Twelve Grand

by Jonathan Rendall

John thought it would be a breeze. A London publisher asked him to gamble ú12,000 and write a book about it. But as the bets went down in Vegas, John found he was gambling with everything and everyone he had ever known. Now, the book is being filmed as a 4-part television series by Britain's Channel Four.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Jonathan Rendall was an acclaimed British author and Somerset Maugham Award winner known for his gritty, semi-autobiographical explorations of boxing and gambling. Educated at Oxford, he famously advised world champion Colin McMillan and starred in Channel 4’s The Gambler. His bibliography includes This Bloody Mary and Garden Hopping, a memoir reflecting on his own adoption. Rendall’s work remains a poignant chronicle of risk and personal identity.

Reviews

[Seth]

This is a real crusher. The premise is gambling, which I don't really care about and yet Rendall's language adds a fascinating texture to each bet. But he jumps the fence of that initial premise right quick.

It's also about love and imminent death and where all these things intersect. It's thick, and occasionally Rendall drops a killer sentence unobtrusively mid-paragraph. Wild, sometimes. He alternates between two voices, one for the past and one for the present, and I loved the disparity. Warning: if shorthand drives you crazy, you'll have a real tough time of it toward the end.

In the vein of Kerouac, or Thompson, or Klosterman, maybe. One of my tops.

[Scott McKenzie]

Five word review: One of my favourite books

[Rico Caraco]

This book has everything I loved it, so much that even though I accidentally bought two copies on Amazon I have no intention of sending the second copy back but am going to work who my most deserving friend is and give it to them as a present. I grew up a teenage small stakes compulsive gambler not far from where Jonathan Rendall wrote this from in his cottage in Suffolk. So this grabbed me. He's unbelievably talented, a proper British Bukowski but that's faint praise. Desperate, heartbreaking tales of love won and races lost spanning childhood memoir, a sexual coming of age in heady 80s Greece and his quest to dispose of 12 Grand in the most heightened and deliriously committed way possible. God just read it even if you've zero interest in betting, Vegas or horses.

[Chaz Q]

Thought this would be about gambling tactics & casino betting - partly right.
More to do with the author's past life & love (+unfortunate addiction to drink).
Some great one-liners, insightful inner thoughts, a blokes perspective I could relate to etc but somehow lacked a real deepness maybe.
Concept was that our man is given a dire prognosis by his GP due to his alcohol intake. He then receives an out of the blue phone call from a publisher offering him £12k to gamble but on condition that he write a book about the gambling experience. If he loses the money so be it, if he makes a profit - he keeps the lot - the publishers just want the book.
A lot of present day to past life and back again - which works.

[Marty]

Brilliant, tragic - especially considering the author's life. I have read it several times and really dig the deep dark self-implosion aspects. Kind of like an English middle-class version of Denis Johnson's Fuckhead character.

Highly recommended, along with the other few pieces Rendall left us before his very early death.

[Mike Rymarz]

So disappointed. Great premise but not enough about the gambling. And he seemed allergic to vowels at various points. Didn't click with his style

[Datsun]

Interesting idea, but comes apart at the end. It's one thing to let your life dissolve into abbreviated gestures and nervous tics, it's something else to expect readers to put up w/ page aftr pg of wrds w/o vwls, sntncs w/no vrbs, & strng abbs t v.s.r.

Of course, seeing as I got it at a thrift store, I guess it wasn't a bad use of 50p.

[Tom]

Good read. Quite sad at times.

[Mark]

Premise is fun but the just all falls away horribly.
The shrthnd is V. bad and makes the lst few chaptrs barely readable.