Nothing on God's earth will ever surpass Sue Keeper's literary masterpiece " The Animal House Bridge Club ". This book appears , at first sight , to be an hilarious send up of every stereotype player we are likely to encounter week, week out , at our local bridge club. The author has certainly taken over where Victor Mollo left off. Each chapter introduces the reader to a whole lost of ludicrous characters, who all seem to possess behavioural traits , which are far more in keeping with animals than humans. So when they all come together as performing actors in the theatre of the absurd , we have the making of a truly marvellous pantomime.
Also inspired by the Desmond Morris book , The Human Zoo , Sue portrays bridge players as wild animals, with all their basic instincts , primitive urges , and behavioural idiosyncrasies, ready to surface at every opportunity . These animistic responses completely over-ride all their human conditioning. The bridge club it seems becomes a zoo , where deviant and abnormal behaviour is the norm . This perverse phenomenon has been proved by Desmond's long term studies of caged animals , but now Sue Keeper has linked her ground breaking research to areas of abnormal psychology , and weird personality disorders .
This gifted author sees the typical bridge club resembling a lion's den , where many unsuspecting players enter at their peril. With sharp-toothed predators lying in wait , tasty lambs and tender rabbits provide easy pickings . Often served up on a plate , they are usually swallowed whole or eaten alive. The laws that operate in the animal house are not from the Orange Book : they are the laws of the jungle. It's dog eat dog. With top flight players forming packs to make hunting easier , even elephants with their superb memories are at risk . So when you add to that.... the snakes , foxes and rats which slither and scurry around in the shadows , then danger lurks at every turn .
Nevertheless, one of the more amusing stereotypes, is the skunk. This is a player who leaves a bad smell wherever he goes. His odious and disturbing presence tends to create a foul atmosphere at the table. Inevitably , opponents are so overcome by his antics, they find themselves feeling nauseous and unwell , long after he has departed.
This book without a shadow of doubt sets out to be the ultimate lampoon, but one cannot help but feel that reading between the lines , the author is trying to expose a startling and shocking reality......that members' clubs are not what they appear to be. If lunatics have taken over the asylums ....then animals are firmly in charge here....in the bizarre world of bridge.
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