Queen of Spades
Page 1
Advance Praise for
Queen of Spades
“A magical debut—literally. This tale is both spare and sprawling, gritty and otherworldly, both an homage to the complex psychology of gambling and a cautionary tale for those watching from the rail. A ridiculously satisfying read.”
—Jamie Ford, New York Times-bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Songs of Willow Frost
“Michael Shou-Yung Shum’s Queen of Spades is a remarkable debut by an enormously talented young writer who has produced a literary delight that circles the dead center of a very dangerous pleasure—casino gambling. The novel is a perfectly rendered view of gambling from the inside, the dealers and their overseers in the casinos, hard at work but with vastly different objectives. Some are company men and women, others—and some here in Queen of Spades—not so much. The novel is a lovely and complex gambling fairy tale that twists and turns in intriguing ways on its way to a most satisfying conclusion.”
—Frederick Barthelme, author of Bob the Gambler
“Good God, this book is fantastic. I was hooked from the very first page and found myself fully invested in all the characters set in and around this out-of-the-way casino in the Pacific Northwest. It’s so hard to believe this is a debut novel, because the author’s sense of pacing and balance and heightening of suspense and anxiety is so expertly developed. I found myself thinking about this book whenever I stepped away from it, and had to keep it with me at all times, in case I had an extra minute or two to read. A perfect blend of humor and pathos, singular characters, and a peek behind the curtains at the inner functioning of a casino all make this a fascinating read. I can’t wait to sell this to folks.”
—Mary Cotton, bookseller, Newtonville Books
“This book is a highly satisfying read with a wonderful ending. Magic runs throughout the story, but is it magic, or is it the math of odds and gambling? I spent a lovely weekend reading this novel. I’m left feeling like I might just get lucky, too. And I’ll never forget, to the discerning hand some playing cards are heavier than others.”
—Doug Chase, bookseller, Powell’s Books Staff Pick
“Queen of Spades shimmers with suspense and a magical sense of forces just beyond our ken. Debut novelist Michael Shou-Yung Shum deftly deals hand after narrative hand, initiating the reader into the mysteries of the gambler’s universe, its language, laws and gorgeous arcana. I felt I wasn’t so much reading as leaning over a high-stakes gambling table as this quartet of vulnerable characters played for their lives. How will the cards fall? How will their lives transform? And who is the elegant and mysterious Countess who watches it all from her high-backed chair? An addictive and wholly satisfying reading experience.”
—Marjorie Sandor, editor of The Uncanny Reader: Stories from the Shadows
“In Queen of Spades, many unlikely and uncanny events transpire, all against a brooding and moody Pacific Northwest somehow reminiscent of both Twin Peaks and Crime and Punishment. How has an American writer created a brand-new nineteenth-century Russian classic in 2017? His name is Michael Shou-Yung Shum, and he has.”
—Margaret Lazarus Dean, author of Leaving Orbit
“Queen of Spades raises gambling to a metaphysics that reminds us being in the world is an amalgam of gratuitous rules, chance, danger, and faintly Borgesian sleights-of-hand. Many may read Shum’s smart, fast, impressive debut as a how-to fiction about betting, but at the end of the day it’s really all about the epistemologically and ontologically incomprehensible all the way down.”
—Lance Olsen, author of Dreamlives of Debris
“In a spellbinding structure that spirals around the mysterious Royal Casino, Queen of Spades weaves a cast of high-stakes dealers and gamblers closer and closer together as if within a spider’s web. Though their games are staked on chance, these characters’ lives intersect by fate, destiny and magic. Michael Shou-Yung Shum has written a luminous and mesmerizing debut, a novel I couldn’t put down.”
—Anne Valente, author of Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down
“Gambling—is it luck or applied theory? Dealer Arturo Chan, newly arrived in Snoqualmie, Washington, and beguiled by a wealthy bettor known only as the Countess, thinks he’s getting close to the answer. Chasing after a clue to the Countess’s inscrutable playing system, Chan finds himself at the crossroads of chance and manipulation, surrounded by colleagues and bettors with aspirations of their own.”
—Ruby Meyers, bookseller, Annie Bloom’s Books
“Queen of Spades is a paean to the deeply human thrill of gambling—part fond portrait of casino life, part poker-faced mysticism, part exploration of the risks we’re willing to take in search of meaning. Michael Shum has imagined a world in which cosmic forces are at play, populated it with odd and charming seekers, and turned them loose among the games of chance to seek their destinies. Like drawing just the right card to a longshot inside straight, what they find—and what we read—seems at once astonishing and dazzlingly preordained. A remarkable and original debut, rendered in impossibly lucid prose.”
—Michael Knight, author of Eveningland
“In Queen of Spades, Michael Shou-Yung Shum has crafted a deceptively simple meditation on obsession, human frailty, and the possibility of magic that all of us, gamblers and otherwise, hold in our innermost hearts. An elegantly structured, deeply fulfilling tall tale that left me wanting more.”
—Matthew Flaming, author of The Kingdom of Ohio
“Gambling is a metaphor for life in Michael Shum’s brilliant novel, Queen of Spades. At some point, we all become winners and losers—the only constant is chance, and the truly lucky find redemption in the mess and beauty of the game. The characters in this book will inspire you to play wisely and with forgiveness, and with every ounce of your being.”
—Renee Macalino Rutledge, author of The Hour of Daydreams
“Likable characters, a strong plot, and that most elusive of all qualities: a satisfying ending.”
—Michael Keefe, bookseller, Annie Bloom’s Books
Queen of Spades
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance these characters have to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
© 2017 by Michael Shou-Yung Shum
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form, with the exception of reviewers quoting short passages, without the written permission of the publisher.
Figure 1 and Figure 3 illustrations by Ciaran Parr
Figure 2 and Queen of Spades illustrations by Gigi Little
Cover design: Gigi Little
Interior design: Laura Stanfill
Vectorized Playing Cards 2.0 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/vector-cards/
Copyright 2015 - Chris Aguilar - conjurenation@gmail.com
Licensed under LGPL 3 - www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html
An early draft of the first chapters appeared in Spolia in 2014.
ISBN: 978-1-942436-33-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Shum, Michael Shou-Yung 1971- author.
Title: Queen of spades / Michael Shou-Yung Shum.
Description: Portland, Oregon : Forest Avenue Press, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017007822 (print) | LCCN 2017026001 (ebook) | ISBN
9781942436331 (ePub) | ISBN 9781942436317 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Casinos--Fiction. | Gambling--Fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3619.H857 (ebook) | LCC PS3619.H857 Q44 2017 (print) | DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007822
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Distributed by Legato Publishers Group
Printed in the United States o
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Forest Avenue Press LLC
P.O. Box 80134
Portland, OR 97280
forestavenuepress.com
To my dearest Jaclyn,
in this fourth year of our blessed union
Contents
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
A TRANSFORMATIVE HAND
BOOK ONE—ROYAL CASINO
THE AUDITION
CHAN’S FIRST NIGHT
TWO TEMPTATIONS
THE REFERRAL
SPUR OF A MOMENT
HOMEWORK
THE OBLONG BOX
OFF THE HOOK
A PAINTED MAN
LOTTERY
BOOK TWO—SNOQUALMIE
CHANGING ROOM
A MYSTERIOUS CALLER
HAIR & NOW
TWO CONVERSATIONS
THE UNWANTED HOUSEGUEST
SANDMAN
BARBARA MAKES A BET
THANKSGIVING DINNER
DEALER’S CHOICE
BOOK THREE—HIGH-LIMIT SALON
A DARKER LUSTER
ANOTHER AUDITION
FUGUE
THE TROUBLE WITH DIMSBERG
THIRTEEN THOUSAND YEARS
THE SACKING OF CHIMSKY
AN UNDERSTANDING IS REACHED
CURSED
THE CHANGING OF THE CARD
A NEW SETUP
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
READERS’ GUIDE
Dramatis Personae
The Countess
Arturo Chan, Dealer
Barbara, Streaky Gambler
Stephen Mannheim, Pit Boss
Chimsky, High-Limit Dealer
Gabriela, Casino Manager
Dr. Sarmiento, Neurologist
Dr. Eccleston, Spiritual Advisor
Theo Sommerville, Dr. Eccleston’s Apprentice
Dimsberg, Recovering Gambler
Faye Handoko, Reporter
Jean-Paul Dumonde, Former Pit Boss
Simon and Quincy, Club Owners
Henry Fong, Bookmaker
Frances Murphy, Bookmaker’s Mother
Shirley and James Harris, the Cursed Couple
The Spiky-Haired Boy
Thomas, Dr. Eccleston’s Son
Dayna, Leanne, Bao, Rumi, Lederhaus, and Derek, Casino Staff
and all the Regulars
A Transformative Hand
I first met the individual described herein as Arturo Chan when we worked together at Highway 9 Casino in Lake Stevens, Washington. He was a pit dealer and I a part-time poker dealer, working nights to supplement a meager graduate student stipend. During breaks, we would discuss in the employee lounge the books we read—we both greatly admired Kawabata’s House of the Sleeping Beauties, I remember—and this mutual interest in belles lettres not uncommon among the dealing class gradually grew into a private confidence. I learned Chan had dealt one of the most astonishing hands of the twentieth century, in 1984, during a hand of Faro—a game similar to Roulette but played with a deck of cards. This particular Faro table, Chan explained, was the last of its kind in North America. The table had, in fact, shut down immediately after the hand in question.
Utterly fascinated by this card story, I offered to piece together his recollection of the events leading up to its deal, rendering them into the narrative you now hold in your hands. As part of this arrangement, Chan provided me with a file cabinet’s worth of carefully ordered, handwritten personal reflections and unusual “dealing exercises” from the time period in question. A sample of the latter follows:
1. Close eyes and breathe deeply through nose into pit of stomach. Count to three. Exhale.
2. Focus on shape of breath—expanding and contracting.
3. Repeat for ten breaths.
4. Eyes shut, hold deck of cards in preferred hand.
5. Deal slowly, sensing weight of each card, into two decks: Light and Heavy.
6. Open eyes and decks. Determine whether paints [Jacks, Queens, and Kings—ed.] are in one deck, cardinals in the other. Errors most likely with Nines and Tens.
7. When mastered, switch hands.
Despite my proddings, Chan never demonstrated, at the tables or otherwise, the kinds of showy technical expertise that other dealers were prone to advertise in public. I believe this was due to the fact that Chan never considered these exercises mere tricks, but rather an important part of a personal practice toward the discernment of small differences, a sort of aesthetic and political stance of refinement that lay in quiet opposition to the gross, broad strokes applied by culture in our fast-moving society. For Chan, taking care and paying attention were foundational to establishing congruence with the forces of the universe, which I imagine as an enormous, rolling wheel we move either with or against.
As author, I took the liberty of organizing and naming each chapter in Queen of Spades, but the scenes rendered remain the province of Chan’s memories, distilled through fictional conventions of timing and characterization. Chan’s notions of risk, fortune, and luck appear as a faint, ghostly presence in these pages, one that I hope readers find quite powerful and calming. Chan had that effect on the people around him—his tables were always the liveliest and best-natured—and my only hope is that some of his mystical influence touches you now, dear Reader, wherever you happen to be at this moment.
MSS
Atlanta, July 17, 2017
BOOK ONE:
ROYAL CASINO
Part of human life escapes from work and reaches freedom. This is the part of play that is controlled by reason, but, within reason’s limits, determines the brief possibilities of a leap beyond those limits. Play, which is as fascinating as catastrophe, allows you to positively glimpse the giddy seductiveness of chance.
—Georges Bataille, “Chance”
Located a stone’s throw off the interstate leading west out of Seattle, about fifty miles before it turns into a treacherous passage through the Cascades, there appears around a bend the magnificent sight of the Royal Casino. The wearied traveler is filled with the hope of good fortune, and there is nothing about the spacious parking lot, immaculate grounds, or sumptuous High-Limit Salon—one of the only rooms in the world in which hands of Faro are still being dealt today—that serves to dissuade these impressions.
—The Complete Guide to
American Gambling Houses 1984
The Audition
Auditioning new dealers was one aspect of his job as pit manager that still interested Stephen Mannheim after nearly forty years in the trade. Off the beaten path of the Vegas, California, and Atlantic City casinos, the Royal attracted to its doors the oddest sorts of characters seeking gainful employment, drawn to the Pacific Northwest by the quiet beauty inherent to the region. There was something in the trees, it was oft repeated, and Mannheim, who had lived within these pines and shadows all his life, had never considered there was anywhere else he should be.
That May night, he had clocked in at eleven p.m. as usual, and received word from the swing shift supervisor that a man named Arturo Chan had arrived to interview for the newly open dealing position on the graveyard shift. Three days ago, Mannheim had lost one of his best dealers, a woman named Crystal, to a rival casino in Snoqualmie, and the existing dealers had had to work five downs out of six rather than their usual three out of four to cover her absence. Mannheim had taken his time filling the opening, but he knew if he delayed any longer, word would reach Gabriela, and she was the last person Mannheim wanted to disappoint. Although the rumors circulating among his loyal crew—that their boss was distracted, that something was wrong—were not entirely unfounded, Mannheim realized they could be dispelled with a single decisive act, and when he sat down with Chan in the employee lounge to discuss Chan’s credentials, he was already looking at this new character with an eye toward hiring him.
Chan was clad in the traditional white tuxedo shirt and black pants of the auditioning dealer, and as they shook hands, Mannheim noticed
Chan’s fingernails were cut short and were exceptionally clean. Mannheim liked his solemn manner immediately, as he’d had problems in the past with more effusive dealers, ones who might berate a customer, or quit without any provocation whatsoever. In his starched, pointy collar, Chan looked positively severe. As he sat silently, Mannheim scrutinized a long list of Chan’s previous dealing appointments—they ranged from coast to coast for a period of twelve years, requiring two full pages to delineate.
“You have quite a bit of experience,” Mannheim said. He chose at random a casino in West Virginia. “Oh, I see you worked at the Blackridge. Was Farnsworth your manager?”
Chan regarded him and shook his head. “Sorry, sir. I knew of no Farnsworth.”
“I see. He must’ve left before you got there.” Farnsworth had been the name of Mannheim’s cat. It was a little trick, Mannheim knew, but he’d caught enough prospective dealers in a lie that it was a useful little trick.
Chan continued: “My manager was Mr. Dumonde. His number is available under the references section.”
Mannheim flipped the page and scanned it without reading. Then he looked at Chan. “The one thing that concerns me about your background is that you’ve moved around so much.”
Chan nodded. “I have. But I’ve worked a minimum of six months at every location, with the sole exception of Four Queens in Tunica, which closed due to a hurricane. In each instance, I’ve given at least three weeks’ notice, and never missed a shift.”
“So how long are you planning on staying this time?” Mannheim asked.