#28 of 2012: The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
For a YA novel that deals with a non-teenagey plot, this book did fairly well. Alton Richard, the 17-year-old protagonist that played as cardturner to his bridge genius Uncle Lester, was easily likeable, which was an important thing for me since the whole story was written from his perspective alone. With that, I could see how Louis Sachar minded the balance between character and plot. But there were also boring times, to be honest, but that would be because Alton launched bridge talk sporadically and to people who haven’t got much interest over complicated card games like me, those chapter breaks (preceded by a picture as a warning, see Yay!s) sometimes made me turn over onto the next page. I know, I’m such a disappointment - a chance to learn how to play bridge and I threw half the knowledge away! The thing is, (YES THERE’S A REASON, AND A GOOD ONE, AT THAT) there’s much more interesting things happening in the story that I wanted to find out about already - like if Toni, Uncle Lester’s former cardturner, and Alton had something going there, who Annabel King truly was, whether Uncle Lester was going to go to THE FINALS (of course, there’s no question about his making it - he’s a freaking genius at it!), etc. - only that all these bridge sessions were getting in the way!
Yay!s
-If you’re into bridge, then THIS IS DEF THE BOOK FOR YOU!
-Every character had its important role to play! Don’t you just hate it when some other stories mention this certain person and s/he never comes up again in the next pages?? Well, you won’t get that with this book! (Katie, Alton’s ex-girlfriend snagged by his best friend Cliff, didn’t get much spotlight but if you read much into her ~exposures, then you’ll be able to somehow relate how important that connection with her is to Alton…. Then again, maybe not…)
-Before Alton would yap about bridge, there would be a picture of a whale (read book for the reference). That would be your cue to skip paragraphs and get on with the main plot. Wish more books had this!! Time is gold, y’all.
-Uncle Lester, or Trapp to Alton, has got some intriguing back story (see: romance) here!!
Boo!
-If you’re NOT into bridge, then… turn around and walk away.
