THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BRIDGE

The ""complete"" of the title is no optimism and this is three times as much book as their last How to Play a Better Game of Bridge (1969). Reese, the British grey eminence and one of the real playing lifemasters who never had to count a point, takes the beginner-intermediate all the way through bids, rebids, play of the hand, etc. All the conventions are here from Acol to Roman Blackwood as well as the new systems (Precision -- still a ways to go -- Schenken -- etc.), even if Duplicate (which is now played more and more extensively and exclusively in this country) receives only two of the sketchier chapters. Reese can not only play rings around most of the people writing bridge books (Moorhead -- revised edition this season -- Truscott -- Hayden et. al.) but he can also write about the game more stringently and entertainingly.