The Cardturner

The Cardturner 

By Louis Sachar

Summary:

Alton Richards's summer is looking pretty bad. His now ex-girlfriend, Katie, just dumped him for his best friend, Cliff. He has no money. His dad lost his job. His parents need money to finish installing their new pool. And to make things worse Alton is forced to drive his extremely wealthy Uncle Lester to Lester's bridge tournaments four days a week.

Alton wants absolutely nothing to do with his Uncle Lester, especially because Alton knows that his mother is making Alton drive Lester to bridge tournaments just so that it will look like Alton cares about his 'dear Uncle Lester' and will make Lester want to give his money to Alton's family.

Unknown to Alton and his family, there is another family, the Castanedas, also fighting for Uncle Lester's inheritance...

Before he knows it, Alton is discovering family secrets of betrayal and backstabbing between the Castanedas and the Richards, Alton is playing bridge with Toni Castanedas, Alton is fighting for his Uncle's inheritance, and he is being taught that life is just like a game of bridge...

Welcome to a world of discovery, betrayal, confusion and romance...

Review:


The Cardturner is the third book that I have read by Louis Sachar and it is probably the most difficult, but at the same time most interesting book that I have read by this author.

It was difficult to read because, in the middle of every chapter Alton stopped the story and explained to the reader what he learned that day during his game of bridge. The author clearly wanted to make us read a great book, and at the same time learn how to play bridge.  I found the plot so confusing that it was hard to do both. The plot was confusing, but addictive, because it was such a good puzzle.   It was very hard to concentrate on both, so in the end, I just put my mind to the plot, and that was the right thing to do...

The book has a great plot and timeline. I liked how Sachar (author) took us to the past so we could see what happened between the Castanedas and the Richards. It gave us a break from Alton playing bridge, and him explaining to us what he had learned.

The Cardturner isn't a page turner, but it is a book that, forces the reader, after every chapter, to take thirty seconds to think about the chapter.  I think it is good to read books like that every once in a while, because we all need to read something that will make us think and try to understand what is going on in a book or in life.

The last thing that I want to say about The Cardturner is that whenever Toni and Alton are together, they bring a very comedic side to the story. There was always something or someone to laugh at when they were together. I think the story's humour made the story very enjoyable to read, because it made the story seem less bridge-serious!

The Cardturner was a fun and interesting book to read, which I recommend to girls in their late tweens and early teens.

336 pages