I was motivated to read The Queen's Gambit because of the mini-series on Netflix. I finished reading it towards the end of December 2020 and I still haven't watched the TV series, but I am glad I read the book. It was very absorbing.
The book is primarily about a young woman who aspires to be a chess champion, and the barriers she overcomes while making that journey. But it is about so many other things. We see the deprivations of the life of an orphan in an institution. Beth is orphaned at eight. The janitor at the orphanage teaches Beth to play chess and then is amazed at how quickly she picks it up and becomes a better player than he is. This is the first big change in Beth's life.
At age twelve, Beth is adopted by a couple. This is the second big change, because Beth is treated better and has more opportunities. It is unclear why the couple adopts Beth. She refers to her mother as Mrs. Wheatley, but her new father ignores her. After leaving the institution, Beth has a hard time relating to anyone and doesn't fit in anywhere.
Beth does continue to pursue opportunities to play and compete at chess. I don't know how much things have changed now, but at the time of this story nearly all chess champions were males, and females who tried to play were shunned or ignored.
After Mr. Wheatley divorces his wife, Mrs. Wheatley discovers that Beth can make money at chess competitions. They become partners, with Mrs. Wheatley as her manager. That was an especially interesting part of the story.
The story deals with substance abuse. Beth becomes addicted to tranquilizers while at the orphanage, because that is how the orphanage controlled the children's behavior. Although she has to do without them for many years, she still turns to them when she begins to have problems in her life.
This book is filled with chess terminology, and I know little about chess. I know the basic moves and the names of the pieces, but that is about it. It was a very fascinating book, nonetheless. The world of chess was interesting, and Beth's growth as a player and competitor was exciting. I liked the descriptions of how Beth plays chess in her head and can see many moves ahead.
This is a dense book, full of substance, but not long at all. In addition to Beth, there are some great characters: Jolene, a friend at the orphanage; Mr. Shaibel, the janitor at the orphanage, who teaches Beth to play chess. I enjoyed all of it and found it well worth reading.
Thomas M. Disch describes The Queen's Gambit as "an inspirational novel for intellectuals." Now, I am not an intellectual, and I enjoyed this book. I may have missed a lot while reading it, but it was nevertheless a great experience. I found his review at Scraps from the Loft but it was first published in Twilight Zone Magazine, March/April 1984.
I did not discover this until after reading the book, but I found a very good article at Big Dave's Crossword Blog with good explanations of chess terms, with some depth but no intention to go into detail or teach one how to play chess. I never had a need for the explanations, but I was curious about some of the terminology while I was reading the book. It was fascinating that each tournament could have different rules.
-----------------------------
Publisher: Vintage Books, 2003 (orig. publ. 1983)
Length: 243 pages
Format: Trade paperback
Setting: USA
Genre: General Fiction
Source: I purchased my copy.
20 comments:
I think I am going to have read the book after seeing your review. Sharon and I watched the series. We were going to watch an episode a night. Suddenly we got caught up and watched 3 episodes and then 4 episodes on consecutive nights and would have watched more on the last night if there were more. It was absorbing television. I am glad whenever we can find an intelligent series.
Bill, I am glad to hear you liked the series. We plan to watch it soon. The book is very good.
You will enjoy the series. It is the best thing I have seen in a long time.
I am looking forward to watching the series, Patti. Now I want to try more books by Walter Tevis, someday.
There are too few novels and one short story collection--Tevis had academic jobs and a problem with alcohol that both helped keep him away from the typewriter--there might well be a collection of his uncollected stories now, also as a result of new audience, though several of them at least are run-ups to his first novel, THE HUSTLER (adapted into the fine film with Paul Newman and Piper Laurie). THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (also filmed, starring David Bowie), THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT, MOCKINGBIRD and THE COLOR OF MONEY (a sequel to THE HUSTLER, but largely ignored apparently by the filmmakers for their rather bad film...all but ruined by Tom Cruise's performance, which he was apparently instructed by the director to do--play the most unlikely idiot he could in his circumstances). And the collection FAR FROM HOME, which I highly recommend.
Todd, thanks for all of that information. I was mostly aware of the books that have been made into films and haven't done more research, so what you provide here is useful.
Looks like I will have to get a kindle version of FAR FROM HOME, but that is OK. I will check around for copies of some of the novels.
I've been wondering what the book was like, Tracy. I keep hearing about it because of the mini-series, and it's good to hear that you enjoyed it. I've only played chess a few times, and have never been any good at it, but I admire people who are. This sounds like a really rich story; I may have to check it out.
Margot, this is such an interesting book, I highly recommend it. Interesting character, a look at a different kind of life (both hers and the look at the world of chess), I was engrossed in all of it.
I'm intrigued that he could make the subject of chess interesting enough to sustain a novel. I'm also intrigued to see from Todd's comment that he's the same chap who wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth since they sound so entirely different! For some reason Amazon has been recommending The Man Who Fell to Earth relentlessly to me for the last few months - I think because I've reviewed a couple of vintage science fiction books - perhaps I'll give in and get it...
FictionFan, I enjoyed the parts about the actual chess games and her preparation for them, but probably if that was all the book was about it would be less enjoyable. Equally interesting was Beth's life, how she coped with it. Some reviewers described her as autistic or some related syndrome, and I have no idea if that is accurate or not. She was obsessed and driven, and had very few relationships of any depth, and somehow succeeded at what was important to her.
I am interested in his science fiction first, then if I like those, I might move on to The Hustler and The Color of Money.
Hi Tracy,
I so appreciated your review. Ken and I loved watching the series on Netflix and we were both impressed by how the series managed to make a character's road to chess champion interesting and complex, without weighing the viewer down in actual chess "jargon" or theory or practice. Yet all the same I found the chess portrayed very compelling. Her personal story really made the show worth watching, and I'm sorry I didn't read the book first. The way in which children in the orphanage were controlled by drugs was harrowing.
Thanks, Judith. I always try to read the book first, although sometimes that really makes no difference. Having read the book, it is hard to imagine how it could be adapted and do it justice. Yet I can see how the time in the orphanage could actually be portrayed better on the screen than in a book, in some ways.
My book group is reading this in February so I am glad you are so positive!
Constance, I hope you like Queen's Gambit as well as I did. I found it to be a unique book, and I always like that.
I have a few Tevis books on the pile including this. Hopefully I might get around to it one day! I'll see if the family want to wathc the series also.
Col, This is one author that I wish I had more on the TBR pile. I will have to figure out what I want to read next. Meanwhile, plenty of other books to read.
We have watched 3 of the 7 episodes in Queen's Gambit, and both Glen and I are enjoying them. It is a very different series.
I wound up really enjoying this book, although as someone in my book group observed, there was a lurking fear throughout that something bad was going to happen to Beth. Admittedly, she did experience many hardships. I had never come across the author and wondered how much chess he had to know to be able to write so convincingly about it. I am sure he had experts review it before publication.
My mother is watching the series and is very bothered by the historical inaccuracy of an integrated orphanage at that time. I was amused to google the question and find that many others felt the same way.
Constance, there is a feeling of foreboding while reading the book. I read that there were many similarities between Tevis's life and Beth's and he did play chess and study the moves.
Until you mentioned the integrated orphanage I had not considered whether it fit or not. I may not remember the details of the book sufficiently, but Jolene was the only black character in the book I remember. But it does seem strange that there would be integration in Kentucky at that time? I don't really know, but it did not bother me while reading it.
I was going to read more about it, but I can see that they have changed the series somewhat from the book, and I have three more episodes to go, so will wait until I am done with that. We are watching it slowly.
Post a Comment