[diebitter]

I finally finished this, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Gambler is indeed a perfect title for Alexei, by the end that is all he is and all he lives for. He's addicted, and winning or losing is really no consequence to him, it's just being able to play.

I do get his gambling thing, and have indeed experienced times when you do slam down a way oversized bet due to frustration at losing, and you're effectively staking your whole roll on one result, and I'm glad I don't do that any more, and recognise it for what it is. I warmed to his character in the end and felt sorry for him. Wretched as he was, he seemed a better person than the childish and frankly horrid character in the main part of the book.

I really don't understand the end part with Polina at all (or rather I don't understand her reaction), and I need to think on it more, and maybe come back about that.

Grandma is a great character, and indeed did actually bring out the better in Alexei, but she also showed him (and us) the wretched fever that gambling (and I mean gambling, not a skilled game like poker!) brings on, but she was of course a much bigger character than just a device for this. Dostoyevsky is too great a writer to just toss in characters for effect or device.


I didn't like the near-end part in Paris, and I felt D. had gone off the boil of the story there, but he reined it back in with the final scene, which was superb. One of the great book endings, possibly.


Good pick, I'll start t'other one now!