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The Cardturner
When Alton's ageing, blind uncle asks him to attend bridge games with him, he agrees. After all, it's better than a crappy summer job in the local shopping mall, and Alton's mother thinks it might secure their way to a good inheritance sometime in the future.
But, like all apparently casual choices in any of Louis Sachar's wonderful books, this choice soon turns out to be a lot more complex than Alton could ever have imagined. As his relationship with his uncle develops, and he meets the very attractive Toni, deeply buried secrets are uncovered and a romance that spans decades is finally brought to conclusion.
Alton's mother is in for a surprise!
But, like all apparently casual choices in any of Louis Sachar's wonderful books, this choice soon turns out to be a lot more complex than Alton could ever have imagined. As his relationship with his uncle develops, and he meets the very attractive Toni, deeply buried secrets are uncovered and a romance that spans decades is finally brought to conclusion.
Alton's mother is in for a surprise!
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 11, 2010
289 people are currently reading
6284 people want to read
About the author
Louis Sachar
96 books4,698 followersLouis Sachar (pronounced Sacker), born March 20, 1954, is an American author of children's books.
Louis was born in East Meadow, New York, in 1954. When he was nine, he moved to Tustin, California. He went to college at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated in 1976, as an economics major. The next year, he wrote his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School .
He was working at a sweater warehouse during the day and wrote at night. Almost a year later, he was fired from the job. He decided to go to law school. He attended Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
His first book was published while he was in law school. He graduated in 1980. For the next eight years he worked part-time as a lawyer and continued to try to write children's books. Then his books started selling well enough so that he was able to quit practicing law. His wife's name is Carla. When he first met her, she was a counselor at an elementary school. She was the inspiration behind the counselor in There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom . He was married in 1985. Hisdaughter, Sherre, was born in 1987.
Louis was born in East Meadow, New York, in 1954. When he was nine, he moved to Tustin, California. He went to college at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated in 1976, as an economics major. The next year, he wrote his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School .
He was working at a sweater warehouse during the day and wrote at night. Almost a year later, he was fired from the job. He decided to go to law school. He attended Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
His first book was published while he was in law school. He graduated in 1980. For the next eight years he worked part-time as a lawyer and continued to try to write children's books. Then his books started selling well enough so that he was able to quit practicing law. His wife's name is Carla. When he first met her, she was a counselor at an elementary school. She was the inspiration behind the counselor in There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom . He was married in 1985. Hisdaughter, Sherre, was born in 1987.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 1,747 reviews
October 17, 2011
“I was beginning to get concerned by falling pianos.”
Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Well.... that was a book about Bridge.
High Points.
So, I feel like I need to explain my low point already and you’ve not even read it because it does eventually lead into a high point. Even though the Bridge thing completely went over my head, I absolutely love that Mr Sachar wrote this book knowing full well that a lot of his readers will be like… um, WHAT?
I had no idea what was happening for the majority of this book, Sachar’s enthusiasm and passion for the game was so evident that I couldn’t help but wish I knew what was going on. I loved how he didn’t try and trick the reader with his evil Bridge-playing agenda, he put his… wait for it… cards out on the table and made no apologies. I can just imagine the meeting he had with his agent and his editor and being like ‘You know what? I don’t care. I love Bridge and I want to write a book about it and make other people love it as much as I do’.
I’m 100% sure I’d love the game if I had a clue what was going on.
Anyway, back to the high points.
Alton. Toni. Old people. Whales. The writing. Quilting. Ghosts.
Low Points.
Well, I don’t know what I was expecting… this book is, believe it or not, about Bridge.
It says so on the back of the book, right there… I’m looking at the words right now.
The author’s note… it’s says it again.
It’s not as if Mr Sachar lied and said “This book is about car chases and scantily clad girls and boys with leather jackets and chocolate muffins” and then wrote a book about Bridge.
He quite clearly stated that this was a book about Bridge.
So it’s not as if I wasn’t warned.
And Sachar did a splendid job trying to explain the rules and didn’t dumb it down for readers.
Which brings me to the low point. I kind of wish he had dumbed it down a little. I know we had the handy whale (which I adored by the way) that nodded to Moby Dick and warned you that there will be a section coming up about Bridge and warned you that there will be a section about cards that you will probably zone out in and then a handy little box that helped you understand it.
But I still didn’t get it and I’m quite good at cards once I get into the swing of things.
I think my biggest claim to cards fame (is that a thing? It should be) is that I once played a game of Bullshit without lying once...and won.
Also, I’m the Snap Master.
And that’s definitely a thing.
Hero.
Oh Alton, you are hilarious. Let's be best friends? You seemed like the kind of person who seems eternally bemused and I loved how for the most part of this book, whether it was with your family, with Bridge or even with the girls, you were completely out of your depth.
But you kept on trying.
I could have done with a bit longer getting to know you... but what I did know, I liked.
You’re a loyal friend (even when said friend is a bit of a twat)
Plus you’re a very loyal friend, even with said friend is a bit of a twat.
Also… a fantastic great nephew.
Cutie.
Love Interest.
I’m always sceptical about lady love interests because I find that they are mostly really annoying. They’re either a massive bitch or painfully cool girls who like obscure bands that they think no one has heard of and wear non-prescription glasses.
But Toni was neither. In fact, she was amazing.
She’s intelligent, she loves her family and she makes quilts.
I could say more but she makes quilts so I don’t think I need to.
This review is pretty much going to end here (there aren’t many songs about Bridge, who’d of thunk it?) because I don’t really have much else to say.
The bits that weren’t about Bridge were fantastic and the characters were well-developed and extremely likeable.
My not being smitten with this book is no comment on Mr Sachar’s writing and it’s actually made me even more keen to read Holes, which has been on my TBR list for a while now.
It’s really my own fault for thinking a book that said quite clearly it was about Bridge might not actually be about Bridge.
*cough*
You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog here.
Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Well.... that was a book about Bridge.
High Points.
So, I feel like I need to explain my low point already and you’ve not even read it because it does eventually lead into a high point. Even though the Bridge thing completely went over my head, I absolutely love that Mr Sachar wrote this book knowing full well that a lot of his readers will be like… um, WHAT?
I had no idea what was happening for the majority of this book, Sachar’s enthusiasm and passion for the game was so evident that I couldn’t help but wish I knew what was going on. I loved how he didn’t try and trick the reader with his evil Bridge-playing agenda, he put his… wait for it… cards out on the table and made no apologies. I can just imagine the meeting he had with his agent and his editor and being like ‘You know what? I don’t care. I love Bridge and I want to write a book about it and make other people love it as much as I do’.
I’m 100% sure I’d love the game if I had a clue what was going on.
Anyway, back to the high points.
Alton. Toni. Old people. Whales. The writing. Quilting. Ghosts.
Low Points.
Well, I don’t know what I was expecting… this book is, believe it or not, about Bridge.
It says so on the back of the book, right there… I’m looking at the words right now.
The author’s note… it’s says it again.
It’s not as if Mr Sachar lied and said “This book is about car chases and scantily clad girls and boys with leather jackets and chocolate muffins” and then wrote a book about Bridge.
He quite clearly stated that this was a book about Bridge.
So it’s not as if I wasn’t warned.
And Sachar did a splendid job trying to explain the rules and didn’t dumb it down for readers.
Which brings me to the low point. I kind of wish he had dumbed it down a little. I know we had the handy whale (which I adored by the way) that nodded to Moby Dick and warned you that there will be a section coming up about Bridge and warned you that there will be a section about cards that you will probably zone out in and then a handy little box that helped you understand it.
But I still didn’t get it and I’m quite good at cards once I get into the swing of things.
I think my biggest claim to cards fame (is that a thing? It should be) is that I once played a game of Bullshit without lying once...and won.
Also, I’m the Snap Master.
And that’s definitely a thing.
Hero.
Oh Alton, you are hilarious. Let's be best friends? You seemed like the kind of person who seems eternally bemused and I loved how for the most part of this book, whether it was with your family, with Bridge or even with the girls, you were completely out of your depth.
But you kept on trying.
I could have done with a bit longer getting to know you... but what I did know, I liked.
You’re a loyal friend (even when said friend is a bit of a twat)
Plus you’re a very loyal friend, even with said friend is a bit of a twat.
Also… a fantastic great nephew.
Cutie.
Love Interest.
I’m always sceptical about lady love interests because I find that they are mostly really annoying. They’re either a massive bitch or painfully cool girls who like obscure bands that they think no one has heard of and wear non-prescription glasses.
But Toni was neither. In fact, she was amazing.
She’s intelligent, she loves her family and she makes quilts.
I could say more but she makes quilts so I don’t think I need to.
This review is pretty much going to end here (there aren’t many songs about Bridge, who’d of thunk it?) because I don’t really have much else to say.
The bits that weren’t about Bridge were fantastic and the characters were well-developed and extremely likeable.
My not being smitten with this book is no comment on Mr Sachar’s writing and it’s actually made me even more keen to read Holes, which has been on my TBR list for a while now.
It’s really my own fault for thinking a book that said quite clearly it was about Bridge might not actually be about Bridge.
*cough*
You can read this review and other exciting things on my blog here.
May 19, 2010
Bridge, the card game, in a book for teens? Yes indeed, and done so well that you will wonder why more teen novels don’t center on chess and bridge.
Alton is looking forward to a bleak summer. His girlfriend dumped him for his best friend. He doesn’t have any money, so he will have to get a crummy job. And now his aging blind uncle has asked him to be his cardturner in bridge. With pressure from his parents, who are focused on the potential inheritance from his uncle, Alton takes the job. As he spends summer days in a strip mall, turning cards for his uncle, Alton learns the logic and drama of bridge. He meets his uncle’s former cardturner, the beautiful Toni, who helps him learn the game, even though his uncle believes it is best that he doesn’t know anything about it other than the names and suits of the cards. In the middle of the bridge and his dull summer, Alton discovers a romance filled with secrets that is finally satisfactorily resolved.
Sachar has such an ear for dialogue that it is as if you are listening to real conversations. There is never a stilted moment to pull you out of the novel. He also creates unique and fascinating characters. In this novel, the uncle, Trapp, is a great character. He is very complex and multifaceted, one of the best and most human elderly characters I have read in YA literature.
At the same time, Sachar is dealing with making bridge understandable and not dull for the layperson. He does this with a device of a whale, warning readers that a section filled with game details is coming. Readers can skip down to the boxed summary if they don’t wish to get all of the details. Me? I loved each and every detail of the game, even though I don’t play at all. The Appendix filled with even more details of bridge, though, was a bit too deep for me.
This unlikely teen novel makes bridge interesting, offers great adult characters, and has a fresh teen voice. Give it to fans of the author who will love the details and karma of the book. Appropriate for ages 14-17.
Alton is looking forward to a bleak summer. His girlfriend dumped him for his best friend. He doesn’t have any money, so he will have to get a crummy job. And now his aging blind uncle has asked him to be his cardturner in bridge. With pressure from his parents, who are focused on the potential inheritance from his uncle, Alton takes the job. As he spends summer days in a strip mall, turning cards for his uncle, Alton learns the logic and drama of bridge. He meets his uncle’s former cardturner, the beautiful Toni, who helps him learn the game, even though his uncle believes it is best that he doesn’t know anything about it other than the names and suits of the cards. In the middle of the bridge and his dull summer, Alton discovers a romance filled with secrets that is finally satisfactorily resolved.
Sachar has such an ear for dialogue that it is as if you are listening to real conversations. There is never a stilted moment to pull you out of the novel. He also creates unique and fascinating characters. In this novel, the uncle, Trapp, is a great character. He is very complex and multifaceted, one of the best and most human elderly characters I have read in YA literature.
At the same time, Sachar is dealing with making bridge understandable and not dull for the layperson. He does this with a device of a whale, warning readers that a section filled with game details is coming. Readers can skip down to the boxed summary if they don’t wish to get all of the details. Me? I loved each and every detail of the game, even though I don’t play at all. The Appendix filled with even more details of bridge, though, was a bit too deep for me.
This unlikely teen novel makes bridge interesting, offers great adult characters, and has a fresh teen voice. Give it to fans of the author who will love the details and karma of the book. Appropriate for ages 14-17.
March 20, 2015
I must say -- the fact that this book was FILLED with bridge theory and explanations of how to play the game and it still managed to make me care about the characters and what happened to them -- makes me REALLY impressed. I loved this book. I want to play bridge now, and it also made me want to get to know my grandparents better and learn more about their childhood and their passions. Really, this is just a lovely book about a kid getting to know his great uncle and himself, and learning how to play a really complicated game. The tiny bit of supernatural-ness that happens threw me of and I thought I'd dislike it, but I actually ended up really loving it.
The ONE thing I hated about this book was the way Sachar wrote Alton's parents. NO ONE is that seemingly insensitive and evil and money hungry. I wanted them to at least come across as SLIGHTLY sympathetic by the end, but they really did end up being really lame people. I wished there had been a little more depth to them than that.
The ONE thing I hated about this book was the way Sachar wrote Alton's parents. NO ONE is that seemingly insensitive and evil and money hungry. I wanted them to at least come across as SLIGHTLY sympathetic by the end, but they really did end up being really lame people. I wished there had been a little more depth to them than that.
October 6, 2010
I need to start by saying that to me, this is not a book about bridge. The plot does center around bridge games. The characters in The Cardturner come together because of bridge games. But this is not a book about bridge - it's a book about the people who play the game.
It's about normal people. People you recognize. People who might be your friends or neighbors or work acquaintances. People who make decisions you can understand, decisions that don't merely serve to advance the plot. There are no characters who are outrageously over the top or who exist solely for comic relief. It's refreshing, in fact, that none of the characters are one-note or evil. It's refreshing to read a book about a nice protagonist.
The Cardturner is about normal people's lives, and it's completely believable. There's no melodrama, no desperate attempt to drum up suspense, no clumsy plot machinations. I don't think there's any foreshadowing whatsoever, which only makes the book more real: in life, who gets advance warning?
Fascinatingly, there are slight fantasy overtones in The Cardturner, which did nothing to affect the book's believability for me. If anything, they enhanced the book. Who hasn't hoped at one point that he or she will be a witness to magic or the otherwise impossible? Sachar captures the surreality of how it might feel if, in real life, the impossible came true.
It's Louis Sachar's writing, truthfully, that carries the book. It's quiet and understated. It's light and deft and clever through the device of the narrator writing his story after the fact, a overused and much-abused technique. Sachar balances it perfectly. The book is self-aware and wry in exactly the right way.
In the current sea of fantasy and paranormal offerings, this is a well-written, understated, lovely novel about people and perspective.
It's about normal people. People you recognize. People who might be your friends or neighbors or work acquaintances. People who make decisions you can understand, decisions that don't merely serve to advance the plot. There are no characters who are outrageously over the top or who exist solely for comic relief. It's refreshing, in fact, that none of the characters are one-note or evil. It's refreshing to read a book about a nice protagonist.
The Cardturner is about normal people's lives, and it's completely believable. There's no melodrama, no desperate attempt to drum up suspense, no clumsy plot machinations. I don't think there's any foreshadowing whatsoever, which only makes the book more real: in life, who gets advance warning?
Fascinatingly, there are slight fantasy overtones in The Cardturner, which did nothing to affect the book's believability for me. If anything, they enhanced the book. Who hasn't hoped at one point that he or she will be a witness to magic or the otherwise impossible? Sachar captures the surreality of how it might feel if, in real life, the impossible came true.
It's Louis Sachar's writing, truthfully, that carries the book. It's quiet and understated. It's light and deft and clever through the device of the narrator writing his story after the fact, a overused and much-abused technique. Sachar balances it perfectly. The book is self-aware and wry in exactly the right way.
In the current sea of fantasy and paranormal offerings, this is a well-written, understated, lovely novel about people and perspective.
July 16, 2010
Ok so this is definitely your book if you want to OD on bridge. Seriously, there is so much bridge talk in here (probably half of the book and I'm not exaggerating), but despite that there is a touching story here among all the cards.
Alton is seventeen and heading into the summer before his senior year and hasn't made any many plans. Things are shaken up a bit when Uncle Lester (aka Trapp who is filthy rich) ask Alton to be his cardturner for the summer. Apparently his other cardturner Toni (girl from a supposed crazy family) is fired when she questioned Trapp if he was sure he wanted to play a certain card. Trapp is blind and has to have someone tell him his cards and place them down. Easy enough for Alton, but just imagine having to memorize all those cards? It makes my head dizzy just thinking about it. This all comes at a time when Alton is still healing from his breakup with Katie and dealing that she is going out with his best friend Cliff. Then other family issue arise that make Alton's situation even more sticky. It will be a summer that Alton will not soon forget.
Sachar has a distinct writing voice. He acknowledges that you are in fact reading the story and always give sidenotes like his talking to the reader. I loved the style and plan on reading Holes.I actually laughed a good deal throughout the book, but I think the ongoing explanations of bridge it what kind of killed the story for me. He does warn you ahead of time that he will be giving explanations and even puts a little picture of a whale to warn you, but being curious I would read through it anyway. He did give good explanations and it would be hard to read a story where you don't get what was going on. In reality I don't think he could of written the book any other way, but it really hindered character development. I did get a good sense of the characters, but they seemed to be just out of grasp to be fully realized characters. I didn't like how we don't see how the relationship between Alton and his friend Cliff turned out. I would have dropped Cliff like a hot potatoe, but I'm me and Alton I guess has a more forgiving nature.
Overall I did learn a lot of bridge terms and the basic concept. It reminded me of spades but WAY more complicated. You could tell the author wrote the story to enlighten younger readers about this dying sport and hope to maybe hook a couple of people to this game. Hopefully he does because it does seem like a cool community to be a part of, too bad I wouldn't be too into it. Suggested to readers who really love bridge, card games or chess.
Alton is seventeen and heading into the summer before his senior year and hasn't made any many plans. Things are shaken up a bit when Uncle Lester (aka Trapp who is filthy rich) ask Alton to be his cardturner for the summer. Apparently his other cardturner Toni (girl from a supposed crazy family) is fired when she questioned Trapp if he was sure he wanted to play a certain card. Trapp is blind and has to have someone tell him his cards and place them down. Easy enough for Alton, but just imagine having to memorize all those cards? It makes my head dizzy just thinking about it. This all comes at a time when Alton is still healing from his breakup with Katie and dealing that she is going out with his best friend Cliff. Then other family issue arise that make Alton's situation even more sticky. It will be a summer that Alton will not soon forget.
Sachar has a distinct writing voice. He acknowledges that you are in fact reading the story and always give sidenotes like his talking to the reader. I loved the style and plan on reading Holes.I actually laughed a good deal throughout the book, but I think the ongoing explanations of bridge it what kind of killed the story for me. He does warn you ahead of time that he will be giving explanations and even puts a little picture of a whale to warn you, but being curious I would read through it anyway. He did give good explanations and it would be hard to read a story where you don't get what was going on. In reality I don't think he could of written the book any other way, but it really hindered character development. I did get a good sense of the characters, but they seemed to be just out of grasp to be fully realized characters. I didn't like how we don't see how the relationship between Alton and his friend Cliff turned out. I would have dropped Cliff like a hot potatoe, but I'm me and Alton I guess has a more forgiving nature.
Overall I did learn a lot of bridge terms and the basic concept. It reminded me of spades but WAY more complicated. You could tell the author wrote the story to enlighten younger readers about this dying sport and hope to maybe hook a couple of people to this game. Hopefully he does because it does seem like a cool community to be a part of, too bad I wouldn't be too into it. Suggested to readers who really love bridge, card games or chess.
February 24, 2012
When I tell you that I didn't know a thing about bridge before I read this book about bridge and I don't know very much more about it now that I've read it, you might think it wasn't a very good book. Wrong! This book was amazing. The fact that I had to stop multiple times and write down the page number as I came to something I wanted to come back to is evidence enough that I really, really liked this book.
Some things I particularly liked:
*The quirky (and personable) intrusive narration--very fun.
*The author's avoidance of crude language in a way that my high school language teacher would have been proud ("A good writer can convey a mood without using profanity.") Yes, there were a few profanities and the Lord's name was used in vain once, but having read a number of profanity-heavy YA books lately it was refreshing to see some restraint.
*The fact that the main character's philosophical bent gave voice to some of the very things I have been thinking about lately.
So...FIVE stars for this book. I hope it wins the Golden Sower Award! (Come on kids, you don't have to play bridge to like it.)
Favorite Quotes:
"I can't deal with double negatives at four-thirty in the morning."
and
"Maybe that's what religion is all about. Is life just a highly improbable coincidence, or does an impossible explanation make more sense?"
Some things I particularly liked:
*The quirky (and personable) intrusive narration--very fun.
*The author's avoidance of crude language in a way that my high school language teacher would have been proud ("A good writer can convey a mood without using profanity.") Yes, there were a few profanities and the Lord's name was used in vain once, but having read a number of profanity-heavy YA books lately it was refreshing to see some restraint.
*The fact that the main character's philosophical bent gave voice to some of the very things I have been thinking about lately.
So...FIVE stars for this book. I hope it wins the Golden Sower Award! (Come on kids, you don't have to play bridge to like it.)
Favorite Quotes:
"I can't deal with double negatives at four-thirty in the morning."
and
"Maybe that's what religion is all about. Is life just a highly improbable coincidence, or does an impossible explanation make more sense?"
July 6, 2010
Rating Clarification 3.5 Stars
To be honest, I have no desire to be a good card player, and even after reading this book I'll probably never attempt a game of Bridge. I can barely play a decent hand of war or slam, but I gave this book a try and found that I really enjoyed the story. Despite my lack of skill with cards, I learned a few things, such as pulling a trump, redoubling, following suite, and taking a finesse. I also picked up that there are 13 cards in a Bridge hand and north, south, east, west positions in the game, and something about earning master points. Not enough to hold an interesting conversation at tea time, but more than I knew going into this book.
Putting that aside, this wasn't just a book about the game of Bridge, nor about a teenager's "summer job", there is a great story wrapped around Alton's summer experience of being a cardturner, and I enjoyed it much.
About the story… Alton is forced to spend the summer as a cardturner for his great uncle who happens to be blind… and very rich. His parents want Alton to fall into Lester Trapp's good graces to hopefully gain them a significant inheritance upon Trapp's death. During this summer, Alton learns more than just the rules of playing Bridge. He discovers a past that involves secrets, scandal and a game that changed a man's life.
I enjoyed hearing Alton's narrative and his character was very likeable and honest. The story flowed seamlessly and despite the deep dives on Bridge, I reluctantly learned a few things about a game I'll probably never play. Definitely a book most YA readers would enjoy.
It has always seemed strange to me… the things we admire in men - kindness, generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And, those traits we detest - sharpness, greed, inquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self interest are the traits of success. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
To be honest, I have no desire to be a good card player, and even after reading this book I'll probably never attempt a game of Bridge. I can barely play a decent hand of war or slam, but I gave this book a try and found that I really enjoyed the story. Despite my lack of skill with cards, I learned a few things, such as pulling a trump, redoubling, following suite, and taking a finesse. I also picked up that there are 13 cards in a Bridge hand and north, south, east, west positions in the game, and something about earning master points. Not enough to hold an interesting conversation at tea time, but more than I knew going into this book.
Putting that aside, this wasn't just a book about the game of Bridge, nor about a teenager's "summer job", there is a great story wrapped around Alton's summer experience of being a cardturner, and I enjoyed it much.
About the story… Alton is forced to spend the summer as a cardturner for his great uncle who happens to be blind… and very rich. His parents want Alton to fall into Lester Trapp's good graces to hopefully gain them a significant inheritance upon Trapp's death. During this summer, Alton learns more than just the rules of playing Bridge. He discovers a past that involves secrets, scandal and a game that changed a man's life.
I enjoyed hearing Alton's narrative and his character was very likeable and honest. The story flowed seamlessly and despite the deep dives on Bridge, I reluctantly learned a few things about a game I'll probably never play. Definitely a book most YA readers would enjoy.
It has always seemed strange to me… the things we admire in men - kindness, generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And, those traits we detest - sharpness, greed, inquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self interest are the traits of success. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
December 14, 2023
This book is always a favorite of mine. It leads to the best discussions, and it always makes me want to learn how to play bridge. Trapp and Alton are like old friends, and I love sharing this book with my 7th grade GOAL classes every year.
Reread: Fall, 2019... still love this book!
Reread: Fall, 2020... Hybrid/Virtual classes did not do this read aloud any favors. I still adore this book, but the community of readers never really formed this year. It makes me wonder if it’s time to switch the 7th grade read aloud book...
Reread: Fall, 2021... glad I didn't switch. My 7th grade class really liked the book. It shows me that creating a community of readers really happens best in person.
Reread: Fall, 2022. I'd say the class this year liked it but didn't love it. It's still my goal someday to have a bridge unit. I think they'd be wicked good at bridge if they set their minds to it.
Reread: Fall, 2023. This class had some big feelings about Alton, Cliff, and Toni. :) This class is also a little philosophically bent, just like Alton, so we had good discussions about perceptions vs. reality and about what parts of us are really alive.
Reread: Fall, 2019... still love this book!
Reread: Fall, 2020... Hybrid/Virtual classes did not do this read aloud any favors. I still adore this book, but the community of readers never really formed this year. It makes me wonder if it’s time to switch the 7th grade read aloud book...
Reread: Fall, 2021... glad I didn't switch. My 7th grade class really liked the book. It shows me that creating a community of readers really happens best in person.
Reread: Fall, 2022. I'd say the class this year liked it but didn't love it. It's still my goal someday to have a bridge unit. I think they'd be wicked good at bridge if they set their minds to it.
Reread: Fall, 2023. This class had some big feelings about Alton, Cliff, and Toni. :) This class is also a little philosophically bent, just like Alton, so we had good discussions about perceptions vs. reality and about what parts of us are really alive.
August 22, 2022
louis sachar you slayed again
January 24, 2024
It made me feel things. I love it when books and movies make me feel things. It lets me know that I have a heart. When I say it made me feel things, I mean a lot of things. It was a huge emotional roller coaster for me. I was excited for Alton about nationals, sad when Trapp died, and embarrassed in a way when Alton and Toni kissed. I loved how the author made Alton seem so realistic, most books don't do that very well. All in all, I would totally recommend this book.
June 13, 2010
3.5 stars. Louis Sachar's The Cardturner is not something I would usually read, but I picked it up anyway because I liked his previous novel, Holes. Most teenagers probably will not find this book to their liking, unless they appreciate character development and a concise writing style.
It is quite difficult to rate this book. On one hand, some aspects of the book were poorly done - such as the ending, and the romance. Other parts were great though - I actually found myself enjoying the sections about bridge. That is until the end, where it got a bit repetitive. Sachar's characters were realistic and easy to sympathize with, and his writing style itself was streamlined and straight to the point.
Sachar manages to pull off a young adult novel about bridge in The Cardturner. It was not precisely perfect, but still surprisingly good.
It is quite difficult to rate this book. On one hand, some aspects of the book were poorly done - such as the ending, and the romance. Other parts were great though - I actually found myself enjoying the sections about bridge. That is until the end, where it got a bit repetitive. Sachar's characters were realistic and easy to sympathize with, and his writing style itself was streamlined and straight to the point.
Sachar manages to pull off a young adult novel about bridge in The Cardturner. It was not precisely perfect, but still surprisingly good.
March 14, 2025
My first reaction is either the narrator style is too immature for the material, or the material is too complicated for the intended audience. Maybe it's neither and I've entirely forgotten what it was like to read books as a teenager.
I have a lot of respect for the level of bridge strategy and game detail needed to revolve a plot around it. I found the human dynamics very engaging, although the ending did get too silly for my taste.
I have a lot of respect for the level of bridge strategy and game detail needed to revolve a plot around it. I found the human dynamics very engaging, although the ending did get too silly for my taste.
December 13, 2016
It was a very good book, which made me want to read more by this author.
May 17, 2020
Dan and I have started trying to play bridge with his mom, and it reminded me of how I got into bridge when I was younger - by reading this book! Although my 'getting into bridge' was always hypothetical. You'd think having 4 siblings would make it easier to play, but not a one would play bridge with me! I think they counted it among my 'old lady' habits, like crochet.
Turns out, I still love this book. Louis Sachar is a great writer, and the plot is both startlingly grounded in reality and dubiously magical. A fun thing that came from listening to this as an audiobook (which I finished in two days because I had so many mindless office tasks yesterday that I actually listened to 5 of the seven hours while at work) is that before Alton goes into detail explaining some element of the game, he indicates that it might get a little boring with a foghorn. Listening to the book, there's an actual foghorn noise, which makes it just a touch spicier an experience.
The explanations feel a bit condescending, but that's almost definitely due to the fact that I am now an adult, whereas I'm pretty sure I remember as a teen feeling like those sections were fun, engaging, and relatable. Although, relatable to young me - an enormously sheltered, socially inept nerd.
Another thing about this book is that it was extremely important schizophrenia and abuse survivor rep to me as a Youth. The narrative surrounding mental illness is far from perfect: the character experiencing schizophrenia has to prove, often, that she is Not Crazy, and leans a little bit on the 'medication is evil and will stymie your soul' trope. But she also is a Whole Character, an Admirable Character, as well as just a teenager. I think it was the first time I read the word schizophrenia in a book where it wasn't attached to an evil or threatening force. There is also some reference to some pretty rough domestic abuse, and the light that it is presented in was formative for me understanding that abuse is not Normal or Okay; that was a message literally no media was expressing to me at that time. So it was something I held on to. I remember rereading this book a few times for that reason alone.
All in all, still holds up. There are a couple things I think might have been a little bit of white nonsense going on, but it's hard to tell, and it's not blatant or overt. It is, of course, a Heterosexual Novel, so that can be disappointing. But I do recommend this book; it's fun and heartwarming and might make you cry, and might make you want to play bridge (with me!).
Turns out, I still love this book. Louis Sachar is a great writer, and the plot is both startlingly grounded in reality and dubiously magical. A fun thing that came from listening to this as an audiobook (which I finished in two days because I had so many mindless office tasks yesterday that I actually listened to 5 of the seven hours while at work) is that before Alton goes into detail explaining some element of the game, he indicates that it might get a little boring with a foghorn. Listening to the book, there's an actual foghorn noise, which makes it just a touch spicier an experience.
The explanations feel a bit condescending, but that's almost definitely due to the fact that I am now an adult, whereas I'm pretty sure I remember as a teen feeling like those sections were fun, engaging, and relatable. Although, relatable to young me - an enormously sheltered, socially inept nerd.
Another thing about this book is that it was extremely important schizophrenia and abuse survivor rep to me as a Youth. The narrative surrounding mental illness is far from perfect: the character experiencing schizophrenia has to prove, often, that she is Not Crazy, and leans a little bit on the 'medication is evil and will stymie your soul' trope. But she also is a Whole Character, an Admirable Character, as well as just a teenager. I think it was the first time I read the word schizophrenia in a book where it wasn't attached to an evil or threatening force. There is also some reference to some pretty rough domestic abuse, and the light that it is presented in was formative for me understanding that abuse is not Normal or Okay; that was a message literally no media was expressing to me at that time. So it was something I held on to. I remember rereading this book a few times for that reason alone.
All in all, still holds up. There are a couple things I think might have been a little bit of white nonsense going on, but it's hard to tell, and it's not blatant or overt. It is, of course, a Heterosexual Novel, so that can be disappointing. But I do recommend this book; it's fun and heartwarming and might make you cry, and might make you want to play bridge (with me!).
March 18, 2014
Adapted from my write-up for YA/MG Book Battle because I'm basically lazy.
The Cardturner is a beautifully written and tightly plotted novel about one young man and his relationship with his “favorite uncle” Trapp, and how that relationship changes because of the relatively prosaic game of bridge. Maybe it takes someone like Sachar to make bridge, now the province of the old and uncool, interesting to an audience of young people, but make it interesting he does, and I’m incredibly impressed by that. Sachar’s strong characterization on all levels is also impressive, because everyone Alton interacts with is unique and well-defined, even the one-off bridge partners he and Trapp encounter. It’s this skill with characterization, I think, that makes Alton’s romantic entanglements so compelling, particularly since it’s uncommon to see a boy as the POV character in a love triangle. And then there’s the story behind Trapp and the great love of his life—a story in which legend and history are tangled in a way that makes that love story far more resonant even than Alton's.
This isn't Sachar's strongest work. It's slow-paced, not very exciting, and there are all those sections on bridge that might be off-putting to a young reader, even if Sachar does provide useful summaries and shows how to skip the longer bits if you want. But the only way I can really call those things flaws is to set up some artificial standard by which all YA fiction should be judged, and I’m not going to do that. Besides, all those things make the book what it is: tightly plotted, smoothly characterized, and all without the seams showing.
Alton’s voice is evocative of youth, from his vocabulary to his approach to life. As the book begins, he’s rather...laid-back is the wrong word, but so is apathetic; he’s somewhere in the middle, willing to take action if he’s pressed into it, but like so many teens uncertain of what he wants to take action about. He’s honest enough not to want to have anything to do with his great-uncle Trapp, wealthy great-uncle Trapp whom Alton’s parents have been pushing him toward since he was a child, hoping Trapp will write them, or at least Alton, into his will. And Trapp isn’t any more enthusiastic about having Alton around; his treatment of Alton as not very bright and probably not very reliable is exactly the way you’d expect a man of seventy-odd years to treat a teenage boy. Their relationship progresses in a way that feels natural, with both Alton and Trapp overcoming their respective first impressions of each other to come to a state of mutual respect, so when I reached the first climax (there are two) I was engaged enough with both characters to be emotionally moved.
Alton’s relationship with Toni, Trapp’s former cardturner and bridge protégée, really captivated me because it looked like it was going to be a typical romantic relationship until it was sidelined by Alton’s “best friend” Cliff, and the scare quotes are there because I think Cliff’s habit of stealing girls Alton’s interested in isn’t entirely coincidental. That Toni and Alton manage to come back together at the end says a lot about the nature of teen relationships and how shared interests are far more powerful a bond than casual attraction. Alton is sort of bumbling along here, which I found endearing, and this romance had an incredibly satisfactory resolution--or, possibly, a beginning.
The one issue that I think readers of The Cardturner get stuck on is how mental illness is addressed in this book, specifically Toni’s schizophrenia or lack thereof. I think it’s possible to read this book as being dismissive of the seriousness of mental illness, since Toni’s diagnosis is shown to be false; that could imply that Sachar thinks it’s possible for people with schizophrenia to be sane but misunderstood (and therefore capable of fixing themselves if they just want it badly enough). But that’s not the way I read it, for two reasons. First, it’s very clear that Toni does not have schizophrenia—her hearing her dead grandmother’s voice is established as fact, not as a delusion she’s having. I found this interesting because it kept The Cardturner from being a problem novel with a sort of is-she-or-isn’t-she coyness; I like a little supernatural thrown in with my realistic fiction sometimes. This approach means that Toni not taking her meds is not only reasonable, it’s the only possible approach; one does not take antipsychotics if they are unnecessary. Second, the circumstances of Toni’s diagnosis are iffy. No reputable psychiatrist would treat schizophrenia simply by throwing pills at the patient, which is what seems to be going on here. I don’t want people thinking that psychiatrists are quacks and that mental illness is imaginary, but I also don’t think it’s a good idea to forget that sometimes the system fails us—a point that is reinforced in The Cardturner by the forced hospitalization of perfectly sane Annabel King, and we are not all that far from the days when that sort of thing was possible. It’s still an uncomfortable aspect of the novel because Sachar doesn’t ever show a positive side of psychiatry, which allows for the reading that psychiatry is always to be distrusted, but this isn’t a book about mental illness, it’s a book about bridge, and in general I don’t get the feeling that Sachar’s got an axe and is looking for a grindstone.
In general, I get a sense of completeness from this book that satisfies me, though I doubt it will ever be a real favorite. I both enjoyed the story and admired Sachar's skill in creating it, I felt satisfied when I got to the end, which I consider fairly impressive.
The Cardturner is a beautifully written and tightly plotted novel about one young man and his relationship with his “favorite uncle” Trapp, and how that relationship changes because of the relatively prosaic game of bridge. Maybe it takes someone like Sachar to make bridge, now the province of the old and uncool, interesting to an audience of young people, but make it interesting he does, and I’m incredibly impressed by that. Sachar’s strong characterization on all levels is also impressive, because everyone Alton interacts with is unique and well-defined, even the one-off bridge partners he and Trapp encounter. It’s this skill with characterization, I think, that makes Alton’s romantic entanglements so compelling, particularly since it’s uncommon to see a boy as the POV character in a love triangle. And then there’s the story behind Trapp and the great love of his life—a story in which legend and history are tangled in a way that makes that love story far more resonant even than Alton's.
This isn't Sachar's strongest work. It's slow-paced, not very exciting, and there are all those sections on bridge that might be off-putting to a young reader, even if Sachar does provide useful summaries and shows how to skip the longer bits if you want. But the only way I can really call those things flaws is to set up some artificial standard by which all YA fiction should be judged, and I’m not going to do that. Besides, all those things make the book what it is: tightly plotted, smoothly characterized, and all without the seams showing.
Alton’s voice is evocative of youth, from his vocabulary to his approach to life. As the book begins, he’s rather...laid-back is the wrong word, but so is apathetic; he’s somewhere in the middle, willing to take action if he’s pressed into it, but like so many teens uncertain of what he wants to take action about. He’s honest enough not to want to have anything to do with his great-uncle Trapp, wealthy great-uncle Trapp whom Alton’s parents have been pushing him toward since he was a child, hoping Trapp will write them, or at least Alton, into his will. And Trapp isn’t any more enthusiastic about having Alton around; his treatment of Alton as not very bright and probably not very reliable is exactly the way you’d expect a man of seventy-odd years to treat a teenage boy. Their relationship progresses in a way that feels natural, with both Alton and Trapp overcoming their respective first impressions of each other to come to a state of mutual respect, so when I reached the first climax (there are two) I was engaged enough with both characters to be emotionally moved.
Alton’s relationship with Toni, Trapp’s former cardturner and bridge protégée, really captivated me because it looked like it was going to be a typical romantic relationship until it was sidelined by Alton’s “best friend” Cliff, and the scare quotes are there because I think Cliff’s habit of stealing girls Alton’s interested in isn’t entirely coincidental. That Toni and Alton manage to come back together at the end says a lot about the nature of teen relationships and how shared interests are far more powerful a bond than casual attraction. Alton is sort of bumbling along here, which I found endearing, and this romance had an incredibly satisfactory resolution--or, possibly, a beginning.
The one issue that I think readers of The Cardturner get stuck on is how mental illness is addressed in this book, specifically Toni’s schizophrenia or lack thereof. I think it’s possible to read this book as being dismissive of the seriousness of mental illness, since Toni’s diagnosis is shown to be false; that could imply that Sachar thinks it’s possible for people with schizophrenia to be sane but misunderstood (and therefore capable of fixing themselves if they just want it badly enough). But that’s not the way I read it, for two reasons. First, it’s very clear that Toni does not have schizophrenia—her hearing her dead grandmother’s voice is established as fact, not as a delusion she’s having. I found this interesting because it kept The Cardturner from being a problem novel with a sort of is-she-or-isn’t-she coyness; I like a little supernatural thrown in with my realistic fiction sometimes. This approach means that Toni not taking her meds is not only reasonable, it’s the only possible approach; one does not take antipsychotics if they are unnecessary. Second, the circumstances of Toni’s diagnosis are iffy. No reputable psychiatrist would treat schizophrenia simply by throwing pills at the patient, which is what seems to be going on here. I don’t want people thinking that psychiatrists are quacks and that mental illness is imaginary, but I also don’t think it’s a good idea to forget that sometimes the system fails us—a point that is reinforced in The Cardturner by the forced hospitalization of perfectly sane Annabel King, and we are not all that far from the days when that sort of thing was possible. It’s still an uncomfortable aspect of the novel because Sachar doesn’t ever show a positive side of psychiatry, which allows for the reading that psychiatry is always to be distrusted, but this isn’t a book about mental illness, it’s a book about bridge, and in general I don’t get the feeling that Sachar’s got an axe and is looking for a grindstone.
In general, I get a sense of completeness from this book that satisfies me, though I doubt it will ever be a real favorite. I both enjoyed the story and admired Sachar's skill in creating it, I felt satisfied when I got to the end, which I consider fairly impressive.
June 29, 2010
I've never played bridge before. I don't know a thing about the game. I tried to learn once with a group of friends who also had never played, but we didn't get very far. But I have played other card games and if you know the basics of what it means to follow suit, take a trick, and if you know what trump is, then you can more than follow along with the bridge jargon in this book. Even if you don't know what any of that means, you can probably still make plenty of sense of the book as the narrator does a good job of explaining what you need to know.
This is a book about the game of bridge, but it's about a lot more than that. It's about learning to not be manipulated and how to take chances. It's about starting over fresh. And I loved it. The characters are strong, expertly built and easy to love (or, in the case of Alton's parents, fun to dislike). They make it easy for readers to enjoy a book so wrapped around a game that most of them have likely never played. Older readers who loved Holes will likely enjoy Louis Sachar's newest book for its tone, its endearing characters, and bits of magical realism that make the story come full circle.
This is a book about the game of bridge, but it's about a lot more than that. It's about learning to not be manipulated and how to take chances. It's about starting over fresh. And I loved it. The characters are strong, expertly built and easy to love (or, in the case of Alton's parents, fun to dislike). They make it easy for readers to enjoy a book so wrapped around a game that most of them have likely never played. Older readers who loved Holes will likely enjoy Louis Sachar's newest book for its tone, its endearing characters, and bits of magical realism that make the story come full circle.
March 17, 2017
Definitely an intriguing book. This book was well, unique. Quite philosophical, and really explored the meaning of someone's life, and how it was connected to others around him. I originally bought this book last year at the book fair. Only after Eric persuaded me to though, and it was a lot of persuading. I took one glance after I bought it, and set it on my shelf at home. It was only this year that I actually got around to reading this book, and man, it was good. My 7th grade self couldn't appreciate the sheer complexity of the theme and plot, but I only understood it this time after a couple reads through. A much higher level book than I originally thought. I guess in a way if you like to be confused and twisted through an unpredictable plot, you'll like this book.
July 20, 2024
Over the past week, Louis Sachar’s engaging, flowing writing style drew me in to The Cardturner, and the tiny chapters kept me turning pages to read just one more chapter before calling it a night. But by the end, I found the story itself uninteresting and odd—uninteresting because I never cared for the main character or (especially) his immediate family; odd because the story’s shift to supernatural romance in the second half felt sudden and bizarre. The climactic scenes at the tournament seemed very strange. After explaining through the whole novel how close-knit the bridge community is, how could no one in that tournament have noticed that one of the top teams comprised two dead people? It makes no sense to me. None of the bridge authorities ever catches Alton and Toni. How is this possible?
But the most confusing thing about the book is the photo on the cover. What does a guy lying across chairs with a book over his face have to do with this story? Very puzzling.
We’ll discuss this in the book club soon, but I’m afraid I may have forgotten most of it by then. It didn’t leave a big impression on me.
But the most confusing thing about the book is the photo on the cover. What does a guy lying across chairs with a book over his face have to do with this story? Very puzzling.
We’ll discuss this in the book club soon, but I’m afraid I may have forgotten most of it by then. It didn’t leave a big impression on me.
October 7, 2010
The Cardturner
Is Alton a National Champion, or a Helper of One?
In The cardturner, by Louis Sachar, Alton Richards is a teenage boy with a very rich blind great-uncle. All his life, his mom has wanted him to be nice and grateful towards this uncle. But now, she wants in on his will. Alton takes his uncle to a bridge tournament and is his cardturner, his eyes for the tournament. Then when Alton’s dad gets fired, he is stuck as the cardturner to get in the will. As the book goes on, and as it gets better, so does Alton’s interest in bridge. Then Alton’s uncle decides to enter the national bridge tournament. Will Uncle Trapp win with the help of his cardturner? One theme in The Cardturner is that when you don’t want to do something, but you stick with it, good things may happen. This is because unexpected events happen all the time, you might meet someone you like, and you may grow to like it.
Unexpected things happen all the time. You never know what is coming. For example, he is with his uncle one day and it is after the tournament is over. He is driving Uncle Trapp home from it and then his car broke down. After they called the car shop, his uncle decided that since Alton needed a good car to drive him, he would buy him a new car. His car broke down so he got a new one. His car breaking down was an unexpected event and what came from it was a new car. Another thing is when Trapp played a few rounds with Toni Castaneda, which I will say more about later. This was an unexpected event since he thought Trapp was playing with Gloria like usual. This lead to a good relationship. Another example is how Trapp did not leave them any money, but instead, paid all their bills including their mortgage, and their car payments. He then left the rest of the money to charity, when they thought that someone else like Toni’s family would get the money. These unexpected events make the book great.
People come and go so if you stick with an activity, you’re bound to meet someone new that you like. Take Trapp again. He turned from an old unlikable curmudgeon, to a brother like figure. “I didn’t cry. I just felt numb.” (p. 211) Before they did bridge together, Alton would not have minded if his uncle died because he didn’t know Trapp very well. He would have went to the funeral not caring much but not with any feelings. But because he is sad and numb, it shows that Alton really cares about his uncle and is very sad about his death. When you are numb, you must be very stunned about the news and he couldn’t handle it, which is why later he broke down in tears. Another person is Trapp’s bridge partner Gloria. She ended up as an almost cousin relationship with Alton. I mean this because they are not super close but they grew used to seeing each other every week and they had a good time together. Sometimes they would talk about Trapp or just life in general, which is what I do with my cousins. It’s very easy to stick to your same schedule and keep the same friends, but getting new friends are important too. If you try new things, then you will meet new people and your friendship circle will broaden.
Finally, you make grow to like that activity. It’s like the saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover”. First impressions aren’t always the correct ones. When people think about bridge, they, like Alton, think of older men sitting at a table being totally serious and being no nonsense men. But as Alton got used to playing alongside his uncle, he realized that bridge takes a lot of skill and brainpower and it is extremely addicting and fun. Then once he started playing it for himself, he realized that it had been cool and fun to beat the older men and woman and it was one of his favorite things to do. My final example is when he met Toni for the first time when they were six. “Toni was about six years old. She ran up to me. She covered her ears with her hands, her elbows sticking out, and shouted, ‘Shut up! Leave me alone!’ and then she ran away.” (p. 6) After this incident, Alton thought Toni was crazy and weird but as the story went on and he saw her one-day and she was beautiful, he tried talking to her and found that she was a normal and cool person. They became great friends. After he thought she was crazy for 10 years, he finds out that she’s perfectly normal and nice. This shows that things can be different then you would expect from your first meeting.
One theme in The Cardturner is that when you don’t want to do something, but you stick with it, good things may happen. This is because unexpected events happen all the time, you might meet someone you like, and you may grow to like it. When I was in fourth grade I was debating on whether to keep playing travel soccer or not because I thought that practices were hard. I decided to stick to it and see what happened. Soccer is now a huge part of my life and some of my best friends were made from playing it. That is how I met my soon to be haven classmates, and now, my soon to be ETHS classmates. Also, some great stories have come from soccer games, which I am glad to have. In this book, I learned a few things. First, I learned how to play bridge, since throughout the book; there are little info sections. Second, I learned to look beyond the first impressions that people make and to stick with things that I don’t particularly enjoy at the moment.
Is Alton a National Champion, or a Helper of One?
In The cardturner, by Louis Sachar, Alton Richards is a teenage boy with a very rich blind great-uncle. All his life, his mom has wanted him to be nice and grateful towards this uncle. But now, she wants in on his will. Alton takes his uncle to a bridge tournament and is his cardturner, his eyes for the tournament. Then when Alton’s dad gets fired, he is stuck as the cardturner to get in the will. As the book goes on, and as it gets better, so does Alton’s interest in bridge. Then Alton’s uncle decides to enter the national bridge tournament. Will Uncle Trapp win with the help of his cardturner? One theme in The Cardturner is that when you don’t want to do something, but you stick with it, good things may happen. This is because unexpected events happen all the time, you might meet someone you like, and you may grow to like it.
Unexpected things happen all the time. You never know what is coming. For example, he is with his uncle one day and it is after the tournament is over. He is driving Uncle Trapp home from it and then his car broke down. After they called the car shop, his uncle decided that since Alton needed a good car to drive him, he would buy him a new car. His car broke down so he got a new one. His car breaking down was an unexpected event and what came from it was a new car. Another thing is when Trapp played a few rounds with Toni Castaneda, which I will say more about later. This was an unexpected event since he thought Trapp was playing with Gloria like usual. This lead to a good relationship. Another example is how Trapp did not leave them any money, but instead, paid all their bills including their mortgage, and their car payments. He then left the rest of the money to charity, when they thought that someone else like Toni’s family would get the money. These unexpected events make the book great.
People come and go so if you stick with an activity, you’re bound to meet someone new that you like. Take Trapp again. He turned from an old unlikable curmudgeon, to a brother like figure. “I didn’t cry. I just felt numb.” (p. 211) Before they did bridge together, Alton would not have minded if his uncle died because he didn’t know Trapp very well. He would have went to the funeral not caring much but not with any feelings. But because he is sad and numb, it shows that Alton really cares about his uncle and is very sad about his death. When you are numb, you must be very stunned about the news and he couldn’t handle it, which is why later he broke down in tears. Another person is Trapp’s bridge partner Gloria. She ended up as an almost cousin relationship with Alton. I mean this because they are not super close but they grew used to seeing each other every week and they had a good time together. Sometimes they would talk about Trapp or just life in general, which is what I do with my cousins. It’s very easy to stick to your same schedule and keep the same friends, but getting new friends are important too. If you try new things, then you will meet new people and your friendship circle will broaden.
Finally, you make grow to like that activity. It’s like the saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover”. First impressions aren’t always the correct ones. When people think about bridge, they, like Alton, think of older men sitting at a table being totally serious and being no nonsense men. But as Alton got used to playing alongside his uncle, he realized that bridge takes a lot of skill and brainpower and it is extremely addicting and fun. Then once he started playing it for himself, he realized that it had been cool and fun to beat the older men and woman and it was one of his favorite things to do. My final example is when he met Toni for the first time when they were six. “Toni was about six years old. She ran up to me. She covered her ears with her hands, her elbows sticking out, and shouted, ‘Shut up! Leave me alone!’ and then she ran away.” (p. 6) After this incident, Alton thought Toni was crazy and weird but as the story went on and he saw her one-day and she was beautiful, he tried talking to her and found that she was a normal and cool person. They became great friends. After he thought she was crazy for 10 years, he finds out that she’s perfectly normal and nice. This shows that things can be different then you would expect from your first meeting.
One theme in The Cardturner is that when you don’t want to do something, but you stick with it, good things may happen. This is because unexpected events happen all the time, you might meet someone you like, and you may grow to like it. When I was in fourth grade I was debating on whether to keep playing travel soccer or not because I thought that practices were hard. I decided to stick to it and see what happened. Soccer is now a huge part of my life and some of my best friends were made from playing it. That is how I met my soon to be haven classmates, and now, my soon to be ETHS classmates. Also, some great stories have come from soccer games, which I am glad to have. In this book, I learned a few things. First, I learned how to play bridge, since throughout the book; there are little info sections. Second, I learned to look beyond the first impressions that people make and to stick with things that I don’t particularly enjoy at the moment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2024
A great quick read and has inspired me to want to learn bridge! The fact the book was filled with theory about bridge strategy and still kept me hooked is very impressive! A very positive YA book and I liked the way they dealt with the characters mental health conditions.
December 6, 2021
I liked how this book was a book about bridge, but also a book about a regular kid. It is a good book, and the author does a good job at making bridge interesting.
June 12, 2022
The story line itself isn’t that interesting but it was written really well, read it in two days cause I found it so readable!
February 15, 2011
I was lucky enough to hear Louis Sachar speak at the 2008 Children's Literature Council Fall Gala in California and I'll never forgot how he told us of his latest project. "I want," he declared, "to publish a book." He paused dramatically. "For teens." He gave us a sly look. "On how to play bridge!" He then related how his agent had promptly told him, "This will never get published. Teens don't want to read about the card game of bridge. They just don't." Sachar went on to tell us of his near-epic struggle to write the book. How his own personal passion for bridge sometimes clouded his vision. The many re-writes that he went though. His final compromise: a whale symbol for those "bridge-heavy" scenes that, in truth, could be skipped by the reader if necessary. Sachar spoke with such passion and excitement about this project, it was hard not to get swept up in his enthusiasm. For me, seeing The Cardturner finally in print, it felt like there should be an orchestral swell of inspirational music. And in a way, I suppose it is a miracle that it was published at all. So, I was pretty excited to take a look at this impossible book - the little book that could, as it were. I wish I could say that this book was a triumph against all odds, but for me at least, this novel left me out in the cold.
Diving into The Cardturner, I found the breaking of the fourth-wall a little distracting at first, especially when Alton introduces himself. He says that his name is unusual and I couldn't help but think of the famous scientist and cook Alton Brown. He's been roped into helping his ailing, wealthy uncle Lester Trapp at his local bridge games. Reluctant at first, he quickly becomes entranced by the game, and grows more and more loyal to his quirky uncle, whom his parents are hoping to milk for his inheritance.
Even with the "whale" symbol during some of the "bridge-intensive" portions, I still found myself zoning out. I'm sorry, but even the portions of the book that weren't "whaled" still had way, way too much bridge. The electronic footnotes in my e-book facilitated easy switching back and forth from the story and in-depth information from the addendum on the game of bridge, but it still wasn't enough to keep me up to speed.
There were some bright moments, however. I liked Alton's description of the bridge group that starts, "You know what? I'm not going to describe anybody else as elderly. Let's just say that if you take my age and double it, I would still have been the youngest person in the room, by a lot."
I was horrified by Alton's freakishly bloodthirsty parents. The father literally rubs his hands, vulture-like, at the thought of rich Uncle Lester's impending death. Alton's mother's greatest fear is that Lester will leave them out of the will, or be hoodwinked by some young, good-looking woman in his final days, leaving his fortune to someone outside the family. This is played for humor, but it still seemed quite selfish and revolting. If this had been handled with a bit more pathos, perhaps I wouldn't have found it so off-putting.
Stripping away the bridge from the narrative (which, believe me, is A LOT), we're left with the story of a very dysfunctional family. Alton and his younger sister Leslie (named after Uncle Lester) are both such sweet kids, you wonder how on earth their status and money obsessed, middle-class straggler parents managed to raise them. Alton's best friend Cliff... well, let's just say with friends like that, who needs enemies? Cliff has recently stolen Alton's girlfriend Katie, and seems to be making moves on Toni. I was confused by Alton's crush on Toni, Trapp's former cardturner. Is she not Alton's distant cousin? The book seems to be ricocheting towards an exciting conclusion, and then fizzles out with another very lengthy explanation of some of the final bridge moves employed.
Can I recommend this book? I just don't know. The characters, especially Alton, are compelling. The mystery of how and why certain family members have become estranged also greatly drew my interest. The bridge portions, unfortunately, were mind-numbingly boring, at best. But, if there is even one teen out there who's been turned on to the obscure card game, then I suppose, for Sachar at least, it will have been well worth it.
Diving into The Cardturner, I found the breaking of the fourth-wall a little distracting at first, especially when Alton introduces himself. He says that his name is unusual and I couldn't help but think of the famous scientist and cook Alton Brown. He's been roped into helping his ailing, wealthy uncle Lester Trapp at his local bridge games. Reluctant at first, he quickly becomes entranced by the game, and grows more and more loyal to his quirky uncle, whom his parents are hoping to milk for his inheritance.
Even with the "whale" symbol during some of the "bridge-intensive" portions, I still found myself zoning out. I'm sorry, but even the portions of the book that weren't "whaled" still had way, way too much bridge. The electronic footnotes in my e-book facilitated easy switching back and forth from the story and in-depth information from the addendum on the game of bridge, but it still wasn't enough to keep me up to speed.
There were some bright moments, however. I liked Alton's description of the bridge group that starts, "You know what? I'm not going to describe anybody else as elderly. Let's just say that if you take my age and double it, I would still have been the youngest person in the room, by a lot."
I was horrified by Alton's freakishly bloodthirsty parents. The father literally rubs his hands, vulture-like, at the thought of rich Uncle Lester's impending death. Alton's mother's greatest fear is that Lester will leave them out of the will, or be hoodwinked by some young, good-looking woman in his final days, leaving his fortune to someone outside the family. This is played for humor, but it still seemed quite selfish and revolting. If this had been handled with a bit more pathos, perhaps I wouldn't have found it so off-putting.
Stripping away the bridge from the narrative (which, believe me, is A LOT), we're left with the story of a very dysfunctional family. Alton and his younger sister Leslie (named after Uncle Lester) are both such sweet kids, you wonder how on earth their status and money obsessed, middle-class straggler parents managed to raise them. Alton's best friend Cliff... well, let's just say with friends like that, who needs enemies? Cliff has recently stolen Alton's girlfriend Katie, and seems to be making moves on Toni. I was confused by Alton's crush on Toni, Trapp's former cardturner. Is she not Alton's distant cousin? The book seems to be ricocheting towards an exciting conclusion, and then fizzles out with another very lengthy explanation of some of the final bridge moves employed.
Can I recommend this book? I just don't know. The characters, especially Alton, are compelling. The mystery of how and why certain family members have become estranged also greatly drew my interest. The bridge portions, unfortunately, were mind-numbingly boring, at best. But, if there is even one teen out there who's been turned on to the obscure card game, then I suppose, for Sachar at least, it will have been well worth it.
March 12, 2014
Alton is prodded by his parents into assisting his rich great-Uncle Lester as his cardturner while he plays Bridge so that when Lester passes, he'll write them into his will. Alton discovers in himself an interest in the game, his Uncle, and his maybe-cousin Toni.
I thought the balance of Bridge and narrative was well done; it's obvious that the game is a complicated, intensive beast but Sacher did an amazing job of simplifying it enough that I'm half-tempted to give it a try because it sounds like it could--and would--be a great and challenging time.
That said, there was still a lot about this book that put me off. Part of it was the simplicity of it all; a lot of life's complexities were presented and then never explored or examined. For example, Cliff's manipulations of Alton bothered me from the get-go but Alton excused Cliff up until the very last chapter, which didn't seem to make much sense to me. There wasn't any acknowledgement of what a shitty person Cliff was. All of a sudden, Alton just declares that he won't let himself be manipulated any longer—WHICH IS GREAT, OF COURSE. Just offer your readers insight into how he got to that point, you know?
And the push to manipulate Lester into putting Alton's family in his will is never examined. Alton reveals that he would have meant his "I-love-yous" and "your-my-favorite-Uncles" if he'd said them after he became Lester's cardturner, but he doesn't seem to feel any guilt about the fact that his mother was shoving herself into Lester's life and being rude to those he cared about (i.e., Mrs. Mahoney, Toni, Sophie). There's no self-reflection to add any weight to these things; they're just stated and then left for the reader to pick up. But what's the point in examining them any closer if the narrator doesn't bother to?
In addition, I definitely find myself in agreement with Jess, who read and reviewed this book for the YA / MG Book Battle regarding the conflation of mental illness and the supernatural element. It seems a very oblivious way to handle such a serious topic, and it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.
Overall: enjoyable, but problematic. I feel like this could have used a bit more time to stew; it might have resulted in a bit more ... fleshing. (What awkward words to use in the same sentence.)
I thought the balance of Bridge and narrative was well done; it's obvious that the game is a complicated, intensive beast but Sacher did an amazing job of simplifying it enough that I'm half-tempted to give it a try because it sounds like it could--and would--be a great and challenging time.
That said, there was still a lot about this book that put me off. Part of it was the simplicity of it all; a lot of life's complexities were presented and then never explored or examined. For example, Cliff's manipulations of Alton bothered me from the get-go but Alton excused Cliff up until the very last chapter, which didn't seem to make much sense to me. There wasn't any acknowledgement of what a shitty person Cliff was. All of a sudden, Alton just declares that he won't let himself be manipulated any longer—WHICH IS GREAT, OF COURSE. Just offer your readers insight into how he got to that point, you know?
And the push to manipulate Lester into putting Alton's family in his will is never examined. Alton reveals that he would have meant his "I-love-yous" and "your-my-favorite-Uncles" if he'd said them after he became Lester's cardturner, but he doesn't seem to feel any guilt about the fact that his mother was shoving herself into Lester's life and being rude to those he cared about (i.e., Mrs. Mahoney, Toni, Sophie). There's no self-reflection to add any weight to these things; they're just stated and then left for the reader to pick up. But what's the point in examining them any closer if the narrator doesn't bother to?
In addition, I definitely find myself in agreement with Jess, who read and reviewed this book for the YA / MG Book Battle regarding the conflation of mental illness and the supernatural element. It seems a very oblivious way to handle such a serious topic, and it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.
Overall: enjoyable, but problematic. I feel like this could have used a bit more time to stew; it might have resulted in a bit more ... fleshing. (What awkward words to use in the same sentence.)
April 13, 2011
I picked up Louis Sachar's new book The Cardturner because I liked the cover. This is funny because usually when I do the book-by-the-cover thing I end up horribly disappointed. Ironically, the only major disappointment I had was actually about the cover--there were no scenes where the main character, Alton Richards, sleeps on a bench in a bus depot.
Alton Richards is a typical seventeen year old: he's lazy, he loves his little sister, and feels really conflicted about his best friend Cliff dating his ex-girlfriend Katie. His parents are moneygrubbing vultures who are waiting for Alton's great uncle Lester Trapp to die and leave them with a fortune. The moneygrubbing parents are framed as a comedic part (I wish this were taken more seriously) taken to such an extreme that I wondered how Alton and his sister Leslie escaped the greediness gene. Anyway, this sucking up to uncle Lester leads to Alton's summer job. Trapp has gone blind due to complications from diabetes so Alton has to take him to the bridge club and read out Trapp's hand for him. At this point the story shifts a little to guide the reader through the basics of bridge as Alton starts to gain an appreciation for the game. Surprisingly this did not bore me; I was actually interested in learning the game and it was nicely done. For those who are more "TL;DR" about bridge, Alton uses a little whale symbol to signify to the reader they can skip to a little summary box to understand what the term meant.
Trapp only sees Alton for his laziness and thinks he can't handle playing a round of bridge. In contrast, he starts asking Toni Casteneda, Alton's schizophrenic niece through his ex-wife, to play as his partner instead. Toni is Alton's age, and the two start spending a great deal of time together apart from their uncle Lester time. As the summer progresses Alton starts getting involved in a mystery that makes the supernatural elements and epic family saga twists of Holes seem as straightforward as a Dr. Seuss book. I really don't want to spoil anyone, so that's as far as I'll get in my review. All I can say is that Sachar, an avid bridge player, made me love the book so much that I'm checking out the games that my parents used to play. I really, really loved it.
Alton Richards is a typical seventeen year old: he's lazy, he loves his little sister, and feels really conflicted about his best friend Cliff dating his ex-girlfriend Katie. His parents are moneygrubbing vultures who are waiting for Alton's great uncle Lester Trapp to die and leave them with a fortune. The moneygrubbing parents are framed as a comedic part (I wish this were taken more seriously) taken to such an extreme that I wondered how Alton and his sister Leslie escaped the greediness gene. Anyway, this sucking up to uncle Lester leads to Alton's summer job. Trapp has gone blind due to complications from diabetes so Alton has to take him to the bridge club and read out Trapp's hand for him. At this point the story shifts a little to guide the reader through the basics of bridge as Alton starts to gain an appreciation for the game. Surprisingly this did not bore me; I was actually interested in learning the game and it was nicely done. For those who are more "TL;DR" about bridge, Alton uses a little whale symbol to signify to the reader they can skip to a little summary box to understand what the term meant.
Trapp only sees Alton for his laziness and thinks he can't handle playing a round of bridge. In contrast, he starts asking Toni Casteneda, Alton's schizophrenic niece through his ex-wife, to play as his partner instead. Toni is Alton's age, and the two start spending a great deal of time together apart from their uncle Lester time. As the summer progresses Alton starts getting involved in a mystery that makes the supernatural elements and epic family saga twists of Holes seem as straightforward as a Dr. Seuss book. I really don't want to spoil anyone, so that's as far as I'll get in my review. All I can say is that Sachar, an avid bridge player, made me love the book so much that I'm checking out the games that my parents used to play. I really, really loved it.
October 6, 2011
I'm going to tell anyone who's reading this right now: I'm not a Louis Sachar fan. I find his books flat and boring but a friend of mine said I should give him another chance and try this one. I hate to bag on my friend's reading choices but this is the worst that I've read by far. The book reads like scrabbled eggs: the chapters are almost always two or three pages long and are so scattered it made my head spin. Sachar made it worse by having his narrator apologize for not telling us his name sooner. Did his editor make him put that in or did he really think his readers would care? The plot wasn't much better: it's all about bridge, Sachar just threw in a plot here and there so his publishers wouldn't get mad.
Sachar also made it sound like a how-to book on playing bridge, something he specifically says in the book that he is not trying to do. The characters that he uses to make his how-to guide slightly more interesting aren't much better. They're all flat and no one goes through character development even thought Sachar claims the narrator does. In the final dozen chapters or so(there's about 60 of them, by the way, and for a 300 page book, that's way too many) he adds on a twist: his narrator and his bridge partner are bonkers. The narrator can hear his great-uncle's voice in his head, his partner hears her grandmother's voice. Though, instead of muttering on about things that don't make any sense, like I would assume normal schizophrenics would hear, the voices tell the duo how to play bridge better. Pretty convenient right? The author tries to make it all make sense, but he failed hilariously and just alienated the audience more. I honestly don't understand how this piece of garbage got published but I have a feeling I already do. Since Sachar is an award-winning author, his publishers turned a blind eye and the editors didn't bother to tell him how bad it was. I found this sad, and expected Sachar to do better. None of his other books were this awful, so I'd expected that as he wrote more, maybe his stories would get better too. I was dead wrong there, so I encourage no one to encourage him to write more awful novels by reading this.
Sachar also made it sound like a how-to book on playing bridge, something he specifically says in the book that he is not trying to do. The characters that he uses to make his how-to guide slightly more interesting aren't much better. They're all flat and no one goes through character development even thought Sachar claims the narrator does. In the final dozen chapters or so(there's about 60 of them, by the way, and for a 300 page book, that's way too many) he adds on a twist: his narrator and his bridge partner are bonkers. The narrator can hear his great-uncle's voice in his head, his partner hears her grandmother's voice. Though, instead of muttering on about things that don't make any sense, like I would assume normal schizophrenics would hear, the voices tell the duo how to play bridge better. Pretty convenient right? The author tries to make it all make sense, but he failed hilariously and just alienated the audience more. I honestly don't understand how this piece of garbage got published but I have a feeling I already do. Since Sachar is an award-winning author, his publishers turned a blind eye and the editors didn't bother to tell him how bad it was. I found this sad, and expected Sachar to do better. None of his other books were this awful, so I'd expected that as he wrote more, maybe his stories would get better too. I was dead wrong there, so I encourage no one to encourage him to write more awful novels by reading this.
January 22, 2014
I never thought I would read a book about bridge, but THE CARDTURNER proved me wrong. I found myself thinking about this book when I should have been thinking about my Anthropology midterm, and believe me, after I finished my midterm, I picked up this book and finished it as quickly as I could.
Admittedly, I only picked the book up because it was by Louis Sachar, beloved by anyone who has ever read HOLES or his WAYSIDE SCHOOL series. But the description on the book jacket was so intriguing, that even though I knew absolutely nothing about bridge, I wanted to read it.
I still don't 100% understand the basics of bridge, but I don't think the point of the book was to teach readers how to play bridge. (There is, however, a very helpful commentary at the back of the book, that explains some of the finer points that come up in the book. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this section until I'd finished the book -- so just giving you guys a heads up.)
The narrator and main character is almost instantly likable. Because he starts off not knowing bridge, you learn alongside him, which is great. I felt like I was with him every step of the way, although I don't think I progressed much further than "dim understanding of what was going on during the bridge games." Nevertheless, when his skill began to greatly surpass my understanding, I was very content to sit back and root for him.
The relationship between the main character and his (great-)uncle was definitely the most intriguing thing. I could never really tell what his uncle thought of him, until the end of Chapter 74. I admit I teared up reading that page, because it was so unexpected and yet so perfectly appropriate. Sachar knew what he was doing when he wrote this book.
On a somewhat related note, I hope this leads to more people playing bridge. It sounds like a great, intellectual game to me, and we can never have enough of those.
April 14, 2014
In case you have any doubt, this is a book about the card game bridge. Sachar does not use bridge as a way to tell the story of a 17-year-old boy and his family. He uses a 17-year-old boy and his family to tell the story of bridge. He's very up front about this right from the start of the book - even mentioning that his editor and his family thought he was nuts to want to write a young adult novel that would have a lot of "bridge gibberish" in it. For me, the story worked. I didn't know a thing about bridge before I started and I only know a very little bit now, but I do know when I've enjoyed a story. Alton is the 17-year-old boy. All his life his family has been waiting for rich old Uncle Lester to kick the bucket hoping to grab the lion's share of the inheritance. Their big chance comes when the uncle goes blind from diabetes and needs someone to become his "cardturner" at his local bridge club. Uncle Lester was once a "big-time" bridge player with a very unusual partner. As Alton slowly and painfully learns the intricacies of bridge, he also learns some things about his family and that not all the stories he's been told are the true ones. There are lots of asides (lots) about bridge, which Sachar helpfully separates from the narrative with images of whales in the book (think Moby-Dick) and a foghorn in the audio version. After a detailed explanation he offers a short version so you can at least get the basics on what happened. But even if you choose to ignore or gloss over these sections, you really won't miss any of the story. And you just might want to check out your local bridge club. I listened to the audio version narrated by the author, who sounds exactly like David Sedaris. At first I was concerned that he wouldn't do a good job narrating from a teenager's point of view, but I quickly warmed to his performance.
May 11, 2010
Alton gets roped into helping his very wealthy great uncle for the summer. The uncle has recently gone blind, but he is an avid Bridge player and he wants Alton to be his "cardturner." Alton, who is getting over a broken heart after his girlfriend dumped him for his best friend and has nothing else to do over the summer, is intrigued to meet this mysterious uncle that he's heard so much about all of his life. Gradually, Alton becomes interested in the game of Bridge and in his uncle's young friend, Tomie.
Alton is an extremely likable character, and he reminds me of several teenage guys I know. He lets his best friend, his mother, and sometimes even his little sister push him around with maybe a world weary sigh but little acrimony. Basically he does what he needs to do, but very little else...or so you might think, but really he's paying a lot more attention than most people realize.
When discussion gets technical, Sachar provides readers with a signal, which is helpful and amusing. Holes is such a great book for reluctant readers, but I'm wondering if this will be too technical for reluctant readers. Still, you never know! I'll definitely try promoting it to all of my students.
Alton is an extremely likable character, and he reminds me of several teenage guys I know. He lets his best friend, his mother, and sometimes even his little sister push him around with maybe a world weary sigh but little acrimony. Basically he does what he needs to do, but very little else...or so you might think, but really he's paying a lot more attention than most people realize.
When discussion gets technical, Sachar provides readers with a signal, which is helpful and amusing. Holes is such a great book for reluctant readers, but I'm wondering if this will be too technical for reluctant readers. Still, you never know! I'll definitely try promoting it to all of my students.
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