The Cardturner

Louis Sachar (author)

Bloomsbury, UK: Australian release August 2011; 352pp

ISBN: 978140880851

Genres: realistic fiction

Issues: family, friendship, values

Alton's ex-girlfriend is now dating his best mate; his father's job is in jeopardy; the pool in the backyard hasn't got past the hole-in-the-ground stage and probably won't. All in all the summer holiday is looking pretty bleak.

Being conscripted to drive his irascible (and recently blind) great-uncle Trapp to his games of bridge four times a week and act as his cardturner doesn't do anything to ameliorate Alton's feeling that the world is out to make his life miserable. But his uncle is extraordinarily wealthy and Alton's mother sees an opportunity for Alton to improve their family's chances in The Will, especially as there is Competition.

The competition takes the form of a very attractive not-really-a-cousin, Toni Castaneda. Alton isn't quite sure how he feels about Toni – or about his uncle, for that matter – despite his mother's strong and vocal opinions. Alton soon finds himself learning far more about bridge than he realised he needed to know. And then there's the family history. Can Alton learn the truth behind all that dinner table gossip? Associating with his uncle soon teaches Alton more about his own talents and choices than he's learnt in all the years with his parents. He's just not sure that they're things he wanted to know. Will he ever be in a position to stand up for himself? Sufficiently confident to think for himself, form his own opinions, make independent choices?

Louis Sachar (Holes; Someday, Angeline) is an extremely talented writer and probably the only one who would dare embed so much instructional writing in a novel for teenagers. An avid bridge player himself, Sachar has somehow managed to convey the fascination with numbers, patterns and rules of play that are the daily bread of the bridge tragic. By creating Alton, a somewhat disillusioned teenager, Sachar has given the reader a character whose attitude towards bridge is probably much like their own – the perception that it's an 'old people's game'. Sachar cleverly creates an 'out' for readers who are simply not interested in the complexities of bridge as Alton comes to understand them, by using a whale (Moby Dick) 'warning' sign. Readers who aren't prepared to attempt the long explanation are given a three to five line text box summary and can then head straight back to the narrative.

Such is Sachar's skill that, while probably only a few readers will understand the bridge rules Alton outlines, most will absorb his burgeoning enthusiasm for the game and his growing respect for his great-uncle's skill. The increasingly complicated relationships between characters, the decisions that they make and those which are forced upon them, echo the games of bridge that are the setting against which much of the narrative takes place. The reader finishes the novel with the impression that, for Great-uncle Trapp (and possibly the author), life is a bridge game, just with people instead of cards. Multiple narrative threads and interesting characters mean that even readers who have no understanding of bridge will enjoy this subtle, clever novel.

Worth reading twice. And don't be surprised if you find yourself looking around for someone who's interested in helping you learn to play bridge, which was no doubt Sachar's intention!