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Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss have 461 words, post on at May 17, 2009. This is cached page on USA Breaking News. If you want remove this page, please contact us.
Either the authors were very brave for opening up to the world about their horrible gambling addiction, or they found a way to re-coup their losses by writing this book. At any rate, this book was a wonderful story that explains how a person can be \\”normal\\” one day, then suddenly fall into the grips of casino \\”gaming.\\” What was amazing to me is the fact that both brothers were involved equally, and essentially gambled as a team. The story weaves back and forth between the family life of these two men, and their obsession with casino gambling, attempting to make sense of it all. They don’t stop until their inheritance is completely gone,then are acused of cheating. For anyone who has visited a casino, their description of the lure of the bright lights, being treated like royality, making friends, \\”earning\\” free luxury rooms, meals, prizes, having someone to talk to, laugh with, etc is right on. They did a good job of explaining how the staff interacts with the patrons, and how one can \\”zone out\\” in a casino in an attempt to fell like an innocent child again. I felt the book was well written, and flowed. It is a MUST READ for anyone who has ever thought of visiting a casino, and for anyone who regularly visits one. They could not have said it plainer – the casino’s are not there to GIVE you money, but to TAKE your money. Visiting again and again will not allow you to win back large amounts of lost money, nor will it take you back to a time in your life that was fun and comfortable.
The double-authorship of the Barthelme brothers makes their recounting of their addictive past with gambling provides for a fascinating memoir. At first glance, this book may seem to be merely a pop-fiction story, but the journey these two brothers goes through is deep and many-faceted.
I read this book as a required text for a college course on American culture, and how society views luck and chance. The book worked well as our final text, but it can also be read for entertainment! At times, it reminded me of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing (with the obscene amounts of drugs). Definitely a book to read, and then pass on to a friend!
Excellent! A wonderfully entertaining story, beautifully told. The only problem, I wish it had gone another 100 pages! This is one of those stories you wish someone would develop into a screenplay for a movie!
Final thoughts: BUY THIS BOOK! You wont be disappointed!
First, the obvious: neither Barthelme brother would have cushy college-teaching jobs had not their eldest brother, Donald, been a trendy post-modernist icon. The younger brother, Steven B., has managed to publish exactly one (1) book of short stories; Rick, the larger, plumper one, has some sort of gossamer reputation among those who like trailer-park fiction. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of better writers with better qualifications who would kill and maim with gleeful abandon for jobs at Southern Mississippi — and who would devote themselves to those jobs, and to their students, rather than run off two or three times a week to squander Daddy’s money at the blackjack tables [disclaimer: the undersigned thinks she is one of those "better writers"]. That said, this slender volume does indeed fascinate: I read it straight through in five hours, and so will most readers of a literary bent. The brothers B. have in fact done me a service, one years of shrink visits and antidepressants have failed to do — in one stroke, they have made me glad, glad, glad that I abandoned the academy, failed to obtain a Ph.D., and find myself teaching high school English thirty years after my Iowa fiction MFA. Theirs is a cautionary tale, of what may happen to smart people with minimal reality contact and few, if any, day-to-day responsibilities. The cavernous lack of common-sense knowledge they display in their forays to the Gulf Coast casinos would be inconceivable to anyone who’s punched a clock or handled an insurance claim. They are actually surprised to find that casinos have a corporate identity! Gee, they thought those people were their friends … gahh! As for the dead father they apparently despised, I felt sorry for D. Barthelme Sr. His hard work, his habits of deep thinking and attention to detail, become monstrosities in the ham-hands of his two youngest sons, who in fifty-plus years on this planet have not managed to obtain perspective one. The book is good — the descriptions of gambling’s intoxications, the minute processing of each foolish and silly and self-deluding thought as it arises, are executed with consummate skill — and yet one can’t help concluding, as the memoir shrinks down upon itself into a puddle of anticlimax, that six months or so in prison would have been good for these men, taught them a painful life-lesson or two. Crucial to an understanding of the brothers’ plight is the fact that neither Barthelme bothered to have children, thus giving themselves the right to be babies forever. They are not so much perpetual adolescents as they are pre-pubescent (wife and girlfriend notwithstanding), mired forever in Fiftiesland where, if you want to be a cowboy, you just put on the hat and yell, "Bang-bang!" They are not intellectual — or accomplished — enough for the ivory-tower defense they so quickly assume; what they are, are second- and third-tier journeymen blessed with a famous name and a glib ability to sling the relativist Crisco. While one may end up wishing Barthelme Sr., who unlike his sons appeared to be able to distinguish right from wrong, had willed his inheritance somewhere else, this reviewer is grateful for the folly of his heirs. A job at Southern Mississippi may be gravy, but that thin gruel isn’t nourishing. Real life is the real meat.good — the descriptions of gambling’s intoxications, the minute processing of each foolish and silly and self-deluding thought as it arises, are executed with consummate skill — and yet one can’t help concluding, as the memoir shrinks down upon itself into a puddle of anticlimax, that six months or so in prison would have been good for these men, taught them a painful life-lesson or two. Crucial to an understanding of the brothers’ plight is the fact that neither Barthelme bothered to have children, thus giving themselves the right to be babies forever. They are not so much perpetual adolescents as they are pre-pubescent (wife and girlfriend notwithstanding), mired forever in Fiftiesland where, if you want to be a cowboy, you just put on the hat and yell, "Bang-bang!" They are not intellectual — or accomplished — enough for the ivory-tower defense they so quickly assume; what they are, are second- and third-tier journeymen blessed with a famous name and a glib ability to sling the relativist Crisco. While one may end up wishing Barthelme Sr., who unlike his sons appeared to be able to distinguish right from wrong, had willed his inheritance somewhere else, this reviewer is grateful for the folly of his heirs. A job at Southern Mississippi may be gravy, but that thin gruel isn’t nourishing. Real life is the real meat.
Double Down is a terrific book about loss. Frederick and Steve Barthelme are brothers who moved to Mississippi to become college professors. They come from a very close knit family, and when it is unwoven from the death of their Mother and Father, a gambling addiction is triggered. Steve and Frederick become regulars at The Grand, a local casino, and they start going at least once a week and spending the whole night there all the way into early morning. After blowing all of their inheritance from their parents, they are acussed of cheating. They were indicted and charged with a felony, and forever kicked out of their favorite casino. This didn’t stop their gambling addiction, however it did slow it down. They make fewer trips, to another casino and are less intense gamblers.
The book was well written and for the most part it kept my attention. Some parts they seemed to ramble off about their parents and family, and it gets slow. The accounts of their gambling binges keep you wanting more. They know they should stop, but keep throwing their money in anyway. I recommend this to everyone who is intrested in gambling.
Double Down, a book about two brothers who discover the world of gambling, has the suspense and drama needed for a good gambling story. The two brothers, who happen to be respectable college professors, move down South to Mississippi to be around their parents. The family, which has drifted apart through the years, has come together for their parent’s final years. Soon after their dad die’s, the inheritance money starts burning a hole in the brother’s pockets. Riverboat gambling puts out the fire. The wild ride lasts for two years, until the Casino accuses them of cheating. Through it all, the brother’s learn about themselves, family, and why people do the things they do.
An interesting book for anyone who’s ever been addicted, especially to gambling. This work has a major weakness, the lack of an ending, satisfactory or otherwise. The idea that gambling addicts could spend as much time at the casinos as they say they did and not shortchange their employer and students, doesn’t ring true. Also, there is no indication that either brother kept a detailed diary during their gambling sprees. The details, amounts, conversations, they supposedly recall for the book are suspect. Still, Double Down is a decent read. The brothers, however, were about the easiest pickings ever to enter a den of gambling. They learned surprisingly little about how to gamble. There is a bookshelf full of better books on the gambling life than this one. For example,Anthony Holden’s Big Deal, Andy Bellin’s Poker Nation, Jesse May’s Shut Up and Deal, Ben Mezrich’s Bring Down the House.
This book is almost totally about growing up, father, mother and the two messed up brothers. It you are into psychological stuff like that, this book rates 5 stars. On the other hand, if you want an entertaining read about gambling, this book rates 1 star. So I give it 3 stars. This book is depressing.
"We’re better situated than most people. We’ve got good jobs. We had some extra money. It was disposable income in some sort of almost cartoonish sense, and we disposed of it. Most people, I suspect, don’t have that luxury. A lot of people, even if they lose a little money, probably could have put that money to use in their lives in a way their lives needed." -Frederick Barthelme
This is no tragedy or eye-opening story on the evils of gambling. If you want those meet me in Vegas! haha…
These guys are just plain BAD gamblers. They claim to have read all the books on Blackjack and understand how to count cards to gain a small advantage over the house yet they find playing that way to be boring. They call themselves "above average" players but tell us they often take insurance bets. Even partial knowledge of basic strategy would keep an "above average" player from making this bet. They have no concept of money management and often spent hours chasing their losses with larger bets just trying to get back to even. And SLOTS??? jeezus! Knowing slots are a poor gaming choice these brothers still sunk thousands of dollars into them often hitting jackpots only to lose it all back by stepping up to the next denomination of machine. One brother won 130,000 in slot jackpots in one year and still lost several thousand on slots for the year.
Their tales of gambling are pretty boring and can be witnessed every day by visiting a casino near you. Their addiction is that they like to have a good time and have the money to do it.
The charges brought against them were pretty silly. The casino has tapes showing a dealer possibly giving signals on when to take insurance or not to. There were 50 something hands over 2 nights in question and we didn’t get a detailed break down on the hands but when the casino finally pulled them off the table they were down several thousand dollars. So they are not only bad gamblers but possibly bad cheaters as well. I don’t think there was probably any real threat of conviction. It did not scare them enough to stop gambling, they simply moved to another casino. They still gamble today. Awhile back an interviewer wanted to see them in action and he certainly did. 17,000 dollars lost over a few hours.
Anyway, it is a quick read. Pretty unremarkable story. I read it on the plane to pass time. The money spent on this book would be better spent at your local casino. Hang out by the cash machine. Wait for some sad sack to pull out his last 20.00… buy him a drink and listen to his story!
The authors, two writer brothers who teach at the same university, slipped into a gambling fever, losing a quarter million dollars in the years following their aged parents’ deaths. This is a lucid, compelling book: the sense of addiction, the timeless, weird feeling one gets when gambling, is brought vividly to life. There’s also some measure of self-analysis: the brothers conclude that guilt and grief fueled their two-day-long losing sprees, and they appear to aptly judged themselves. They are falsely and bizarrely accused of cheating the casino (they lose thousands in the night they’re accused); their description of the indictment and booking, their sudden notoriety and helplessness at the indifferent, lying corporation that is the casino, is a scarily real morality tale. On the minus side, the book does engage in a bit too much of this analysis; it gets repetitive. Also, they drop the story of their indictment too early, leaving the conclusion (dismissal of the charges on the DA’s request) unexplained.
…I think what sets Double Down apart from other fall from grace stories, though, is the style in which it’s written. The authors mingle third and first person writing in a very effective way. It really feels like they’re both writing every bit of their story together at the same time. And while the prose is not as thick with visual and emotional detail as you usually find in modern novels, that lends it a dreamlike quality that works well with the themes of pretending and avoiding that run all through it.
There’s no catharsis, no figuring out of anything at any sort of life-changing level, but the book sticks with you…One star short of 5 only because it seems like a 5-star book should give you a something more than an impression to take away with you.
I agree with most everyone else’s arguments that this book was disappointing due to too much family history and the lack of a conclusion to their conflict, i.e., their legal trouble. I won’t bother to comment further since these points have already been discussed.
My big problem with the book is also the oppressive lack of any sort of humor. Yes, the book is subtitled "Reflections on Gambling and Loss," a serious title indeed, but anyone who has spent any time at a blackjack table knows that playing is supplemented with playful banter between the dealer and the players and even between the players themselves. If you’ve been in a casino, you’ve seen the characters and know they are ripe for humorous discussion. The casino is a theater of the absurd, and it was disappointing that the brothers did not exploit that facet of the gambling experience in their memoir. Also, I find it terribly ironic that we’re told how humor was part of the family’s repertoire of communication and coping skills, and that part of the brothers’ distaste for the academy was due to its inhabitants taking themselves so seriously, yet they inject none of their self-described sense of humor into their narrative and end up sounding just like the very stodgy boring academics that they abhor. Even Dostoevsky, who the brothers apparently admire, could manage to make his readers laugh despite his weighty themes. It would have been a much better book if they had done the same.
I’ve not ever bashed anyone in a review before, mainly because I’ve been lucky in my selections. This books summary content piqued my interest enough to buy it. I’m not at all satisfied after having read it. I too am a blackjack player and have been in "deep", so to speak, for 4 years. So going into the book, I felt I might be able to relate to these guys or enjoy a frightening inside look at the "fever" as I like to call it. Not so… In addition to being an unfinished tale, it also alludes to far too much family history. The most annoying element of the book is that these guys approach gambling with no value for money. They accept losses without affect. Yes, losing is a gambling reality, but these guys are not affected by it in the least. In some weird mindless way, these guys somehow used gambling their inheritance as a catharsis for their shortcomings as sons after their parents death. They sometimes talk about winning and losing and trying to come out even for the night as an objective… but there’s no real PASSION behind their finances. In one clarifying moment of the book, they identify the "action" … just having a bet on the table as a "high" which drove them. That is something more of us can relate to… action of any sort can feed the flames… but the sickening part of their story is just how little money had to do with any of it. As I said, I too am a gambler. Sports and blackjack. And I am in another world when I have a bankroll to play with. A good gambling run means my girlfriend can go shopping for "free". A great run means we might go on a "free" vacaction, or buy something we’ve targeted as important. The higher plateau they never reached was walking away a winner….quitting while ahead during a session and enjoying the casino’s money. If THAT’s not even a consideration before they sit down to play, then what’s the point?!? For intelligent gamblers, losing is a reality we have to learnto deal with … but playing to lose or without considering enjoying a win…. that’s just despressing. They admit to buying a "feeling of belonging" in the casino with their losses. That’s just gross! And as for their deceased parents they so often allude too, It’s not so much the gambling action that would offend them.. its the authors blaise attitude towards the VALUE of the inheritance. If the money had ANY value to them, they would describe the despair of losing as much as they did. Money just didn’t matter. Who can relate to that??? I doubt many readers/gamblers view money in that regard. What kind of gambler is that anyway? The book’s not really about gambling. It’s about weakness and oblivion. These guys are just very weak with no real fortitude.
I have been wanting to read this book for over a year and was waiting for the paperback. I devoured it in a couple of days. This book offers the advantage of being authored by two prolific writers with an excellent command of the language. I have read some of their fiction – ironically, also dealing with gambling. The book offers a peak into their family of origin and the roots of their addiction. It takes you inside the casinos which is a great trip since no cameras are ever allowed in there. We have a real feel of the roller coaster ride of winning and losing which the brothers explain do not feel all that different. We understand that there is no way to figure out how the cards will come up – anyone who thinks he or she can do that is really hooked. How did their wife/girlfriend forgive them for blowing this small fortune? Where were they in all of this? Not all gambling addicts get involved in lawsuits but this experience offered more insight into the terror of addiction. A must read for any family or individual involved in any way with addictive behavior. Thanks for letting me share.
This is the memoir of two brothers who gamble away their inheritance at Gulf Coast casinos. Their descent into addiction is both unfortunate and pathetic. Their lives unraveld with the roll of a dice. Often repititious, sometimes sluggish, and certainly not the kind of flowing prose one would expect from two men now employed as college writing instructors.
This is an intriguing look at the pitfalls of obsessive gambling, yet the book doesn’t include as much gambling-specific descriptions as you might expect, or want. Rather, the book tends to focus on more of the psychological and familial events that exacerbated the brothers’ gambling behavior. The is more an examination of how they came to be compulsive gamblers, instead of an in-depth examination of the actual gambling and the ramifications of gambling on their lives and families. The wives always appear only briefly in the background, and while you understand they are definitely *not* fans of the gambling, the authors never delve into the issues the gambling raised in their families (i.e. was there ever a problem with groceries, the kids’ school tuition, the mortgage?).
Over the course of two years, the Barthelme brothers lose nearly a quarter million dollars on the Mississippi riverboats. To top that off, they end up charged with attempting to defraud their favorite casino.
The writing is fluid and insightful. Most books with multiple authors are somewhat jagged in the switching voices of the writers — yet that is not the case here. The brothers write with a unified voice, and their experience as published authors is very apparent in their writing technique. This background helps to make this a more accessible non-fiction book to read. I rarely read non-fiction, and was wary about this one, and it was a very pleasant surprise to discover this is a deft and extremely well written book. Recommended.
This is good reading for anyone curious about the psychology of gambling. It provides a haunting, fascinating description of how two people almost ruined themselves as a reaction to the death of their parents. But it is also strangely sad and infurating. The saddest thing about this book is not that the authors were problem gamblers and lost tons of money. The saddest thing about the book is that, though they no longer gamble, the authors still hold the very set of beliefs that pushed them into gambling. Their own interpretation of their past addiction is that they used it to avoid what they now still regard as the "fact" that life is nothing but a dreary sequence of dreary chores, unless you are part of a close family of origin, or have children of your own. There is something very condenscending about this claim – insulting to those of us who find other valuable things in life besides genetic ties (after all here are people who have neither parents nor children and who still find life valuable, why, even fun sometimes!). . One wonders how the authors’ wives feel about a book that makes it look like they count so little in the lives of their husbands. In short, judging by the book, I prefer the authors’ past seleves – cheerful, witty, irresponsible gamblers- over their present selves – two terminally sad fairly priviledged people who, instead of fighting their depression, cultivate it, believing it to be a sign of a deep insight into some dark heart of reality which the rest of us shallow people just don’t get Frankly, I am not convinced. I cannot totally condemn the reader who feels a wicked urge to say, "look, I know it’s very hard to lose one’s parents, even if the parents lived to an old age and died of natural causes, but you know, it happens to all of us, and it was long ago. Isn’t it time to move on just a bit?".