May 21, 2010

By 

E. Williams (Dearborn, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tickets to the Devil (Hardcover)

The late and brilliant essayist Sydney Harris properly took to task tournament bridge players who view the game as a psychological narcotic anesthetic against reality and those who view a bridge tournament as a venue to see who can be the nastiest to partner and opponents. This book, for which the author did commendably thorough and excellent research, amply demonstrates the validity of both of these highly correlated viewpoints. Remarkably, there isn't one diagram of a bridge hand in the book -- making its lesson, entertainment value, and suspense (all of which are very high) accessible to readers whether they play bridge or not. Locally, in a suburb not far from Detroit, and usually seven days a week, a microcosm of the nastiness at this not-so-fictional national tournament is re-enacted at a local bridge club (I was there ONCE).