Shaun Priest. Decisions. Lakeland, Florida: Small Dogma Publishing, 2008. 233 pages.
Often, fiction does a better job of capturing reality than statistics and figures. Sometimes, there are no reliable numbers out there. Sports betting is a perfect example. There are not even solid estimates of the total amount bet illegally on sports each year because, by definition, such betting isn’t documented by regulators.
But in Decisions, Shaun Priest gives the reader a look at the life of one illegal gambler in a way that brings home the reality of the world of bookies and their customers. Priest’s main character, Jack Fitzgerald, is a hotshot ex-jock and salesman for CM Solutions, a Boston-area company that specializes in selling software systems to hospitals. “Fitzy” is married, with a young son, plays basketball in an adult amateur league, and seems to have it all. But he’s got a secret: he’s a compulsive gambler.
Running up debts at Nevada casinos and Foxwoods is bad enough, but when Fitzy starts placing $10,000 bets with Justin Bunar, an up-and-coming Boston bookie, he gets in over his head. He finds himself in debt to Bunar, under investigation by the FBI, and in trouble at work.
Priest does two things very well: he builds the action towards a climax, bringing several plot-lines to a head at the same time, and he creates complex, though not necessarily deep, characters. Take, for example, the bookie Bunar. A lesser author would make him a cunning, manipulative evil genius who takes advantage of Fitzgerald’s weakness for gambling. But Priest shows a bookie who is manipulative and occasionally brutal, but also principled and sometimes compassionate. One of the most interesting aspects of Decisions is that, consciously or not, much of CM Solutions is mirrored by the underworld structure of Boston organized crime. Bunar is a big man in his field, but he’s subordinate to “Skinny,” a major mob boss, who negotiates deals with out-of-town criminals without consulting Bunar. Similarly, Fitzgerald is a glib super-salesman, but he’s under the thumb of his executive vice president, Kevin.
Another thing I found interesting about Decisions is that is opens up the reader to the world of high-pressure sales. This isn’t as interesting to most people as the mob, or hardcore gambling, but I found Priest’s rendering of Jack Fitzgerald fascinating–a guy who thinks in terms of management-training manuals when threatened by a mobbed-up bookie might seem like a caricature, but it actually makes sense once you get into the character.
Fitzgerald falls so hard for gambling because, as a dominating, athlete, he’s used to winning. The reader sees how, with success at home and work, he just assumes that he’ll win at betting as well. Of course, that’s where he’s wrong, since betting against the spread is pretty much a coin flip. But he’s not just an innocent who falls victim to his own hubris: throughout the novel, he makes some decisions that show he’s no boy scout. This gives Fitzgerald complexity and makes Decisions that much more compelling.
At it’s heart, Decisions is a page-turner. It’s not a cerebral or contemplative tome, but it will keep you reading. This book would make a great movie.
You can order Decisions here: www.shaunpriest.com.