From Publishers Weekly
What might have been a Zen and the Art of Poker Playing turns into a bumbling fable as professional gambler Martin Oakes helps problem kids around Boston cope with life by teaching them the finer points of poker. Oakes is supposed to be a wise counselor, full of tough love, but he could be mistaken for a condescending, sanctimonious guru-jerk ("All of you have been cheated," he drones at his students). His wife, Jennifer, is a nonentity, and the story has the earnest feel of a made-for-TV movie. Each of the middle seven chapters profiles one of his card pupils--a static plotting device that makes this more of a school yearbook than a novel. The climax, which seems to mirror an adolescent fixation, involves Oakes's long-sought match with poker legend "Smooth Jake" Warner, who lives in a 33-room mansion and loves Beethoven. Ryan, whose Black Gravity was an Edgar Award nominee, has written an unlikely melodrama that is mainly for poker fans. BOMC alternate; excerpted in Playboy.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this appropriately titled second novel, expert player Martin Oakes uses poker as a means of teaching discipline and concentration to an unlikely class of troubled teens. Framed by the story of a student's expulsion from the class, the novel advances through several vignettes that examine each character--both alone and when coupled with another classmate--the way a poker player would examine each card in his or her hand. Ryan then moves to the poker game for a test of Oakes's credibility, which seems as vulnerable as a house of cards. The novel's strength is its wily storytelling, which reveals just enough to keep readers jumping to the next page, where they are never disappointed. A work of surprising substance, despite the quick pace, from the author of Edgar nominee Black Gravity . BOMC alternate.
- Martin J. Hudacs, Towanda H.S., Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Martin J. Hudacs, Towanda H.S., Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
