Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Devil's Tickets


A night of bridge, a fatal hand, and a new American age, by Gary M. Pomerantz.


Quickie Recap: Two couples - first, Ely and Jo, who become celebrities through their thrilling bridge playing and their pioneering of the system, and then Jack and Myrtle, whose marriage is as troubled as their bridge game, until a passionate game has fatal results.

Quickie Review: Is it weird that I really liked this? Yes, it's about bridge. But it's also about the time, the politics, the depression, the emancipation of women, and it's oddly titillating. Both couples followed in the story and worthy of our attention, and the author does a very good job of showing how their lives intertwined even if they never met. It's hard for me to imagine a card game meaning so much that I might fire bullets into my spouse's chest, but Pomerantz does an awesome job of painting a picture of a period when this was unreasonable, yes, but not unimagineable.
Quickie recommendation: Fascinating.

1 comment:

Lorna said...

Hmmmm; I was completely surprised by your reaction. I was, of course, judging a book by its virtual cover.