THE CINCINNATI KID

Report repeated from p. 732 when scheduled for earlier publication, as follows: ""The Cincinnati Kid is a rambling-gambling man in and around the midwest who, by the time he's 16, knows he has a truly fine feeling for cards; now at 26, still a skinny youngster with hard blue eyes, he's ready- or thinks he is- to take on Lancey Hodges, The Man in his game which is stud poker. During the next few days he sends his ""woman"" home to the Ozarks (any gambler's woman can only play a watching, waiting game); there are the edgy few days which build up to the showdown in a scene, which for naked, unnerving tension, is very reminiscent of The Hustler..... A small book, but a clean, close, tight story with a classic touch, a genuine sense of the ritual of the riffle of the deck, and the hot, cold fever of the gambling man.