theparisreview:“Some games go sour as soon as you begin. Some,...

theparisreview:

“Some games go sour as soon as you begin. Some, that you don’t enjoy defeating, give you free ball after free ball, and only greed tempered by heady exemption makes you go on playing: I’ll never win this good again. And on you go, afraid to leave it, certainly at night, when no kid comes to hover at your elbow, his face alive with yearning, and you wave him toward you, tell him to play the five free games racked up, as if you’re giving him the plasma of life itself, and go on h...