{"product_id":"random-9781636140711","title":"Random","description":"\"Penn Jillette is an atheist, triple-goddamned lunatic, and his book is a glorious Las Vegas lunatic paean to chance and adventure--a page-turning, scabrous, hilarious ride into randomness.\" \u003cstrong\u003e--Neil Gaiman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Jillette's latest novel, \u003cem\u003eRandom\u003c\/em\u003e, is about a young man who inherits his father's crushing debt to a loan shark and turns to dice--and other dangerous measures--to dig himself out. That the dice bring him luck sends him a new philosophy of leaving decisions both big and small up to chance.\" \u003cstrong\u003e--\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Two 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 hotel's facade.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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 off Ruphart and change his family's fortune. More importantly, he finds himself with a new, for lack of a better word, faith.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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 rollicking exploration into not so much what defines us as what \u003cem\u003edivines\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eRandom\u003c\/em\u003e combines 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Well, unless his roll runs cold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Akashic Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/11\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781636140711\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.50w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/15\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/15\/2022 pg. 23\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/14\/2022\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penn Jillette","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43600509239477,"sku":"9781636140711","price":23.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_712aab84-61c6-4e26-9ae1-5e7158cbef86.jpg?v=1707209623","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/random-9781636140711","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}