Barbara Samuel, Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas

Lady Luck's Map of Vegas

Barbara Samuel

Ballantine, Jan 2004, $23.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0345469127

Forty-year-old computer designer India misses her single life in Denver having had to relocate to Colorado Springs to take care of her mother Eldora whose beloved mate died six months ago. India enjoys her long distance love life when she and her beloved New York-based magazine owner Jack Shea get together.

Flaky Eldora wants to go on a pilgrimage to Las Vegas where she plans to reveal the truth about herself to her adult children, but first must find her other daughter Gypsy, an artist whose last postcard came from Tucuncari, New Mexico. India does not want to go, but feels obligated, having vowed to her late father Don Redding she would take care of mom. Worse, India senses her sibling; a schizophrenic is off her medicine and in trouble. Finally, she is pregnant, but has doubts about bringing a child into the world containing her gene pool. This pilgrimage will awaken India to what really matters in life are loving relationships.

LADY LUCK'S MAP OF VEGAS is a complex family drama that mostly focuses on India and her relationships with her boyfriend, mother and sister, but to a lesser degree with her dad and between her mom and sib. Readers feel for India who fears commitment to include her concerns about allowing a newborn into this world. Though the reason for Eldora's obsession to venture forth is revealed late, readers who appreciate a strong, poignant look at people with baggage in which there is no simplistic cure-all elixir. Barbara Samuel provides an affecting tale that shakes the audience to its emotional core.

Harriet Klausner