A Gambler's Anatomy by Jonathan Lethem (2016)

A professional backgammon player confronts a medical challenge that changes his life.

Book Review: A Gambler's Anatomy was my first Jonathan Lethem, so I really don't know the tropes when it comes to his writing. There may be patterns or influences I'm unaware of, and I went into this completely blind. The main character, Alexander Bruno (also called Bruno Alexander, which I assume is a typo, among others) travels his arc as a backgammon player through three ever more controlling overseers, meets two beautiful and mysterious women, undergoes extreme (and graphically described) surgery, rediscovers a hidden ability, loses everything, and finally reaches a point of stasis. Our gambler is played by the rest of the cast as he played his backgammon opponents, and other characters are doubled in his mind as bets are doubled in backgammon. A little knowledge of backgammon will be helpful, though probably not necessary. Although the plot of A Gambler's Anatomy depended on incredible coincidences, Lethem's writing is entertaining and compelling; I read this quite quickly at thriller speed. He seems a straighter, less humorous, version of Thomas Pynchon, as he name checks Bix Beiderbecke, Flashman, Magister Ludi, Jimi Hendrix, the Big Lebowski, Abraham Polonsky, Lawrence of Arabia, the Alexander Technique, Baader-Meinhof, Bakunin (plus many more) and flashes vocabulary such as catamite, panopticon, zaftig ... the book's cast are better read and more knowledgeable than they have any right to be. I found A Gambler's Anatomy interesting and irresistible until about two thirds through when the plot began to come apart, loose ends from earlier in the book unraveled further, and I was no longer sure what or why I was reading until it wrapped up neatly, as I'd expected it to several times before. While reading I was reminded of several other books, most notably Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. A good read, interesting (loved Lethem's descriptions of the backgammon games) and well written, but toward the end it all became careless as though the book's purpose had been lost or the author's interest had wandered. [3½★]