YARBOROUGH

by B.H. Friedman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 1964

A yarborough, as all bridge players know, is a ""nothing hand"" without trace cards or values, which is applied here to the short life of Arthur Skelton, a prodigy at 6 and a championship contender at 16. Actually however he holds a lot of cards: he's brilliant, wealthy, personable. And he likes to play other games which finds him, before he's in college (Columbia, so he doesn't have to commute to the Cavendish club), messing around with prostitutes, marihuana and a little azz. This all was a considerable part of Mr. Friedman's fist novel about the vant garde art world- Cricles (Fleet-1962). Anyway Arthur and his partner Henry Rosen are seen as they move in and around New York, winning even though he's not really competing, touched only at one point by the suicide of one of his girls, and finally dying just as meaninglessly at 29 (an accident). Actually what has been proved (with a little help from The Tibetan Book of the Dead) is that life is the only game he can't win since the choice is between losing and not playing... The publishers make a comparison with Camus. They're overbidding the hand. This is no more than a very verbal, hot, cool entertainment which should find Kerouwacky kibitzers even though they won't take him as seriously.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION