Katy Lederer

Katy Lederer's trajectory in becoming a poet was perhaps more unusual than most, and it is that "growing up" that she tells the tale of in her memoir Poker Face. The story/bio has all the elements of a great read considering that her mother (a purported "genius")and older brother and sister all become professional gamblers, first in NY and subsequently in Las Vegas, that saddest and most glittery of American cities. Her father teaches for many years at an elite high school for the very rich in New England, and then becomes an author of books about words and word games. It is in such an environment (where else could a comfortable middle class family feel impoverished?) that the family gets its start and where it falls apart. The materials are so promising, but somehow it doesn't all add up to more than a mildly engaging book.… (mais)

When I first heard the name Lederer, it referred to her father Richard, who is a punning, word-obsessed writer and comic. Then I heard about his offspring in the poker world, Howard and Annie, in the Texas Hold'em tournaments on TV in recent years. Katy is the youngest of the kids. Here she chronicles the family from her childhood, when Richard taught English at a New England prep-school, through the family's dissolution and obsessions. She seems to have escaped. If I hadn't known of the other members of her family, it might have seemed just one more tale of substance abuse and obsession, but I do know of them, and the writing is lovely. And she seems to have escaped to tell the tale.… (mais)