Swimming with Bridgeport Girls

In his first novel, Tambakis stacks the deck against his gambling-addicted protagonist, Ray Parisi, a fired ESPN personality whose life is in free fall. As the story opens, he is still in love with his recently divorced wife, L, though she is dating another man; a bookie is after him for money; and he is wanted by the Connecticut state police for attacking a losing jockey. A windfall inheritance from his late, estranged father sends Ray off to Las Vegas in a quixotic scheme to raise a grubstake to purchase some property in Atlanta that has special meaning to his Southern-born ex. In Las Vegas, Ray romances the fickle Lady Luck, but it’s too late: L announces that she is going to marry her lover. So Ray flies off to Memphis, where he enlists some help in derailing her impending wedding (shenanigans include hopping the wall at Graceland). The author does an excellent job of recreating the noon-at-midnight feel of a Las Vegas booze-and-gambling binge. But Ray, as a character, remains problematic. He is a fine, witty companion in the early going, but after a while, this poster boy for arrested development becomes a bit of a bore. Late in the story, the meaning of the title becomes clear and supposedly offers insight into Ray’s actions. But it comes too late to revitalize this study of a flawed man’s wildly wrongheaded search for redemption. (July)