The House Always Wins by Brian Rouff; Huntington Press © 2017; 324 pages; $16.95.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – This novel seems like two separate stories, loosely connected. In the first, Christian girl meets Jewish boy, a bass player in a band, and after interviewing him for a local newspaper, finds herself falling in love. He goes head over heels for her too—this is no groupie hook up!
Before too long, she decides to quit her job and move from her home in the Midwest (where the band stopped on a road tour) to Las Vegas, where he lives. That leads to marriage, a decision to buy a house, and pregnancy.
The second story is about an evil casino owner, who wants to drive our couple (The former Anna Christiansen and her new husband Aaron Eisenberg) out of their house, so he can put up another parking lot for his casino. Most of the neighbors are all for moving because the casino owner is willing to pay big bucks for the land. But not Anna and Aaron. They’ve put too much love and effort into the old house, which by the way used to be owned by an old mobster, whose last name — Meyer — suggests he is based on the true life character of Meyer Lansky.
As the mean casino owner starts to play rough in an effort to force Anna and Aaron out, Anna begins seeing a ghost – that of Mr. Meyer – who tells her of his life, decorating his narrative with lots of Yiddish expressions. Before long, Anna is speaking Yiddish like a maven, seemingly becoming in the process a lot more ethnically Jewish than Aaron.
Eventually, this breezy story—with lots of laughs along the way—ends with a showdown. It’s light reading, fun, and maybe readers will pick up some of the mamaloshen.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com