Details Books To The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel

Original Title:	The Ballad of a Small Player
ISBN:	0804137994 (ISBN13: 9780804137997)
Setting:	Macao(China)

The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel Paperback | Pages: 272 pages

Describe Out Of Books The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel

Title	:	The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel
Author	:	Lawrence Osborne
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 272 pages
Published	:	January 13th 2015 by Hogarth (first published April 3rd 2014)
Categories	:	Fiction. Literary Fiction. Novels. Cultural. China. Asia. Mystery. Travel

Commentary Concering Books The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel

A riveting tale of risk and obsession set in the alluring world of Macau’s casinos, by the author of the critically acclaimed The Forgiven.
 
As night falls on Macau and the neon signs that line the rain-slick streets come alive, Doyle – “Lord Doyle” to his fellow players – descends into his casino of choice to try his luck at the baccarat tables that are the anchor of his current existence. A corrupt English lawyer who has escaped prosecution by fleeing to the East, Doyle spends his nights drinking and gambling and his days sleeping off his excesses, continually haunted by his past. Taking refuge in a series of louche and dimly lit hotels, he watches his fortune rise and fall as the cards decide his fate.
 
In a moment of crisis he meets Dao-Ming, an enigmatic Chinese woman who appears to be a denizen of the casinos just like himself, and seems to offer him salvation in the form of both money and love. But as Doyle attempts to make a rare and true connection, all that he accepts as reality seems to be slipping from his grasp. 
 
Resonant of classics by Dostoevsky and Graham Greene, The Ballad of a Small Player is a timeless tale steeped in eerie suspense and rich atmosphere.




From the Hardcover edition.

Rating Out Of Books The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel

Ratings: 3.42 From 885 Users | 192 Reviews

Article Out Of Books The Ballad of a Small Player: A Novel

I enjoyed the book, but probably would have liked it more if I knew the rules to baccarat.

Lord Doyle isn't really a Lord though he is called Lord Doyle in Macau. He is a crooked lawyer from England who has transplanted himself to Macau in order to gamble away the money that he has embezzled from an elderly English client. Macau is west of Hong Kong, in Mainland China, and this is where Doyle plays his game of choice, Baccarat. For most of the book, he plays in a casino called Lisboa but he travels to other casinos in Hong Kong from time to time. He is nonchalant about the game

Finished, and the ending was just so beautifully thoughtful :')"We said nothing, and indeed, looked at from the point of view of eternity, there was nothing to say anyway"

Decadence is word bandied about all of the time, and usually in the wrong context. Decadence is a certain fin-de-siecle world-weariness. It is about the decay of life not the joy of it. The literature of the last decade of the 19th Century is the high-point of decadent writing. For reasons unknown, there is more decadent writing at the beginning of the 21st century than at the end of the 20th. High among contemporary practitioners is Lawrence Osborne. His literary essay THE POISONED EMBRACE,

3.75/5 I don't really have any idea what this book meant, but it was intriguing....

Well. That was a disappointment.Update: I was wrong. I had, indeed read 3 other books by Osborne in the couple of months prior to reading Ballad of a Small Player. I thought I wanted a reading experience that mirrored one of those other books. Since every Osborne novel is a world unto itself with little in common with any other, my desire was guaranteed to lead to frustration and not the fault of Ballad. Ballad is a solid 3 star read. The main character,Doyle, a British ex-pat, reminded me of

Well. That was a disappointment.Update: I was wrong. I had, indeed read 3 other books by Osborne in the couple of months prior to reading Ballad of a Small Player. I thought I wanted a reading experience that mirrored one of those other books. Since every Osborne novel is a world unto itself with little in common with any other, my desire was guaranteed to lead to frustration and not the fault of Ballad. Ballad is a solid 3 star read. The main character,Doyle, a British ex-pat, reminded me of