Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss

Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss
by Frederick and Steven Barthelme

Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss
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Book Summary Information

Author: Frederick and Steven Barthelme
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-05-21
ISBN: 0156010704
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Harvest Books

Book Reviews of Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss

Book Review: Very Interesting
Summary: 4 Stars

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!

Summary of Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss

Double Down is a true story, a terrifying roller-coaster ride deep into the heart of two men, and into the world of floating Gulf Coast casinos. When both of their parents died within a short time of each other, the writers Frederick and Steven Barthelme, both professors of English in Mississippi, inherited a goodly sum of money. What followed was a binge during which they gambled away their entire fortune-and more. And then, in a cruel twist of fate, they were charged with cheating at the tables.

Told with a mixture of sadness and wry humor, and with a compelling look at the physical aura of gambling-the feel of the cards, the smell of the crowd, the sounds of the tables-Double Down is a reflection on the lure of challenging the odds, the attraction of stepping into the void. A cautionary tale (the brothers were eventually exonerated), it is a book that, once read, will never be forgotten.

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