Little Casino

The 52 short pieces here cover (mainly) 1940's-1950's Brooklyn. Starting with death, they finish with some of the funniest pieces of paranoid ever. In fact,some could be incredible simply for a stand up comic! Compared to most other "Experimental" fiction, this is really a breezy, at times slightly bizarre, but very accessible and amusing, read. For those who enjoy the old musical "Standards", try to discover how many titles and lines are hiden in these pages! All in all , very worthy and fun read!

Where has Gilbert Sorrentino been all my life? Why have I known about Peter Handke, David Markson, Barry Hannah, Curtis White, and Jeanette Winterson for so long and never heard HIS name before? Truly a major writer of fierce, rich, trenchant prose and a nuanced sense of the absurd, reminiscent of the Samuel Beckett who wrote "Murphy," and also an innovator of Joycean, Sterne-ish, deAssis-ian resources. (Does this mean he is the equal of Joyce? Probably not, but then again, this is my first acquaintance with Sorrentino.) This novel of discontinuous chapters is as memoir-like--a paean to a long-lost Brooklyn--as anything this playful and perverse can be said to be. Not that it is not also a meditation on death and loss. Only a considerable writer can have it both ways. Sorrentino is such, and in me has likely found himself another big fan. Huzzahs!

Sorrentino had eluded me for almost a year. A writing teacher first introduced me to the author with, "The Moon in its Flight," and I fell in love with its metafiction (what with Sorrentino himself commenting on plotting and character development, challenging the reader to see the story for what it is--a story). I went on to try other stuff, but what I tried--"Gold Fools," whose every sentence is a question, and "Pack of Lies," a compendium of three early novellas interrelated, sort of, with recurring characters and circular storylines--left me frustrated."Little Casino," however, is different. An engaging, accessible, and finally wonderful book, it is similar to Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions," only not so cute. Sure, the plot/s is/are hard to comprehend, and some character portraits bleed into others, but the writing is full of wisdom and truthful observation regarding real-life human feelings--love, loathing, excitement, depression, despair. Read it and be glad you've found a way into the mind of a great writer.