The Queen's Gambit: Walter Tevis

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. 

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Publisher:  Vintage Books, 2003 (orig. publ. 1983)
Length:      243 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:      USA
Genre:       General Fiction
Source:      I purchased my copy.

2020 Overview and Reading in December

I don't keep statistics as I go along during the year (although I may do that in 2021) but I was curious about my reading this year, so I looked at my counts for various genres. This year I read 113 books. I usually aim at 84 books in a year, which would be seven books a month. In 2019 I read 120 books, but that was an unusually high number for me.

My reading has always been focused on mystery novels, at least in my adult life. This year I read 75 mystery novels. That group includes any historical mysteries and spy fiction I read. Of that total, 25 were published before 1960, 24 were published between 1960 and 1999, and 26 were published after 1999. That seems like a good mix.

Other fiction reading was divided thus:

• Science fiction: 5
• Classics: 4
• General fiction: 4
• Historical fiction: 7

I read more short stories than usual this year, and ended up completing 6 books of short stories. I joined in on Short Story Wednesday at Patricia Abbott (pattinase) and sampled short stories from several anthologies. 

That leaves 18 non-fiction books, which includes 7 mystery reference books. 

And now, on to books read in December 2020... 

General Fiction

Little Women (1868) Louisa May Alcott

I think I read this book when I was younger but maybe I just remember what I saw in film adaptations. The story was somewhat familiar to me but my memories were garbled so that there were enough surprises to entertain me. See my review here.

The Queen's Gambit (1983) by Walter Tevis

I was motivated to read this book because of the new mini-series on Netflix. I still haven't watched the TV series, but I am very glad I read the book. Beth Harmon is an orphan who discovers she has a gift for playing chess, and becomes obsessed with it. The relationships in this book are fascinating.

Crime Fiction

The Absent One (2008) by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Translated by K. E. Semmel

#2 in the Department Q series. Set in Copenhagen, Denmark. See my review here.

Murder in Retrospect (1942) by Agatha Christie

Poirot is hired to investigate a murder that took place in the past. Carla Lemarchant's mother Caroline Crale was hanged for the murder of her husband. Sixteen years later, Carla wants Poirot to prove that Caroline did not commit the murder. This is one of my favorite Agatha Christie books of the ones I have read so far. This title was published as Five Little Pigs in the UK. 

Hickory Dickory Dock (1955) by Agatha Christie

Miss Lemon, Hercule Poirot's secretary, is obviously worried and he insists she tell him what it is. Her sister is the warden at a youth hostel. There has been a series of thefts and vandalism there. Poirot volunteers to investigate this issue. And then there is a death.

Sad Cypress (1940) by Agatha Christie

At the beginning of this novel, Elinor Carlisle is on trial, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard by poison. The prosecutor alleges that she is the only person with a motive for this murder. Her engagement to Roddy Wellman had ended because he had fallen for Mary Gerard, the daughter of the lodge keeper at the aunt's estate. Poirot is hired by the aunt's doctor to look for evidence that Elinor did not commit the crime.

This month, I read three books in the Hercule Poirot series, and in October and November I read two each month. It is an interesting experience to read so many of the Poirot books so close together.

The Word is Murder (2018) by Anthony Horowitz

As soon as I started reading this book, I knew that I was going to love it. The premise is that the narrator is a writer who plans to write a true crime novel about a consulting detective who is investigating a murder. The narrator's name is Anthony Horowitz. It is very well done, and I am looking forward to reading the next one, The Sentence is Death.

Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries (2016) edited by Martin Edwards 

This is an anthology of vintage crime stories set around Christmas time. I wrote two posts about stories in this anthology, here and here.

The Beautiful Mystery (2012) by Louise Penny

#8 in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. This one is set in a monastery and eventually addresses some difficulties that Gamache has been having with his superiors in the Surete. 

What I will be doing in January:

I have signed up for one challenge already and I have about nine more I plan to sign up for. I don't think any of them will be a big strain and I will be using them as guidelines for my reading over the year, not something to stress about. 

In January I plan to read a book for the Japanese Literature Challenge at Dolce Bellezza.  Also Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, Black Robe by Brian Moore, and at least a couple of books in the Hercule Poirot series. The Master and Commander read is intended to be a slow read (one chapter a week for about three months) for Nick Senger's Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week Read-along, but I may decide I want to read it faster than that.