Where Gods Gamble
A Tale of American Mythology
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Charles Edison Barnes---wanderer, dreamer, failure---had forgotten just how magnificent a creature she is. Breath stops halfway down his throat in a tingle. He has never known her equal, yet he gazes wantonly upon her green grandeur as if it were the first time; the ever-perfect funnel for his passion. He had practically forgotten that curious right-hand dogleg a furlong or so below the golden hillside starting gate, and the dozens of eager athletes—both human and equine—he has seen fail to negotiate it properly. He had all but forgotten just how good the horses look rushing past the “tote” boards, their respective odds blinking a bright yellow background as they stretch and strain frantically for an invisible wire. He has certainly not forgotten the losing wagers, options he has incorrectly (or, more precisely, unsuccessfully) invested in over the course. Yes, the memories of those many-hundred disappointments still linger. Of course without the losses there would be no thrill in winning. But his private testimonial to her beauty is that the rush is essentially the same…
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Most so-called “epic” novels are the stuff of motion picture blockbusters: tragic love stories, diabolical villains, great battles with gigantic armies colliding upon endless flat plains of death. Yet in the real world, for most people, the greatest battles of their lives are the ones fought inside their own heads——and the villains are creatures both self-created and self-nurtured.
Meet Charlie Barnes. Age 24, bright, college-educated, talented … and a failure. Now he’s back home in Los Angeles after a disastrous two-year pilgrimage to New York and back. No more time to fail. Time to give it one last shot.
Set against the backdrop of the 1980 Iranian Hostage Crisis and colored by panoramas of California’s fabled Santa Anita Racetrack, Where Gods Gamble is Eastland’s emotional dance through the history, hope, and failed promise of America.
A reluctant hero, young Barnes is a typical, willing victim of America’s manufactured myths and sweet, seductive slogans. But now he has an important decision to make. Will he pursue the depressing, false security of a normal 9-to-5 job? Will he select the far more difficult——yet infinitely more fulfilling——career of a professional gambler? Or will he succumb to his own internal demons in trying to sort it all out …
About the Author
C. BRADFORD EASTLAND was born in Iowa, raised in California, and educated at Berkeley. Visiting the world’s racetracks while surviving decades of 9-to-5 jobs amply qualified him to write Where Gods Gamble. The author lives in L.A. with his 14-year-old son; he is working on his fourth novel.