Pocket Kings
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
In this dead-on satire of online obsessions, a novelist with writer's block finds a new—and very lucrative—stream of income in a virtual world that appears to give him everything he lacks in the real world.
When Frank Dixon, a frustrated writer who has seen his career crash and burn, decides to dabble in online poker, he discovers he has a knack for winning. In this newfound realm, populated by alluring characters—each of them elusive, mysterious, and glamorous—he becomes a smash success: popular, rich, and loved. Going by the name Chip Zero, he sees his fortunes and romantic liaisons thrive in cyberspace while he remains blind to the fact that his real life is sinking. His online success, however, does not come without complications, as he comes to realize that his "virtual" friends and lovers are, in fact, very real, and one rival player is not at all happy that Mr. Zero has taken all his money.
Heller's cautionary tale is continually surprising and startlingly real, a tour de force of satirical storytelling in the vein of Jonathan Tropper and Sam Lipsyte.
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Ted Heller. (2012). Pocket Kings. Algonquin Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Ted Heller. 2012. Pocket Kings. Algonquin Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Ted Heller, Pocket Kings. Algonquin Books, 2012.
MLA Citation (style guide)Ted Heller. Pocket Kings. Algonquin Books, 2012.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 2 | 2 |
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- bioText: Ted Heller is the author of Slab Rat, which GQ magazine called "diabolically witty" and the Washington Post called "uncommonly smart, funny, and dead on" and named as one of their Ten Best Novels of the Year. He is also the author of Funnymen, which the Guardian called "a masterpiece of comic invention" and the Times called "one of the most satisfying books in years." Previously a senior writer at Nickelodeon Magazine, Heller lives in New York.
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In this dead-on satire of online obsessions, a novelist with writer's block finds a new—and very lucrative—stream of income in a virtual world that appears to give him everything he lacks in the real world.
When Frank Dixon, a frustrated writer who has seen his career crash and burn, decides to dabble in online poker, he discovers he has a knack for winning. In this newfound realm, populated by alluring characters—each of them elusive, mysterious, and glamorous—he becomes a smash success: popular, rich, and loved. Going by the name Chip Zero, he sees his fortunes and romantic liaisons thrive in cyberspace while he remains blind to the fact that his real life is sinking. His online success, however, does not come without complications, as he comes to realize that his "virtual" friends and lovers are, in fact, very real, and one rival player is not at all happy that Mr. Zero has taken all his money.
Heller's cautionary tale is continually surprising and startlingly real, a tour de force of satirical storytelling in the vein of Jonathan Tropper and Sam Lipsyte.- reviews
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January 9, 2012
The anti-hero of Heller’s third novel (after Funnymen) is Frank Dixon, a resentful schlub who’s failed at everything he’s puts his mind to: athletics, painting, and, most recently, writing. Stuck in a midlife crisis, Frank finds Internet poker and discovers that he has some talent after all. He immerses himself in a virtual community where he makes friends and potential lovers, all while winning money unstoppably. As he alienates people in the real world—from his wife to his literary agent—he delves further into his online relationships and begins to lose himself to his addiction. As “Chip Zero,” he builds a fortune, but his success breeds resentment, and one player in particular plots revenge to get his money back. The obnoxious narrator, his endless failures, and the instant messaging all grow tiresome, but Heller should be commended for creating a thoroughly repellent character whose story is captivating, even compulsive, reading. While the book has the gritty, unpleasant feel of a novel by Chuck Palahniuk or Sam Lipsyte—another futile diatribe against the barrenness of 21st-century American (male) life—it’s a well-crafted and entertaining satire on the world of modern publishing, as well as the perverse artificiality of the Internet. The prose equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, Heller still manages to make the reader laugh and rage at more or less the same time. Agent: Matthew Elblonk, the Creative Culture.
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February 15, 2012
When a writer unfortunately named Franklin W. Dixon (think Hardy Boys) begins to play online poker, his life takes a strange turn. His two published books have received little attention, and he cannot find a publisher for the third; however, hiding behind the moniker Chip Zero, he finds both competitive and social success online. As he becomes addicted to easy money, virtual voyeurism, and online relationships, his real-world ambitions and marriage come tragically, but humorously, apart; his wife can't understand him, critics and other writers shun him, and his agent hides from him. The failure to connect in his real life sends Dixon on two raucous, raunchy road trips to connect with Internet friends and lovers and to revive his writing career. VERDICT The pace is fast, the plot twisty, and the satire bites viciously as Heller (Slab Rat; Funnymen) takes gleeful chunks out of the publishing world, Internet culture, and the poker craze, all the while addressing serious questions about the nature of success and reality. Thoroughly unlikable yet somehow sympathetic, Dixon is a comic protagonist for the digital age, and this novel is good, angry fun.--Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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February 15, 2012
The writing career of New Yorker Frank Dixon is going downhill: the Amazon rankings of his first two books are slipping, and his third is so darkly disturbing that his agent can't sell it. Having failed as an athlete in his youth and as an artist in his early adulthood, and feeling desperate to do well at something, Frank finally finds success at online poker. Taking the moniker of Chip Zero at pokergalaxy.com, he's soon making so much money playing Texas Hold 'Em that he quits his day job. But easy money isn't his only online temptation, as he develops more than a friendship with fellow player Artsy Party Gal, and the two (both married) arrange to meet. Frank's first-person narrative varies from laugh-out-loud funny to depressing to scathing, as when he lashes out at persons in the book trade whom he views (sometimes rightly) as ill-treating him. There is a certain Everyman quality to Frank, whose hopes gradually fade away but whose self-deprecating humor helps carry him through his midlife angst and denial of addiction; you want to wish him well.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
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Starred review from June 25, 2012
Struggling writer Frank Dixon takes to online gambling as a means of supplementing his rather stagnant income, but forgets that in the gaming world he shouldn’t cross the wrong people. Narrator William Roberts delivers a stellar turn as Dixon—a man so easily carried away by the prospect of free money that he loses himself and his life in the process. Roberts all but transforms himself into Dixon in this audio edition, sinking deeper and deeper until the point of no return. The highs are as genuine as the lowest of the lows for Dixon, and Roberts manages to paint a realistic portrayal of a man who stands to lose everything he has—including his life. As Dixon, Roberts’s tone is stern yet frustrated. But as luck abounds, Roberts adjusts accordingly to capture a man on the rebound, who believes his dreams might not be that unattainable after all. Of course, luck has to run out at some point, and when it does, Roberts captures the moment perfectly. An Algonquin paperback.
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When Frank Dixon, a frustrated writer who has seen his career crash and burn, decides to dabble in online poker, he discovers he has a knack for winning. In this newfound realm, populated by alluring characters—each of them elusive, mysterious, and glamorous—he becomes a smash success: popular, rich, and loved. Going by the name Chip Zero, he sees his fortunes and romantic liaisons thrive in cyberspace while he remains blind to the fact that his real life is sinking. His online success, however, does not come without complications, as he comes to realize that his "virtual" friends and lovers are, in fact, very real, and one rival player is not at all happy that Mr. Zero has taken all his money.
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