"The Gambler's Anatomy, " by Jonathan Lethem

    Bruno Alexander is the gambler, handsome and impeccably tuxedoed, he travels the world--seemingly controlled by one Edgar Falk who lives in Singapore--seeking out 'whales,' rich men who feel they can beat him at backgammon. They usually fail, but Bruno also has his disastrous losses from time to time.
    We meet him first in Berlin, where is plays backgammon with a rich man who is attended by a half-naked dominatrix named Madchen. Bruno has 'blot,' a sort of floater in his vision that he is trying to deal with; but he collapses and has to be taken to a Berlin hospital where he is diagnosed with a meningioma, a cancer behind his eyes that is probably inoperable, although one doctor tells him that there is a surgeon in San Francisco who does operate on this form of cancer.
     Back in Singapore, Bruno meets up with an old high-school friend, Keith Stolarsky, and his wife, Tira Harpaz. Keith has made a fortune in Berkeley, in real estate, and with a huge, trendy store and a hamburger joint called Zombie Hamburgers. Keith finances Bruno's return to San Francisco and pays for the enormously expensive surgery, that is performed by a semi-hippy brain surgeon, Dr. Behringer--bearded and wearing sandals--who operates to music by Jimi Hendrix.
    The operation has drastic effects on Bruno's face, and thereafter he wears a mask most of the time, while he develops a weird relationship with Tiri Harpaz, and with a chef at a 'slider' joint (small hamburgers), where he sometimes works. And Keith provides an air-fare for Madchen to come from Germany to join Bruno. And on it goes.
     I greatly admire Lethem's writing. His chapter on the surgery is 
extraordinary, and it must have required considerable research, possibly even witnessing a similar operation.
     Not a short book (and you know I generally prefer short to long) but it kept me interested until the end.