Lethem combined humor with a sense of menace in the novel. Edgar Falk is silly and scary in equal sense. Moreover, his friendship with Bruno was blended with a mixture of bravado and vulnerability. Bruno’s experience is quite awakening towards the end where he has made his identity and appears like a gambler of international level. This is illustrated at the point where he spends time flirting with TiraHarpaz who happens to be Stolarsky’s girlfriend. He has a genuine connection in form of romantic feelings evidenced by his lack of concern despite the fact that he continuously loses the backgammon games (Brody, et al). It came to his realization that the person who gained much from the loses that he experienced was Stolarsky, moreover he also has Tira and he has achieved material success not by running away from his boyhood neighborhood but by buying up the businesses in that neighborhood (Lethem 59).
“They were seven or ten moves into a game to which he’d barely attended when he found himself with three of Stolarsky’s men on the bar and his tongue down Cynthia Jalter’s throat.” I do not know what the aim of Bruno meeting Keith was but I did not see it see how it changed in any way. The encounter is a symbol of the beginning of a losing streak, but I do not see the connection between the two. The fact that he gets comfortably gets along with other women suggest that he is not short of women he can hook up with but the bravado manifests itself in, among other ways, Bruno’s cocky dialogue about how he is the best backgammon player in the world whose attention can be drawn only by playing for very high stakes through the vulnerability that reveals itself when Bruno tells Tira about his childhood, which, we’re told, he always conceals out of embarrassment (Lethem 64).
The characters portray some depth in an internal nature when their stories have finer details at novel length and the act is out of pity or is it because he has lost interest in inhabiting the boasting gambler persona. This is for the reason that he has made himself to be a good and prosperous person who makes a lot of money in the gambling industry. It seems fitting that the story come to an end when Bruno loses game to Lim. This is a manifestation of a great ship in the whole story because it was not what was expected by the audience. “Falk’s entire stake was gone.” in his identity, Bruno who is a gambler lives in a world of selfishness as it is evidenced by his attributes and concern towards the others. He is Falk’s “stake,” nothing more, but that “stake” is now “gone.” There is a great that one develops as the prose of the novel nears the end majorly due to the identity of Bruno that shifts into and how he maneuvers through to the state he is towards the end of the story (Lethem 62). As for Bruno’s internal depth it is easier to infer it by paying attention to what he says does, and how he conducts himself especially when he encounters other characters. There is all that bravado that he covers up a vulnerability borne from a past that he is not proud of, for instance, the dialogue that happened between Bruno and Tira at the Swissotel’s bar in which there was no character awakening.” Perhaps these conclusions can be substantiated, but unfortunately there are statements the work lacks and it can be tricky to substantiate an absence.
The author develops a fictional aspect of humanity by creating some aspects that are not easy to relate to. For instance. it would be a mistake to be certain that Bruno deliberately lost those last six games to Solarsky out of pity pretending that he “couldn’t tell” whether he’d lost the games “willfully or not.” And when he lets Stolarsky double him out, he does so because he “did not want to take Stolarsky for too much, and could not give a reason for that.” So the way he plays could be based on pity, which would not hold much dramatic significance, or it could be caused by some other reason, such as an incipient rejection by Bruno of the kind of “successful” life, and identity, he has constructed (Brody, et al). A life that he’s come to be ashamed of, it’s suggested.” This enables him to achieve his intend through the creation of the meaning of some of the human character that one would certainly not agree to with ease,
The difference is equally important as compared to the interpretation and signals of an impending identity shift for Bruno. The initial encounters with Tira do not suggest that Bruno has any doubts about his identity or that he is ashamed of it. In each even it is believed that Bruno wants to ensure that her contact with Tira even though he understands that there is a bar to the feelings he has for her. When finally, the drugs have been used up the body, it dawns on Bruno that at the end Tira will still be with Stolarsky while he will remain to be alone more hurting is that the only companion he will have will be Falk (Lethem 66). The sad revelation is what brings him to his senses making him realize that his dark complexion is part of the reason Stolarsky wins those games.
Works Cited
Brody, Richard et al. “This Week In Fiction: Jonathan Lethem On The Poignance Of Backgammon – The New Yorker”. The New Yorker. N.p., 2016. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
Lethem, Jonathan. “A Gentleman’s Game.” New Yorker 92.27 (2016): 58-67. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Sept. 2016