Product Description

Good Money After Bad follows the fluctuating fortunes of sports gambler Chance Skinner during the summer of 1995, while Chicago is experiencing its worst-ever heat wave. Chance, at 26, lives rent-free in his Gram's converted pantry overlooking Wrigley Field. He aspires to something vaguely like success, which includes respect, love, a kind of integrity and meaningful work. Gambling seems like a good shortcut to all that. When losses mount, Chance, desperate to maintain his good credit standing with bookies, submits himself as guinea pig to human medical studies. In this atmosphere of mounting danger, Chance meets his worst nightmare, the charming human parts broker Phase One Fenwick. Are the one-eyed Phase One and Chance really quite alike? Chance fears so, but hopes not. In a world in which there's a huge gap between self-image and reality, in which allies and enemies are nearly indistinguishable, where the house, as prophesized, looks unbeatable, and where even the biggest wins can be parlayed into something truly significant, Phase One offers Chance a last gasp hope for salvation--or ruin. With a cast of colorful characters that includes the City of Chicago itself, Good Money After Bad is a novel--that like its protagonist--skewers political correctness and revels in the ribald and ridiculous. Through Don Evans' deft prose and careful plotting, Chance Skinner joins a

pantheon of memorable Chicago literary characters, but also transcends geography to take his place alongside the likes of Kingsley Amis' Lord Jim and Joseph Heller's Yossarian. The publication of Evans' first novel Good Money After Bad promises to be an event, and the book itself, with its subtle interspersing of high drama and comic overtures, a distinguished addition to American letters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1832672 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

From Booklist
With a gambler named Chance as the protagonist in his roguishly witty debut novel, former Chicago Sun-Times sports reporter Evans places some high-stakes bets and comes out way ahead. Chance cuts quite a figure in his vintage fedoras and fancy duds, but luscious and brash Gwen isn't thrilled to discover that he shares his digs, an apartment within earshot of Wrigley Field, with his grandmother. Not that flashy, flask-packing Gram isn't good company. What Gwen doesn't know is that Chance is addicted to sports betting. With debts mounting, he gives his body to science, playing guinea pig for drug trials and sleep studies and getting tangled up with sinister one-eyed Fenwick, aka Phase One. Evans is a terrifically atmospheric writer, deftly evoking the world of bookies and compulsive gamblers, the tensions of gentrification, a surreally severe heat wave, and the consequences of secret desperation. Combining the blue-collar, neighborhood-anchored aesthetic Chicago writers are known for with a touch of suavely boozy noir, a sliver of medical-thriller action, and loads of charm, Evans tells a rascally and edgy cautionary tale. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Don Evans is a former sports reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times and Lombardian/Villa Park Review newspapers, where he also was an editor, photojournalist, general reporter, and humor columnist. The Illinois Press Association named Evans' "As Far As You Know" one of the best mid-sized newspaper columns in the state. Evans has also been honored for his short story writing --with a citation in Best American Short Stories' "100 Most Distinguished" and two Pushcart Prize nominations. He received fellowships to Syracuse University, where he earned an MFA under the mentorship of Tobias Wolff, and Saltonstall Foundation For The Arts. Evans has taught writing, literature and history at Syracuse University, Hamilton College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Friends World (London), and Westwood College (Chicago). He is a former serious gambler and part-time bookie, but gave that all up and currently is a stay- at-home dad who writes fiction in his son Dusty's sleeping hours.

Customer Reviews

More than one reason to enjoy it
Whether you're a Chicago Cubs fan or just have a fondness for the City of Big Shoulders, whether you're a gambling addict or have always had a hankering to participate in medical experiments, this book has something to make every reader smile -- and might just make you laugh out loud. I found it funny and poignant, and these days, that's a refreshing combination. I figured: if I've already given copies to several friends, I should let some more folks know how good it is.

Put Your Money Down On This One
With his appropriately named protagonist Chance Skinner, who of course always seems to have a Lucky Strike dangling from his lips, Donald G. Evans provides a fascinating insider's glimpse into the dizzily seductive and oftentimes ugly world of sports gambling.

Using Wrigley Field, the home ballpark of baseball's Chicago Cubs, a team well-known for misfortune and losing, Evans sets a tone of doom that builds throughout his winning debut.

Like holding a pair of aces and jacks in your hand, you won't want to put this one down. Evans doesn't disappoint all the way to the end when he gives the reader a thrilling and surprsing payoff.

Put your money down on this one. "Good Money After Bad" is certainly a good bet.

Gamblers Never Win
Gamblers never win, in the long run, but it's the thrill of the race they are after, not necessarily the finish line. Don Evans has written a great book that shows the reader some of the inner workings of the rat race of the Chicago neighborhood gambling world. But it is also a book about trust, about who to trust, who can you trust and why and how do they deserve your respect. I enjoyed how the author walked you through the city and made it come alive on the page; not an easy task. Buy it, read it. ...Cuz I said so.