{"id":17329,"date":"2022-09-26T18:57:09","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T22:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17329"},"modified":"2022-09-26T18:57:09","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T22:57:09","slug":"the-only-girl-in-the-game-by-john-d-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17329","title":{"rendered":"‘The Only Girl in the Game,’ by John D. MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It seemed to Hugh as he sat there that this was a very bad place on the face of the earth, that it was unwise to bring to this place any decent impulse or emotion, because there was a curiously corrosive agent adrift in this bright desert air\u2026. It would not be a good thing to stay in such a place too long, because you might lose the ability to react to any other human being save on the level of estimating how best to use them, or how they were trying to use you. The impossibility of any more savory relationship was perfectly symbolized by the pink-and-white-and-blue neon crosses shining above the quaint gabled roofs of the twenty-four-hour-a-day marriage chapels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve been reacquainting myself<\/strong> with John D. MacDonald\u2019s non-McGee novels, happily republished by The Murder Room in Kindle format, I\u2019ve had one nagging worry. I remembered that one of these books in particular was a heartbreaker, a really tragic story. Now I don\u2019t have to worry about it anymore, because I just read The Only Girl in the Game<\/a><\/em>, and it turns out that\u2019s the one. It knocked me down, made me cry, and took my lunch money. Excellent book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh Darren manages the Cameroon Hotel in Las Vegas. It\u2019s interesting work and it pays well, which will help him with his dream of eventually opening his own resort in the Bahamas. He knows that the mob owns the place, but they\u2019re on the casino side. Hugh just deals with food suppliers, employees, and customer complaints, that sort of thing. Oh, from time to time his genial, party animal boss asks him for a little favor, and he gets an off-the-books gift when he does it, but they\u2019ve never asked him to do anything illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He particularly delights in Betty Dawson, his new girlfriend. She\u2019s a singer with a regular show in one of the small lounges. She\u2019s tall and beautiful, smart and funny. Hugh is head over heels in love with her, but she\u2019s made it clear she wants only a casual relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he doesn\u2019t know is that their boss owns Betty. He has leverage on her, and that enables him to require her \u2013 not often, only once or twice a year \u2013 to do something that makes her hate herself, that makes her feel dirty. Nothing personal, it\u2019s just business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day they\u2019ll ask Betty to do something she knows she can\u2019t do. And that day she\u2019ll break free. Then everything will go very bad, very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Only Girl in the Game<\/em> was originally written for the cheap paperback originals market. It includes the obligatory scenes of sex and violence (though fairly mild by 21st<\/sup> Century standards). But it\u2019s also a remarkably well-written and morally centered book. It\u2019s all about the effects of gambling, on individuals and on communities. We\u2019ve come to accept those effects since casinos have been legalized most everywhere, but we\u2019ve paid a price. If you want to understand that price, this is a good book to start with. If you\u2019re thinking of going to a casino for fun, this is a good book to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highly recommended, with cautions as specified above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seemed to Hugh as he sat there that this was a very bad place on the face of the earth, that it was unwise to bring to this place any decent impulse or emotion, because there was a curiously corrosive agent adrift in this bright desert air\u2026. It would not be a good thing … Continue reading ‘The Only Girl in the Game,’ by John D. MacDonald<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3868,4361],"class_list":["post-17329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-john-d-macdonald","tag-the-only-girl-in-the-game"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17331,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17329\/revisions\/17331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}