The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

The Cardturner
by Louis Sachar

Read: February 20-March 1, 2017
Published: October 11, 2011
Genre: YA Fiction



          The summer after junior year of high school looks bleak for Alton Richards. His girlfriend has dumped him, he has no money and no job, and his parents insist that he drive his great-uncle Lester, who is old, blind, very sick, and very rich, to his bridge club four times a week and be his cardturner.
          But Alton's parents aren't the only ones trying to worm their way into Lester Trapp's good graces. There is Trapp's longtime housekeeper, his alluring young nurse, and the crazy Casteneda family.
          Alton soon finds himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the pretty and shy Toni Castaneda, as he struggles to figure out what it all means, and ultimately to figure out the meaning of his own life. (Amazon)



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Why did you read this book?
I found a hardcover version of this book without a dust jacket while used book shopping. It was very plain, dark blue book with the title in bronze on the spine. What really caught my attention was that the 'a' in Cardturner was the spade symbol. As someone who grew up playing cards, I was naturally drawn to it. I didn't know what it was about, but I wanted it. I actually bought it a few months ago and finally got around to reading it.

What did you like about this book?
I ended up liking this book much more than I thought I would. I found the story to be very compelling. I wanted to keep reading and I wanted to see Trapp play in the nationals and I wanted Alton to earn Trapp's respect and I wanted Toni to see that Cliff is an idiot. I love when I become fully invested in the lives of the characters. Sachar wrote the book in a way that was dry and kind of self-deprecating, but also in a way that was undeniably human. These characters were frustrating and lovable and funny and moody. This book is definitely character and relationship driven, and I loved that. Something that might attribute to that is that it is written in second person. Alton is telling the story to you and it's easy to feel like you actually know him. Another one of my favorite aspects is the fact that this story is intergenerational. Most books that I have encountered in the Young Adult genre feature groups of teenagers with little to no adult presence (which I think is just unrealistic). I really enjoyed the relationship between Alton and Trapp, as well as Alton and Trapp's bridge friends.

What didn't you like about this book?
Bridge. There was so much bridge. While the summary book would like you to think this book is about multiple people competing for an old man's inheritance, that's a lie. This book is about bridge. While it was interesting, the rules and theories and lingo got to be overwhelming at times. Alton was very helpful at indicating when the heaviest bridge instructions appeared in the book, but the whole story was saturating with bridge. I got around it by not trying to understand the many rules and just accept the fact that I wasn't going to learn how to play bridge by reading this book and if I wanted to enjoy the story, I'd just have to skim those parts. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting at first, but there's only so much bridge you can handle when you don't understand it. It was like half of the book was in another language. Also, in the previous paragraph I mentioned intergenerationality. While I loved the portrayal of Alton's generation and Trapp's generation, I found Alton's parents' generation to be lacking. Those characters were very flat and less human than the others. They didn't breathe life into the pages.

Bottom-Line:
I really did enjoy this book. I even enjoyed some of the bridge parts. At the very least, it made me interested to learn how to play bridge. I wouldn't, however, recommend this to anyone who isn't an avid reader or doesn't have a basic knowledge of how to play cards (Setback or euchre, at least). Even though this was young adult and the story wasn't that difficult to read, the amount of bridge can be daunting to someone who isn't fully committed to reading it. Regardless, I enjoyed it and will probably read it again.



"Life will deal me many different hands, some good, some bad (maybe they've already been dealt), but from here on in, I'll be turning my own cards." -The Cardturner by Louis Sachar