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Love and Other Games of Chance: A Novelty
The flamboyant hero of this zany, wildly comic novel is Isaac Schlossberg—circus performer, entertainer, world traveler. The son of Jewish immigrants who arrived in America at the turn of the last century, Isaac spends his formative years in California, working sideshows, Wild West jamborees, and early films, before going on to India, England, Paris, Hollywood, and perhaps even to the top of Mt. Everest. Isaac organizes the tall tales of his past into one hundred chapters or squares—like those on the children’s game of Snakes and Ladders. As he travels, he moves through erotic love affairs with, among others, a Jewish tightrope walker, the daughter of a Hindu snake charmer, and a mystical British aviatrix. Raucous and inventive, this three-ring circus of a novel is at once silly and grand, absurd yet full of meaning.
432 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 2003
About the author
Lee A. Siegel
13 books7 followersLee A. Siegel is a novelist and professor of religion at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is not related to the critic Lee Siegel. In 1988 Siegel was a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow [1]. He has received numerous fellowships and grants including five Senior Research Fellowships from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the Smithsonian Institute (1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1996), four research grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council (1982, 1985, 1987, 1990) and one from the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. In addition Professor Siegel has been two Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching (1986 and 1996). He has been a scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation, and twice at the Bellagio Study Center (1990 and 2003). He also was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College of Oxford University (1997).
Siegel has published a number of novels including: Who Wrote the Book of Love, Laughing Matters, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Love in a Dead Language. His most recent novel is Love and the Incredibly Old Man (2008).
His son is film actor Sebastian Siegel.
Siegel has published a number of novels including: Who Wrote the Book of Love, Laughing Matters, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Love in a Dead Language. His most recent novel is Love and the Incredibly Old Man (2008).
His son is film actor Sebastian Siegel.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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July 23, 2011I've started this book four times and have yet to get past page 15. I'm not sure if the problem is with me or with the book; in any event, it's obviously not my fate to read this one.
September 7, 2012
I picked up this book at Powell's in Oregon (the largest bookstore I've ever been to). It was on sale for $4.99 and the title intrigued me. As I read the inside cover it sounded like just my cup of tea. It involved magic, circus, love and a snakes and ladders game. It sounded like pure fun. I was not disappointed, but was pleasantly surprised that it was also philosophical which are my favourite kinds of books to read.
The first thing I loved about this book is that it involved Jewish circus performs. I love Russian literature for it's down to earth faith that permeates all aspects of life. This book portrayed Jewish life in the same way and I lapped up ever second page filled with great quotes. Here are some of them.
"As long as everyone remembers what he is supposed to remember , the word of our God, the creator of all will be kept alive"
"to be a Jew means to love words and stories"
"Every Jew is a character in a story that began with Abraham and has yet to end"
"Even though I do not believe in God, am beginning a story within a story"
"It made you want to take our religion seriously, to actually believe it is holy for a man and woman to love each other, and even to believe that we, men and women, really are created in the image of Elohim"
As a Christian grafted into the Jewish family as an adopted member, I have always LOVED the stories in the Old Testament. They speak so much of life and deep truth that I love rereading them over and over again.
The second great thing about this book is that the entire book is laid out like a game of snakes and ladders. The chapters are black and white numbered squares corresponding to the squares of a snakes and ladders game. In fact there is a copy of the board depicted in the prologue of the book. Some chapters begin with a snakes head or a ladder and others end with a snakes tail or a ladder end. It is a clever plot that is used as a facet of the story to talk about philosophy and fate and chance.
"By luck or chance or fate, as if by a shake of dice, we encounter people in one square of their life at one time in one place"
"I like snakes and ladders because playing it is like living a life"
"I have barred him from our game because he will not play by the rules"
"I decided to give chance a chance and follow the rolls of unseen dice"
"snakes and ladders, I like to imagine, by making sense of a senseless past as it orders memory into squares, episodes and scenes, offers a heavenly glimpse of earthly patterns"
Overall, this book was a joy to read. I was happy to pick it up and have discovered that I am getting good at knowing what type of books I like to read simply from covers, titles and jacket descriptions. I have had many a happy accident from choosing discount books that leap of the shelves at me. If you haven't tried that before I highly recommend it!
The first thing I loved about this book is that it involved Jewish circus performs. I love Russian literature for it's down to earth faith that permeates all aspects of life. This book portrayed Jewish life in the same way and I lapped up ever second page filled with great quotes. Here are some of them.
"As long as everyone remembers what he is supposed to remember , the word of our God, the creator of all will be kept alive"
"to be a Jew means to love words and stories"
"Every Jew is a character in a story that began with Abraham and has yet to end"
"Even though I do not believe in God, am beginning a story within a story"
"It made you want to take our religion seriously, to actually believe it is holy for a man and woman to love each other, and even to believe that we, men and women, really are created in the image of Elohim"
As a Christian grafted into the Jewish family as an adopted member, I have always LOVED the stories in the Old Testament. They speak so much of life and deep truth that I love rereading them over and over again.
The second great thing about this book is that the entire book is laid out like a game of snakes and ladders. The chapters are black and white numbered squares corresponding to the squares of a snakes and ladders game. In fact there is a copy of the board depicted in the prologue of the book. Some chapters begin with a snakes head or a ladder and others end with a snakes tail or a ladder end. It is a clever plot that is used as a facet of the story to talk about philosophy and fate and chance.
"By luck or chance or fate, as if by a shake of dice, we encounter people in one square of their life at one time in one place"
"I like snakes and ladders because playing it is like living a life"
"I have barred him from our game because he will not play by the rules"
"I decided to give chance a chance and follow the rolls of unseen dice"
"snakes and ladders, I like to imagine, by making sense of a senseless past as it orders memory into squares, episodes and scenes, offers a heavenly glimpse of earthly patterns"
Overall, this book was a joy to read. I was happy to pick it up and have discovered that I am getting good at knowing what type of books I like to read simply from covers, titles and jacket descriptions. I have had many a happy accident from choosing discount books that leap of the shelves at me. If you haven't tried that before I highly recommend it!
January 13, 2014
Book review: _Love and Other Games of Chance_ by Lee Siegel. I haven't read many novels in the past few years but this one is of the sort that renews my enthusiasm. The main character of this first-person narrative is Isaac Schlossberg, born American in 1899, a showman, snake handler, wanderer and writer who leaves 100 brief chapters that are mapped to spots on a gameboard of Snakes and Ladders. (In my house it was Chutes 'n' Ladders.) The central business of the life recounted is love (and sex), and the narrator introduces the reader to each of the 10 women who mattered to him in this way.
It's a big book - way too big to even summarize in a FB post. So I'll get to the pitch. This book is amusing, witty, erudite, lewd, inspiring, poignant. It uses several languages (but it's not "hard) and it has great fun with English. I so enjoyed Chapter 50 that I got Henry to read it. (Professor Wonderful had a Big Trick of burying himself alive. He died when his minders forgot to dig him up. A couple of times. :-)) There's a Whydini, a Wheredini, a Whendini and a Whendini.
Lots of fun. And the title is relevant. There is a point about the influence of chance on what we think of as fated.
It's a big book - way too big to even summarize in a FB post. So I'll get to the pitch. This book is amusing, witty, erudite, lewd, inspiring, poignant. It uses several languages (but it's not "hard) and it has great fun with English. I so enjoyed Chapter 50 that I got Henry to read it. (Professor Wonderful had a Big Trick of burying himself alive. He died when his minders forgot to dig him up. A couple of times. :-)) There's a Whydini, a Wheredini, a Whendini and a Whendini.
Lots of fun. And the title is relevant. There is a point about the influence of chance on what we think of as fated.
March 10, 2008
this book is hilarious and so very, extremely quirky (erotic) and clever!... the use of language! the characters! i am thoroughly enjoying myself. at the point in the book i'm currently reading, the main character is in love with a brilliant young woman who only likes to have intimate encounters in precise imitation of elaborate animal sexual acts. this novel is written in a fast-talking kind of magic realism style that's more, uh, carnival real magic-ism? comedy is tragedy, tragedy is comedy... FANTASTIC! totally unpredictable...
January 3, 2012
This book, because of its form, is a commitment. An adventure in the reading. The experimental nature of the book, never gets in the way of the story. I was so intensely drawn into the narrative, that when connections were missing I didn't care, then when they came clear, it was like a bonus feature. Really engrossing. This book was so much fun, I was sad when I got to the end. I don't understand why more people don't like it. Good stuff.
Currently Reading
September 15, 2008fictional origins of the game chutes and ladders which was originally called snakes and ladders. each chapter is the same number of words long. it's a good one to read a chapter at a time. entertaining but not so much that you can't go to sleep.
July 10, 2009
i have to return this to i Emerson library, not nearly enough read. but WHOA i will buy it- this is an amazing formally-experimental, memoir/historical-fiction bending histophile sideshow-lover's experience waiting to be had. so great. so far. can't wait.
June 20, 2008
This book is crazy. It's pretty much about the "freak show" in old time circuses. It was good. It's a very big book.
Read
February 21, 2010Love and Other Games of Chance : A Novelty by Lee Siegel (2004)
Want to Read
July 5, 2012Recommended by Myron S.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews