Frederick Barthelme’s BOB THE GAMBLER
On the heels of mentioning the poker fiction in the latest issue of Hobart, it occurred to me that maybe people would be interested in some other fiction poker books. It’s pretty hard to find good writing on gambling but there are two off the top of my head that are killer reads, both literarily and in the mind of gambling, both worth checking out.
The first is BOB THE GAMBLER, by Frederick Barthelme, which is named after the French movie about a gambler, Bob Le Flambeur. This book is set in the South and follows a married guy who is obsessed with gambling and spends all his time and money in Biloxi, obsessively piledriving the cash into the floor.
The book is written really well, as is F. Barthelme’s want, a semi-minimalist from the South with a good eye for humor, and he gets the obsessive and grueling edge of gambling addiction really well. It’s a great quick read and worth your time.
