The Cardturner

Louis Sachar is one of the few people who could write a YA novel about bridge and get it published. But if you are the author of Holes, not to mention Sideways Stories from Wayside School, you can pretty much write about anything you want, apparently.

I just sought out interviews with Sachar about The Cardturner, and this one is good; apparently writing a novel about bridge was his editor's idea?! If you want to read more interviews, this one is good too. Anyway.

Theresa Molter and I went and heard him read from this when it came out in 2010--it was great to see him read, since he's been so important to me since I was a kid. He's definitely on the Top 100 Most Influential Writers list. Towards the beginning--#15--Holes wasn't published until 1998, and I graduated high school in 1994, so that one is a book I read as an adult, but the Sideways Schools books started--I think?--in 1978. The wikipedia entry on Sideways Schools is fascinating and worth checking out, but I couldn't really find a pub date, and the books have been reissued so many times....

Anyway. I've checked this book out of the library numerous times, and never got around to reading it until now, when I just saw it on the shelf and thought, it might be time... and it was. Was supposed to be reading my book about fonts for bookclub, but got sucked into this one and couldn't stop. And now I want to learn bridge. I love complicated card games anyway, so yeah.

But this is a strange novel, and I wonder if anyone else could've gotten it published.

But if you like Louis Sachar, and you like cards, this might be the book for you!