Book club book. Very popular. Had to request it from my library as interlibrary loan.
When I opened the fly leaf after getting it and read that this is the author's first non-fiction book and he's usually a fiction writer, I thought, 'Maybe I'll check out some of his fiction after reading this book'.
I'm not going to read any of his fiction. If he constructs a fictional story the way he constructs a non-fiction narrative, I will be bored to tears. I realize that sometimes when you're working with non-fictional material it's difficult to craft it into a narrative that people might want to follow. Sometimes it might not lend itself well to story telling.
But if you feel that the way to keep readers reading is to constantly hint that things might not turn out all rosy in the end, over and over and over again, well, then you're just not a very good storyteller.
Of course I know it's not going to turn out 'alright' in the end - if the MIT students that this book is written about were still fleecing Vegas casinos at the blackjack tables, well, they wouldn't be telling the world about it now, would they? That would give away their secrets and provide too much competition.
Now I'm not an expert in non-fiction prose - my work is primarily in fiction - but since when did it become necessary for the non-fiction writer to become an apologist? Over and over again, Mezrich defends card-counting as not cheating. Fine, great, if that's what you believe, great! But whether it's cheating or not should not get in the way of a good story. I'm willing to read about cheaters if it means I'm reading a good story. Hell, some of the best works of fiction I've read are told from the perspective of murderers and thieves. I don't need to condone the actions of the character in order to like the story.
But you have to be able to tell a good story! This is not a good story. It's interesting, true, but not in the I-can't-put-it-down kind of way, nor the all-my-friends-have-to-read-this-book kind of way. But, now I've read it and when the book club meets, I'll see if anyone can provide me with arguments to redeem it. For now, I'm sorry I spent time reading it.