Hats & Eyeglasses: The Heeb Review
An alternative title for the memoir of celebrity journalist and self-proclaimed "poker slut" Martha Frankel, Hats and Eyeglasses, could easily have been Chicken Soup for the Compulsive Gambler’s Soul. In the book, Frankel recalls her childhood in the Bronx during the 1950s—one surrounded by home-cooked meals of tuna salad and kasha varnishka, laughter and a full house of loving, gambling-obsessed family and friends—so fondly that she can make a group of lower middle class Jewish men frittering away their paychecks at the race track seem downright heartwarming.
After the death of her father during her teens, Frankel spends more time "getting lucky" away from the poker table (“He made me come by resting the toe of his boot against my crotch and tapping out Willie Nelson’s ‘To All the Girls I Loved Before‘”), going through a bad marriage and experimenting with a Whitman’s Sampler of drugs (“I took my share, and yours. And a few other people’s”). It wasn’t until later in life, while doing research for a script, that her own passion for poker surfaces. Under the tutelage of her ex drug dealing cousin and streetwise mother, Frankel goes from Wednesday night games with friends in the neighborhood to pulling in thousands of dollars a night at back room games in Hollywood and Vegas casinos. After discovering online poker, she loses control for the first time and, ashamed to tell her friends, family or husband what is happening and determined to get back what was “owed” to her, Frankel finds herself heading into a sinkhole of debt.
The author’s work as a celebrity interviewer informs the breezy and acerbic style of her writing, and gives her an arsenal of names which she’s not afraid to drop—often accompanied by humorous and revealing anecdotes. However, what ultimately makes the story work is her un-glossy honesty about herself and her unwavering love for her family. A fun read for gamblers and non-gamblers alike. Brush up on your Texas Hold’em and Willie Nelson and go see Martha Frankel performing at the 3/23 Heeb Storytelling.
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