Book Review of Take Me to the River

Title:

Take Me to the River

Author:

Peter Alson

Publisher:

Atria Books

Date:

2006

ISBN:

0-7432-8836-X

Pages:

290

Price:

$24.00

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

July 16, 2006

While professional writers have been avid poker players since the days of Mark Twain, it seems now that everyone who owns a pen and knows that a flush beats a straight is busily putting their own personal poker stories down on paper. In Peter Alson's case, his story, Take Me to the River deserves more attention than the typical book for two reasons. First, he already has poker writing credentials having co-authored the excellent One of a Kind, the biography of Stu Ungar, with Nolan Dalla. Second, he really is a pretty decent poker player having not only played the game seriously for many years, but studied the game as well. This book is his travelogue of his 2005 trip to the World Series of Poker.

The plot line has become pretty familiar at this point. A poker playing writer travels to the World Series of Poker, plays some cards, sometimes wins and sometimes loses. He meets some interesting poker characters, but spends a great deal of time ruminating on his place in the universe, both as it relates to poker and otherwise.

As those who follow poker already know, Alson didn't make a big splash at the 2005 WSOP, so we don't expect the same sort of poker drama as we found in Moneymaker's story of his 2003 WSOP run. What we do get is a great deal of Alson reflecting on his past, his future, and his examinations of why a 50 year old refuses to grow up. Take Me to the River is at least as much a personal auto-therapy session as it is a poker story.

I thought the book was interesting, but it never got me truly involved. Perhaps that's not the book's fault, though. When I first read Alvarez' classic, Biggest Game in Town, I remember being fascinated by this strange story of unfamiliar people and mysterious places. On the other hand, I counted at least four different passages in Alson's book where at that time I was within 100 feet of the author. Consequently, to me the book read much like a travel guide to one's own back yard. Alson's words just didn't hold much magic.

Alson is a skilled writer, though, so the pages turn rather quickly. The big question is whether the reader will find the story engaging or not. While many of the poker references are described by someone who knows their chops, I don't feel that they display any deep insight into the game. So we may well ask, is the reader interested in a well-written self-examination of a middle-aged writer/poker player? If so, then by all means go out and buy this book, as it's a well-crafted tale along these lines. For myself, I enjoyed it, but not to the extent that I can give it a strong recommendation.

Capsule:

Take Me to the River is a book about the self-examination of writer and poker player Peter Alson during the 2005 World Series of Poker. Honestly, it's another case of a writer looking for a story rather than there being a great story out there that needs to be told. The poker content is competent, although without deep insight, and even though I have nothing against the author, I really couldn't get involved in his angst over what he was going to do for the rest of his life. The book is very well written, though, so those who are looking for something light to read will find it here. I just think that with all the good poker books currently on the market most readers will be able to find something either more entertaining or more informative.