Scan barcode
ohsovalentine's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
petermcdade's review
3.0
This was one of those books I didn't even remember buying. I finally took it off the shelf this week and read it in three days, because the first person narrator is that immediately engaging. I've only been in a casino gambling once, but the vivid scenes of casino life vividly brought up that intense combination of addiction and depression. There's lots of funny dialogue, and one of the better depictions of a teenage girl I've read in a contemporary novel. The book settles in at three stars, thought, because the structure feels a bit off, with tangential chapters that don't go anywhere. A long chapter where he visits his mother and they get yogurt and sandwiches, for example, felt like a separate short story that had been grafted on. The ending pulls everything together beautifully, so I put the book down feeling like I'd hit just enough on a slot machine to make the whole experience pleasurable.
kateegreenlee's review
4.0
i really liked this one. there were so many slowed down everyday moments, the kind that make your stomach hurt in a weird half-lonely way in their mundanity. raymond crumpling up the spoon to put in the yogurt cup, raymond and RV watching bob the gambler on the couch, raymond reflecting on learning how to open up the pie box.
i guess i could talk about the slow descent into gambling addiction, etc, but i really just want to think about the characters and their patient and everyday love. i hope they’re doing okay.
i guess i could talk about the slow descent into gambling addiction, etc, but i really just want to think about the characters and their patient and everyday love. i hope they’re doing okay.
jeremiah's review
This is probably my favorite work I've read by Barthelme, and I think that this work emphasizes that his aesthetic is a kind of craft. What attracts me and what emphasizes Barthelme's talent as a novelist is the choice to set the novel around the casino. Barthelme rooted his earlier novel Tracer around a condominium complex, a significantly less dramatic stage than a casino. However, the difference is clear from the novel's first paragraph:
"What I'd always liked about Biloxi was the decay, the things falling apart, the crap along the beach, the skeletons of abandoned hotels, the trashy warehouses and the rundown piers jutting out into the dirty water, so I wasn't thrilled that in the last five years our dinky coast town had been turned into an outlet-mall version of Las Vegas, with a dozen cartoon casinos, lots of gussied-up Motel 6 hotel rooms, an ocean of slicked-back hair, and a big increase in unsavory tourists. On this Sunday, after the NFL preseason game, we were sitting on the porch quiet as mice when Jewel held up the newspaper and said, "Raymond. Let's go here and do this," and "here" was the Paradise casino, a dozen blocks away on the beach in Biloxi, and this was gambling."
The casino is to junk, and junk is to decay. It may not be as simple as that, but it just might be, considering the novel's downward spiraling plot. And yet, a surge of optimism appears toward the novel's end. That's not to say I had quite a few gripes with the novel. At times, it seemed as if the novel would take a different direction. Take, for example, the character RV. Early in the novel, she is introduced as an activist, leftist sort of person, but then Barthelme decides that the character will be a "typical" teenager girl, whatever that is. RV's introduction seemed like a mistake, not that that matters too much. Another problem, one that I haven't fully articulated yet, is the way in which Barthelme depicts women in this novel. Does his aesthetic fundamentally adhere to an unsettling depiction of women? Leaving this question for another time.
"What I'd always liked about Biloxi was the decay, the things falling apart, the crap along the beach, the skeletons of abandoned hotels, the trashy warehouses and the rundown piers jutting out into the dirty water, so I wasn't thrilled that in the last five years our dinky coast town had been turned into an outlet-mall version of Las Vegas, with a dozen cartoon casinos, lots of gussied-up Motel 6 hotel rooms, an ocean of slicked-back hair, and a big increase in unsavory tourists. On this Sunday, after the NFL preseason game, we were sitting on the porch quiet as mice when Jewel held up the newspaper and said, "Raymond. Let's go here and do this," and "here" was the Paradise casino, a dozen blocks away on the beach in Biloxi, and this was gambling."
The casino is to junk, and junk is to decay. It may not be as simple as that, but it just might be, considering the novel's downward spiraling plot. And yet, a surge of optimism appears toward the novel's end. That's not to say I had quite a few gripes with the novel. At times, it seemed as if the novel would take a different direction. Take, for example, the character RV. Early in the novel, she is introduced as an activist, leftist sort of person, but then Barthelme decides that the character will be a "typical" teenager girl, whatever that is. RV's introduction seemed like a mistake, not that that matters too much. Another problem, one that I haven't fully articulated yet, is the way in which Barthelme depicts women in this novel. Does his aesthetic fundamentally adhere to an unsettling depiction of women? Leaving this question for another time.
athenalindia's review
3.0
I have a hard time not wanting to shake people who gamble in desperate hopes of hitting it big and sit down and show them the math.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
More...