The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

From Louis Sachar, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Newbery Medal for HOLES, comes the young adult novel THE CARDTURNER, an exploration of the human condition.How are we supposed to be partners? He can't see the cards and I don't know the rules!The summer after junior year of high school looks bleak for Alton Richards. His girlfriend has dumped him to hook up with his best friend. He has no money and no job. His parents insist that he drive his great-uncle Lester to his bridge club four times a week and be his cardturner--whatever that means. Alton's uncle is old, blind, very sick, and very rich.But Alton's parents aren't the only ones trying to worm their way into Lester Trapp's good graces. They're in competition with his longtime housekeeper, his alluring young nurse, and the crazy Castaneda family, who seem to have a mysterious influence over him.Alton soon finds himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the pretty and shy Toni Castaneda. As the summer goes on, he struggles to figure out what it all means, and ultimately to figure out the meaning of his own life.Through Alton's wry observations, Louis Sachar explores the disparity between what you know and what you think you know. With his incomparable flair and inventiveness, he examines the elusive differences between perception and reality--and inspires readers to think and think again.From the Hardcover edition.

Bridge-centric! Great for bridge beginners and a nice YA story. Other than the bridge, it's pretty basic, so I would not recommend it unless you are a player or want to learn.

I guess it isn't possible to make bridge exciting, although Mr. Sachar really gave it the ol' college try. The non-bridge playing parts were enough to keep me interested though, with some really charmingly real characters.Although I have to wonder: if the narrator hadn't repeatedly told me how boring it was, would I have found it as boring?

This may be slightly spoilerific. So tread carefully?

All in all, good book. It's not gonna stay in my head for forever, but I enjoyed it. Particularly, learning more about bridge was cool. You hear the word bridge thrown around a lot, usually in the context of the elderly, but I've never really cared much to learn about the game. It's really interesting to learn more about it. It's a really intense game and takes a lot of intelligence and skill, and has definitely gained my respect.
Alton was a good main character, though he was entirely too trusting of his “best friend” (what an a-hole!), and too accommodating of his greedy parents (seriously? not even gonna hide the fact that you're just waiting for the guy to die so you can get some money?). But he's a sweet kid, and smart. Kind of blah at times, but I was rooting for him.
Trapp was awesome. Wish I had a cool great-uncle who shared random bouts of wisdom whilst buying me new cars. My only beef with him was that he completely underestimated Alton, but he definitely came around in the end.
I would have loved Toni, except for the fact that she was ever with Cliff (Alton's bff) in the first place. I kinda wanted her to be able to look past his “charm.” I guess nobody's perfect.