THE LOSER

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1968

A mercilessly explicit account of the agonies of a compulsive gambler, akin to the rasping total recall of similar first person case histories. Son of a ""living legend,"" Coach Hoffman of a Jesuit school in Wisconsin, young Bill was an excellent student. . . and you know the rest: law school, job, wife and children. Then came the urge to make it big, bring the fantasy world into a just Ordinarily successful life-and Hoffman Jr. begins a nightmare tour of racetracks and gambling establishments, Cheap motels, while scattering bad checks throughout the mid-West to supermarkets, banks, friends, strangers. His wife Patricia, left with four small children, suffers in the timehonored manner of all gamblers' wives. At last, turning to Gamblers Anonymous, Bill almost makes it back to stability and respectability, but Patricia, bitter and wasted by anxiety, cannot take the final trusting step and the cycle begins again. Hoffman writes with more skill than most convalescing victims of anti-social compulsions, but deeper, more meaningful self-analysis is sparse, and the searing events invite pity but not involvement.

Pub Date: April 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Funk & Wagnalls

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION