Synopses & Reviews
A gloriously written memoir of growing up in a family of hard- core gamblers-Martha Frankel thought the gambling gene had passed her by, until she found herself addicted to online poker and knee-deep in debt.
Most weekends when Martha Frankel was a kid, her mother had a mah-jongg game going in the kitchen with her girlfriends while their husbands were in the living room playing poker. Once Frankel reached adulthood, however, while her cousins were making their way in the world as bookies and drug dealers, gambling didn't much factor into her life.
In the tradition of Five-Finger Discount by Helene Stapinski and Dry by Augusten Burroughs, Hats & Eyeglasses traces Frankel's love affair with poker. It was a passion that bit her in her mid-forties and remained harmless enough when she stuck to real cards. But everything changed one evening in 1998 in Atlantic City, when Frankel overheard one dealer bemoan the fact that his tips that evening were going to be small what with the meager crowd assembled. Another dealer mentioned that everyone must be playing online-"Why leave the house when you can play in your pajamas?" the dealer said. Why indeed? thought Frankel, who couldn't wait to get back to her computer. The next morning she took a deep breath, typed in her credit card number, and entered the world of online gambling. It was the beginning of what one of her uncles called "hats and eyeglasses," a term used to describe those times when you're losing so bad you're drowning (so all one can see is the poker player's hat and eyeglasses floating on the surface of the water). By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Hats & Eyeglasses is a tale of passion, addiction-and those times in life when we almost lose our shirt.
Review
[This] Honest, funny betting memoir rises to the top... Frankels lively storytelling allows her to turn her own crapola into a winner.
USA Today
"In five minutes you will feel not only as if you have known [Martha] all your life, but as if you still have one of her sweaters."
The New York Times
Intimate, exuberant
O, The Oprah Magazine
Sparse and honest writing
The Associated Press
Fast-paced and amazingly funny
New Orleans Times-Picayune
[A] frank and unaffected memoir
Publishers Weekly
Fearless
powerful, even uplifting and funny.
The New York Post
"Fun and full of life. I've known Martha Frankel for twenty years and Hats & Eyeglasses was still surprising. A wonderful book."
-Jane Smiley, author of Ten Days in the Hills and A Year at the Races
"A bluntly honest memoir of gambling addiction-harrowing, funny, and compulsively readable, straight through to the end."
-John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels
"Hats & Eyeglasses is a hamische tour de force. With a warm voice and a light touch, Martha Frankel's account of growing up with gambling pays off, big- time. My bet is on her as she both enshrines and kicks her compulsion. Entertaining and enlightening, this is a must for memoir addicts, and a fine debut for the author."
-Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements and Beautiful Bodies
Synopsis
Martha Frankel grew up in a warm, loving family of diehard gamblers, where her father?s poker games and her mother?s mah-jongg blended happily with big pots of delicious food and endless gossip. As kids, she and her cousins bet on everything?from which of their Weight Watching mothers would lose the most to who could hold their breath longest underwater or eat the most matzo. But once Frankel left for college and later became a successful entertainment journalist, gambling didn?t factor much into her life. She thought her family legacy had passed her by.
In this ?fast-paced and amazingly funny? (The Times- Picayune) memoir, Frankel traces her love affair with poker, an obsession that didn?t hit until her mid-forties. And she was good at poker. Frankel won routinely, whether she was playing in her Wednesday-night poker game or in one of the seedy, out-of-the-way rooms she always managed to find when on assignment. But all this changed when she discovered online poker. It was the beginning of what one of her uncles called ?hats and eyeglasses,? a term used to describe those times when you?re losing so bad your ship is sinking until all that?s left on the water?s surface are your hat and eyeglasses. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Hats and Eyeglasses is a tale of passion, addiction? and those times in life when we almost lose our shirt.
About the Author
Martha Frankel is an entertainment journalist.