The King of Video Poker

In Paolo Iacovelli’s debut novel, we follow a nameless narrator, a normative, upper-middle-class American and high-stakes video poker player. He lives in Mesquite, Nevada with Tim, his fifteen-year-old son from another marriage, and Natalia, his current wife of several years. He commutes to Las Vegas five times a week to play video poker at the Wynn. 

Aimless and depressed, he attempts to convince Tim to accompany him to Palm Springs in a father/son road trip to lay flowers where Arnold Palmer won his last PGA Tour, but both his relationships with Natalia and Tim deteriorate and they leave for Italy for a soccer tryout without him. Falling deep into the throes of darkness, the narrator experiences a twisted hallucination and falls for a young escort then ultimately finds himself planning one of the greatest atrocities the U.S. has ever seen. 

Iacovelli indicts the culture of American excess and disenchantment, similar to Chuck Palahniuk’s maladjusted protagonists and Maria in Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion, The King of Video Poker follows a wealthy husk of a man struggling with spiritual emptiness until he finally breaks.