Well, the husband sometimes makes fun of me because I complain I have nothing to read, and he points to my pile where there are several things to read (one of them is about will power - haven't made my way to that one yet... but I will...).Lay the Favorite was actually made into a movie a few years back and my husband and I (he was my boyfriend back then) saw it at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie was quirky and funny, and I remember enjoying it. Watch the movie trailer here.
I'm not really into gambling or Vegas, so a lot of the book was lost on me, or at least I didn't have an appreciation for the nuances about placing bets, or for the crazy ways you can bet on sports. However, it was entertaining and funny, and I liked reading it.
I enjoyed it probably more for the funny characters Beth encounters while working for first a professional gambler, and later as a "figures girl" for a sports book in the Caribbean. Some crazy shit happens, and it seems all the more crazy because this book is a memoir and based on real-life events. It is impossible to tell how much the author embellished, but it was funny regardless. The way she describes characters makes it easy to imagine their absurdity. Here is but one excerpt that had me laughing:
Now, suddenly, he was gone, and this number wasn't real and that number wasn't real and this guy didn't get paid and that transfer never took place.
Bernard dismissed my rant. He felt bad accusing anybody without being absolutely sure. "It could be an honest mistake, Beth. There could be a rational explanation."
"Like what?"
"Could the Internet have stolen it?"
"The Internet doesn't steal, Bernard. People do." .....
During one of Bernard's longer Xanax stupors, I went behind his back and called Bah-Bah [a nickname given to one of the Italian bet bookers, whose name was Sheep, but was also known as Bah-Bah "one of the most affable members of the Italian crew..."]. On his elm-lined suburban street, hiding in the safety and warmth of his family, he acted shocked about the stuff I was certain he screwed us on days before. When I pressed harder, he asked that I never call his house again. Red hot with anger, I wanted to rip him apart. I wanted to tell him that we had listened to the tapes and overheard him conniving. That we had hired someone to shoot him in his fat, bald head and that someone was on the way to his house at that very moment. But before I could say a word, the line went dead and stayed busy until it was later disconnected.
To this day, we don't know if Bah-Bah took the money. Afterward, we heard that he lost one million dollars in an all-night coked-up on-line blackjack spree. We heard he went to rehab for drugs and gambling. Then again. And again. One morning back in New York, I passed a newsstand and saw Bah-Bah's face smiling at me from the front page of the Daily News. He'd been arrested on charges of conspiracy to defraud the NBA.
"You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people." --Will Rogers
If you like good characters, sports, gambling, or betting, you will probably enjoy this book. I'll bet on it!
