King of a Small World

The number of great poker novels can be counted on the fingers of no hand. If this effort by Rick Bennet is the best one out there, the field remains wide open for a talented writer to exploit. Bennet gets points for realism (he is a poker player), but realism isn't enough. Paradoxically, too much authenticity -- as in his reams of routine dialogue ("Hey, what's up?" I ask. "My ex there?" "Yeah." "Damn, man. How did she find me?") -- can ruin a novel as easily as too much imagination. The characters never come to life. For that a novelist needs to intensify reality, not merely duplicate it.