This review will attempt to avoid spoilers
Remember that meme about how often a man thinks about ancient Rome? All the women of the world staggered that many of us think of the greatness of the Romans at least once a day. Such vapid and innocent creatures could never understand. I thought this book was going to lean more into Rome and what it means to us but it didn’t trend that way. One of the characters, Morton, is indeed obsessed by Rome when we meet him. He’s working at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas you see and so he’s one shotted himself with ancient history. Imagining their philosophers speaking to him, refusing to great the actual plebs of Vegas as Caesars. A rebel of sorts. Of course he’s not alone, his dad was once a Caesar. A high roller winning big at the aforementioned casino. Now though something else is up, his dad’s dying - or is he?
Enter the zany novel from Lee Scrivner set in what appears to be an early 1990s Las Vegas. There were times when I wondered if this novel would veer into *spits* magical realism but thankfully that is not the case. Lee plays his cards hard and fast, like any good gambler. You’re in for a pretty wild ride that is immensely enjoyable. The writing is crisp and precise and the story is mainly told through the two protagonists. Morton and Dr Nichols. Other characters are important and this is a family affair, tying it all together is the paternal elder of Bill. Morton’s dad. He’s crazy he claims, a brain fried from witnessing nuclear testing in the Nevada desert. Morton isn’t so sure, in fact the collapse of the familial life has driven the mother/wife away and only Morton and his sister Scarlett remain. Dr Nichols isn’t convinced of Bill’s madness. He think’s its made up. Munchausen syndrome. Thus you have the overview of the plot without anything being ruined. It’s a book that early on I wasn’t sure which way it was heading and I want to leave that for the reader to enjoy as well.
What Scrivner does well is create the characters and the world. I've only been to Vegas once and didn’t much care for it but spent enough time there for the essence of the place to seep into the bones. Having wandered Caesar’s Palace, having stepped out into the baking Vegas heat. It’s a world of misdirection and entertainment. Nothing is quite as it seems, it is truly an adult Disneyland and Scrivner takes you on a journey into the underbelly. Conspiracy abounds and one could see that as a theme of the novel as a whole. What is real and who knows what become open questions even as the novel crashes towards it’s climactic end. All in all a tight package but not without a few oddities that struck me. For one there are largely two main protagonists and at some point in the book I felt the character of Morton got slightly waylaid and became more opaque. Nichols it is clear is the real protagonist here, nothing wrong with that but some things were built with Morton that I felt lacked some kind of resolution. Perhaps that is because early on you feel the novel is going to go in a more agentic fashion for Morton versus Nichols. The only other thing that left me questioning was the ending comes up quite quick. The climax is built towards and then suddenly you are there, not necessarily a bad thing there are strands to be tied together. These are minor quibbles ultimately and don’t detract from any overall enjoyment.
For me on that thematic front the notion of CasinoLabs, which is a company central to the plot as well as the title is a fun one. It’s a company that is all about rebranding the casino experience. This story is told in a pre smart-phone and pre-internet age. Casino technology and research has influence so much of what we do today. The engineers who have designed the slot machines have influenced the social media machines that we pull all day long. There is this edge to the humor Scrivner employs I felt about these CasinoLabs employees with their grandiose ideas and projects. It’s not without some cultural commentary either. Morton’s sister Scarlett is all about making Vegas more family friendly. Caesars is not to be the bacchanalian orgy anymore but something tamed and muted. Families spend money too! Vegas itself is a total disservice to history and thematic nonsense wrapped together in a dizzyingly powerful aesthetic overload. That itself feels very Roman, and decadent. Behind all this is the notion of the stage. The manipulated world we live in. Just think to yourself how much of what you do, read, see in your daily life is controlled by an algorithm. Are they reflecting what you want or pushing what someone else does? The new video poker games in the Vegas world of this story are no different or are they…?
It’s great to see Exeter House come about from
as their fiction and poetry department. There is a lot of talent out there and Scrivner has delivered a cracking novel here that many will enjoy.The author is on Substack as well:
.