The Gambler

I recently finished reading William Krasner's standalone, THE GAMBLER. Originally published in 1950 by Harper, the edition I used was the Harper Classic Mystery reissue put out in 1978. Krasner is best know for his Detective Capt. Sam Birge series. The debut title in 1949, WALK THE DARK STREETS, garnered an Edgar nomination for Best First Novel. Krasner was once called "film noir on the page" and after finishing THE GAMBLER, I'd agree. The light and shadow imagery he uses in scenes is detailed and descriptive. I liked it. The noir elements ooze off the pages. Ben Wulfson, a small-time craps dealer, has a dysfunctional romance with the pale, sickly Alice. And that's cheerful part of the book. A St. Louis native and WW II vet, Krasner died a few years ago from a heart attack in Pennsylvania. He brought out several books in the 1980s. Anthony Boucher was a big fan. Krasner has to be one of those noir pioneer writers lost in the turn of the century.

The title character of The Gambler is Ben Wulfson, a professional gambler and a not very honest one at that. The novel's third person narration begins with Ben returning to his hometown after an eight year absence. This is a dark, gritty noirish tale that explores the life of a very imperfect individual as he compulsively orchestrates his own downfall with a pattern of self destructive behavior. Friendless, alienated from his own family and carrying a very large chip on his shoulder, Ben is a disaster waiting to happen. Along the way, he meets a girl named Alice, beautiful, vulnerable and harboring secrets of her own. Will his love for Alice bring about a transformation in Ben's life or will she merely serve as another target for his misguided lashing out at society? Krasner has written this novel using a very interesting style. To make sure he captures the grittiness of the story, he describes the physical backdrop of each scene in microscopic detail. On page after page the reader learns exactly how light hits various surfaces so as to bring out surprising patterns and textures. How motes of dust react to pressure changes when a door is opened. The exact distribution of dirt and cobwebs in a room that needs a good cleaning. This degree of detail is present throughout the book. While a certain amount of descriptive detail is welcome and in fact quite necessary, Krasner has unfortunately gone way overboard. The almost compulsive need to describe every last morsel of dirt and dust is excessive and commits the unforgiveable literary sin of drawing undue attention to itself. Had the author held his descriptive urges in check, the book could easily have been one third shorter. The Gambler is a worthwhile read for fans of noir. It has vivid characters, interesting dialogue and a gripping, unapologetically downbeat story to tell. But the stylistic choice to describe inconsequential things to the nth degree detracts from the book's readability and hence its overall appeal. Despite that criticism, I enjoyed The Gambler well enough to give it a 4 star rating.