Sinópse: A New York Times Notable Book In this darkly funny story, Ray and Jewel Kaiser try (and push) their luck at the Paradise casino. Peopled with dazed denizens, body-pierced children, a lusty grocery-store manager, and hourly employees in full revolt, this is a novel about wising up sooner rather than later–“a wise and funny tale” (New York Times Book Review) that is “masterfully observed” (John Barth). On this Sunday, after the NFL pre-season game, we were sitting on the porch quiet as mice when Jewel held up the newspaper and said, “Raymond. Let’s go here and do this, ” and “here” was the Paradise casino, a dozen blocks away on the beach in Biloxi, and “this” was gambling. So begins this story in which Ray and Jewel Kaiser try out the Paradise. What curious things happen to them, what tricks of chance involving, among others, Jewel’s 14-year-old daughter RV, the casino and its personnel, Ray’s dead father, and a mother convinced that a sitcom star is visiting across the street from her house, make up the fabric of this novel about wising up better late than never. Peopled with dazed casino denizens, a lusty grocery-store manager, body-pierced children, and hourly employees in full revolt, “Bob the Gambler” tells the refreshing story of a couple who, after tumbling headfirst out of their middle-class Garden of Eden, discover they’ve landed in an even more fertile garden outside its walls.