Books are a wonderful way for coworkers and friends to share experiences, even when we’re miles, states, and countries apart. Hearing about what someone is reading is like taking a 5-minute vacation. Each week, one Piper team member will answer the question, “What are you reading?” and take you on a well-deserved, 5-minute vacation.
This week Kris is reading The Ballad of a Small Player by Lawrence Osborne.
“…I half expected to find that the whole thing was a hallucination or a ghost story.”
KRIS SAYS…
It’s the story of Doyle, a disgraced Englishman on the lam, who is compulsively gambling away what remains of a large and ill-gotten fortune in the seedy glamor of Macau’s casinos. The book blurb makes it sound like Leaving Las Vegas, but despite some similar plot points, The Ballad of a Small Player feels much more like a Graham Greene novel—quiet and proper and buttoned up and guilt-ridden. Everything is so nocturnal and hidden away in the alternate reality of casino architecture that I half expected to find that the whole thing was a hallucination or a ghost story.
AMAZON DESCRIPTION
As night falls on Macau and the neon signs that line the rain-slick streets come alive, Doyle — “Lord Doyle” to his fellow players — descends into his casino of choice to try his luck at the baccarat tables that are the anchor of his current existence. A corrupt English lawyer who has escaped prosecution by fleeing to the East, Doyle spends his nights drinking and gambling and his days sleeping off his excesses, continually haunted by his past. Taking refuge in a series of louche and dimly lit hotels, he watches his fortune rise and fall as the cards decide his fate.
In a moment of crisis he meets Dao-Ming, an enigmatic Chinese woman who appears to be a denizen of the casinos just like himself, and seems to offer him salvation in the form of both money and love. But as Doyle attempts to make a rare and true connection, all that he accepts as reality seems to be slipping from his grasp.
Resonant of classics by Dostoevsky and Graham Greene, The Ballad of a Small Player is a timeless tale steeped in eerie suspense and rich atmosphere.
HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Tell Kris what you thought in the blog comments below!
