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puzzled_pagan's review against another edition
4.0
Not at all what I was expecting, but still thoroughly satisfying. Lethem is a master at blending surreal mysticism with realistic and universal truths, and this novel is a fine example of that. Reading about a man being shook to the very core of his being is usually a somber affair, but Lethem found a way to make it odd, funny, and enjoyable.
mnboyer's review
2.0
Book of the Month: November 2016
PopSugar 2018 reading challenge #9
I finished this audiobook, and that was a win for me! I found the characters, especially our main character (who in theory, I wanted to like), annoying, to say the very least. There was a smugness that wafted from the pages. I just could not get drawn into the story.
To be fair: I've never read Lethem before and his fans seem to be hit/miss on their reviews of this novel. That being said, perhaps Lethem's style is one that works for some and not other (not me).
PopSugar 2018 reading challenge #9
I finished this audiobook, and that was a win for me! I found the characters, especially our main character (who in theory, I wanted to like), annoying, to say the very least. There was a smugness that wafted from the pages. I just could not get drawn into the story.
To be fair: I've never read Lethem before and his fans seem to be hit/miss on their reviews of this novel. That being said, perhaps Lethem's style is one that works for some and not other (not me).
bedeker's review
3.0
I've read most of Lethem's novels, and generally have enjoyed his writing. this novel has a good plot, and interesting characters, but some of the details don't get filled in, and at points it feels as if Lethem is tired or bored and just trying to push through to an ending rather than fully developing the plot and characters. It left me feeling slightly disappointed.
elsawhere's review against another edition
Didnt feel engaged and found the character too difficult to listen to
peetan's review
3.0
A book about facades and being a pawn in capitalism
Pros: it kept my interest and made me want to keep reading
The story line is interesting and full of twists
Cons: hard to follow
Super wordy
Sometimes drags on
5.5/10 - I can't say why I liked it but I did
markeefe's review
3.0
A fun bit of light literary fiction (lite lit fic?), this novel about Alexander Bruno--a professional backgammon player with a tumor behind his eye--is entertaining and engaging. Sure, there are some problems with character motivation ... actually, it's pretty unclear why any of these people do what they do. And then there's the issue of Bruno's possible telepathic abilities, which Lethem never seems fully committed to. And why are all the male characters referred to by their last names, but all the females by their first? Since this is told in close third person, does that mean that Alexander Bruno thinks of himself as "Bruno"? Despite all of these issues, and an increasingly happenstantial plot, I found myself swept up in the action, rooting for Bruno all the way.
dllh's review
3.0
A neat idea, and he drew me in with the backgammon (which I knew nothing about and still know very little about), but I agree with a couple of reviews I read after finishing -- it's not a fully realized book, and it doesn't really wind up going much of anywhere. Definitely on the lower half of the Lethem canon for me.
tonythep's review
3.0
After being disappointed by "Dissident Gardens," perhaps for not being quirky enough, and then being encouraged by "Lucky Alan" with all it's quirkiness, I was excited to read the first few chapters of this new novel. I loved Bruno's faded, shabby glamour, the elegance of backgammon combined with the danger of a card shark on the edge of losing it all. Berlin and Singapore kept my interest. I was on board with going back to Berkley, with the side trip into the surgeon's point of view, dealing with one's image of one's self, identity, roots, etc. But somewhere in there things started to unravel. Too many plot threads went nowhere. Ultimately I didn't care about either of the potential romantic interests (although Madchen's story might have made for a more interesting novel.) So I guess I learned that quirkiness alone is not enough. I won't give up on Lethem; he's far too talented. But not this time.
maddyd51's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.75
myhandmadehell's review
5.0
A Gambler's Anatomy may be one long backgammon game. I am not savvy to backgammon strategy though, so I'm going to go with another metaphor: prison.
As a successful and worldly gambler, Alexander Bruno believes himself to be free, having painstakingly and carefully extricated himself from what he viewed as his first "prison": Berkeley, CA, where he lived a difficult and restrictive life with his drug-addled mother. Believing he is free, Bruno travels the world "relieving rich men of their delusions that they are good backgammon players" and raking in dough hand over fist. He often discusses that backgammon is less a game of board strategy but of being able to read your opponent and leap to "double" when signs of hesitation reveal cracks in their bravado. How ironic then when his unexpected and whirlwind experimental tumor recision surgery renders him incapable of facing the world without a mask to hide his new face.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Prison. As a "free man" and professional gambler, Bruno soon realizes that his freedom is only an illusion fueled by his ability to win. When his long lucky streak runs bad, thanks to an effort on his part to "test" his freedom by playing a dream-like, cocaine-and-hamburger-fueled unscheduled game with an old acquaintance, he must win back his losses in an effort to supplicants to his warden, his handler and backer. This ends in disaster when the "blot", a circle of black at the center of his vision, reveals its true nature as a fatal and untreatable tumor.
As the story continues, this seemingly worldly and experienced gambler shows his utter inexperience in the world; he turns out to be surprisingly and painfully naive. Every effort to spread the wings he believes he has ends in a prison transfer. He floats from one prison to another, almost foolishly feeling different types of freedom in each one but never drawing breath as a truly free man.
This book is LOADED with symbolism and could probably be discussed at great length, but I'll end it here. It was funny, painful, tragic, engaging, and classically bizarre in a very Lethem way. It disturbed me on several levels, but I loved every page.
As a successful and worldly gambler, Alexander Bruno believes himself to be free, having painstakingly and carefully extricated himself from what he viewed as his first "prison": Berkeley, CA, where he lived a difficult and restrictive life with his drug-addled mother. Believing he is free, Bruno travels the world "relieving rich men of their delusions that they are good backgammon players" and raking in dough hand over fist. He often discusses that backgammon is less a game of board strategy but of being able to read your opponent and leap to "double" when signs of hesitation reveal cracks in their bravado. How ironic then when his unexpected and whirlwind experimental tumor recision surgery renders him incapable of facing the world without a mask to hide his new face.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Prison. As a "free man" and professional gambler, Bruno soon realizes that his freedom is only an illusion fueled by his ability to win. When his long lucky streak runs bad, thanks to an effort on his part to "test" his freedom by playing a dream-like, cocaine-and-hamburger-fueled unscheduled game with an old acquaintance, he must win back his losses in an effort to supplicants to his warden, his handler and backer. This ends in disaster when the "blot", a circle of black at the center of his vision, reveals its true nature as a fatal and untreatable tumor.
As the story continues, this seemingly worldly and experienced gambler shows his utter inexperience in the world; he turns out to be surprisingly and painfully naive. Every effort to spread the wings he believes he has ends in a prison transfer. He floats from one prison to another, almost foolishly feeling different types of freedom in each one but never drawing breath as a truly free man.
This book is LOADED with symbolism and could probably be discussed at great length, but I'll end it here. It was funny, painful, tragic, engaging, and classically bizarre in a very Lethem way. It disturbed me on several levels, but I loved every page.