Writing style
Conversational · Descriptive · Journalistic
Apple BooksPositively Fifth Street
Biography and memoir
- First published
- 2003
- Print length
- 422 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003
Description
In 2000, James McManus travels to Las Vegas on assignment for Harper’s Magazine to cover a sensational murder trial. Once there, he also buys his way into the World Series of Poker, turning a reporting trip into a personal gamble against elite players and his own appetite for risk. The book alternates between the courtroom, where attorneys reconstruct a killing amid the city’s secretive subcultures, and the tournament tables, where every bet exposes a calculation, bluff, or lapse in discipline. McManus moves through worlds shaped by gambling, sex, occult belief, and scientific intrigue while remaining implicated in the temptations he observes. Combining memoir, true-crime reporting, and tournament narrative, the book examines how chance and ambition distort judgment in Las Vegas.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Brisk
Tone
Dark · Reflective · Suspenseful
Structure
Braided
Focus
Mystery · Plot · Voice
Emotional intensity
4 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780374236489
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