At the Pen Festival 2010

At the Pen Festival 2010
© PEN American Center/Susan Horgan. All rights reserved. Please contact media@pen.org for usage and rights.

May 16, 2008

A New Review

The best fiction book I have read in years!

Mr. Allen’s “All or Nothing” is the story of P and his gambling addiction. “All or Nothing” is an extremely powerful and simply told story. If I hadn’t needed sleep I would have read this in one sitting.

The character P, we’re never told anyone’s full name, is an honest man. Honest, in that he knows he’s a gambler. He knows he is addicted to gambling. He knows he lies to those around him. He doesn’t apologize for who and what he is. P allows us to see into the mind of a gambler and that the meaning of money has many interpretations.

I agreed to read “All or Nothing” because I thought it would be a basic story about a gambler. A straightforward fiction book.

I was unprepared for the emotional intensity of Mr. Allen’s writing.

I was unprepared for the stillness and soft bluntness of Mr. Allen’s writing.

“All or Nothing” is one hell of a book. Thank you Mr. Allen.

(Christine Speakman, four out of four Roses, The Muse Book Reviews)

http://themusebookreviews.tripod.com/id143.html

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