The Handmaid's Tale

First of all, it is not the Handmaiden's Tale. Handmaid, it is. Many will be familiar with either the film or the television series. But Margaret Atwood is just too good of a writer to not get the full force of the story in the original.

From the Bibliophile's Devotional for June 10th:

"In this rich story of a dystopian future, the Republic of Gilead is an oppressive, underpopulated, Christian theocracy ruled by men. Right-wing fundamentalist set up the repressive state in the 1980s (the novel was published in 1986) after murdering the U.S. president and members of Congress. It is a bleak place. Women have been disenfranchised and are prevented from working or having money or learning to read. Homosexuals, jews, old women, and nonwhites have been sent to the Colonies to clean up toxic waste.

This cautionary tale is celebrated for its gorgeous prose and controversial for its forthright feminism. Atwood reminds the reader that all of the horrifying ways in which women are oppressed in this novel have been played out in history."

Molly's Game (Book Review)

Bloggers at times get asked to do reviews based on their content. Long, long time ago, this blog was devoted to professional poker. But it's been awhile since I've been asked to review a poker-related book. So regular readers be forewarned, thar be some poker ahead.

Molly's Game is a breezy summer read. As the tagline says: "From Hollywood-elite to Wall Street's billionaire boy's club, my high-stakes adventures in the world of underground poker." Molly Bloom is, was or portents to have been the young lady who ran several high stakes poker games on both coasts.

Why "portents?" Because, although the names and dates synch-up for this to be a work of non-fiction; at times the literary gloss is just too shiny to ring completely true. But first, the good news.

Many of the negative reviews of this book harp on the lifestyles of the rich, famous and degenerate players in Molly's game. Those critiques are fairly shallow. I mean it's not like the promotional blurbs didn't make it clear what the story was about. If you don't want to read about certain aspects of a culture, than don't. But critiquing after the fact that the players were rich and amoral is like calling politicians low-life, lying scum. I mean who doesn't know that?

The story is told well, almost too breezy at times to even be a 'beach read.' But Molly Bloom and her editor know how to keep the story moving and still allow for a break to take a dip in the pool or the poolside bar.

My problems with the story center on the poker. How and when the choices were made to explain or not a specific poker term seems arbitrary. Certainly, the main storyline was about the players and not the game, but when action at the table was described it often showed a lack of poker knowledge. Just a bit of research or using a poker savvy editor would have easily caught a couple of glaring errors. For example, no poker player 'folds the nuts' because he was talked out of his hand by another player. 'The nuts' refers to the best hand possible, a hand that can't be beat.

All in all, an interesting read if you don't break out in a PC-inspired rash when rich, careless people are the subjects of the story. Poker players will have to hold their tongues over some lazy descriptions of the game but otherwise I give Molly's Game a just slightly less than tumid thumbs up.

Molly's Game is available in all formats (hard, soft, audio, kindle) from Amazon.