Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Random
Random | Penn Jillette
4 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
From Penn Jillette of the legendary magic duo Penn & Teller: a rollicking crime caper that will bend your mind like a spoon."Random is everything you would hope from Penn Jillette and so much more. Random numbers are seemingly crazy, unconnected, and unpredictable: this fabulous, wondrously compelling, funny, and original novel is all that too. As for laughs--it passed the the fling-up-the-head-snort-and-slap-the-thigh test a dozen times in the first few pages alone. Hugely recommended."--Stephen Fry, actor/writer"Bravo, Bobby Ingersoll. Encore, Penn Jillette!" --Debbie HarryTwo weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out he's inherited a crushing gambling debt from his scumbag father. The debt is owed to an even scummier bag named Fraser Ruphart who oversees his bottom-rung criminal empire from the classy-adjacent Trump International Hotel. Bobby's prospects of paying off the note, which comes due the day he turns twenty-one, are about as dim as the sign on the tower's facade. The two weeks pass in the blink of a (snake) eye, but before Bobby's luck runs out, he stumbles upon enough cash to pay Ruphart off and change his family's fortune. More importantly, he finds himself with a new, for lack of a better word, faith. Bobby does not consign his big break to a "higher power"--what Penn Jillette hero ever could? Instead, he devises and devotes himself to Random, a philosophy where his life choices are based entirely on the roll of his "lucky" dice. What follows is a hilarious exploration into not so much what defines us as what divines us when we give over every decision--from what to eat to whom to marry to how or when to die--to the random fall of two numbered cubes.Combining the intellectual curiosity of Richard Dawkins with the humor and grit of an Elmore Leonard antihero, Jillette's up-on-his-luck Ingersoll is the character we need to help us navigate the chaos of the post-truth era.Well, unless his roll runs cold.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
5feet.of.fury
Random | Penn Jillette
post image
Mehso-so

It‘s fun, funny at times.. but it lacks depth.

After saving his family with sheer luck, Bobby Ingersoll gives himself over to Chance.While there are some meta takes from Jillette on writers having to justify their characters actions, Bobby‘s actions don‘t have have to be justified bc they are Random. The plot is a little thin due to that,& Bobby never had to learn anything because he‘s not really in charge -the dice are
Book 5/5 #jumpstart2023

Clwojick Great job!!! 🎉🙌🏻 1y
30 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
5feet.of.fury
Random | Penn Jillette
post image

My BF bought this for me because he loves magic, and I love books. So it is a book by a magician.

It starts off very strong. 21 year old Bobby is trying to find a way to make/beg/borrow/steal an outrageous amount of money because his father is in debt to a gangster who is going to kill his whole family if he can‘t pay up.

That got resolved pretty quickly and I‘m really wondering what we are doing for the next 175 pages 😂

Ladygodiva7 😂 Read and find out? Lol 1y
5feet.of.fury @Ladygodiva7 I‘m on it, but I have not figured out where the plot is going and I don‘t think the main character has either 😂 1y
31 likes2 comments
blurb
5feet.of.fury
Random | Penn Jillette
post image

Only got a couple bookish gifts to flaunt but I‘m excited for both. a mystery book by a magician and perfume oil so I can smell like Yennefer of Vengerberg. ❤️📖🎁

29 likes1 stack add
blurb
Sara_Planz
Random | Penn Jillette
post image

Just got a digital arc of this. Looking forward to starting this one today!!

5feet.of.fury Neat! 2y
45 likes1 stack add1 comment