Losing Mariposa: The Memoir of a Compulsive Gambler

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Doug Little is a lucky man. As the head of Orillia’s Downtown
Management Board, he was known locally as Mr. Orillia for his success in
revitalizing the community through various festivals and fundraisers.
After gambling away about $80,000 (including his own money, the money he
managed, and money from friends), he escaped a jail term. Instead, he
acknowledged his sins and went into treatment, receiving a one-year
conditional sentence, two years’ probation, and a restitution order of
$67,000. He then moved to Ottawa, where he became a marketing and
communications manager with the Canadian Tulip Festival and wrote this
book. Not a bad outcome, all things considered. The major casualty in
the story appears to have been Little’s long-suffering wife who left
the marriage and moved to Timmins when her husband’s follies became
public.

Each of the book’s 19 chapters alternates between the events of
October 22, 1996—crash day—and episodes from Little’s past,
beginning with his upbringing in New Brunswick, his move to Ontario, his
marriage and family, and his careers as a journalist and a promoter. In
this reviewer’s opinion, a more traditional narrative structure would
have worked better; the continuous back and forth is disorienting. Only
gambling enthusiasts will enjoy the author’s extended descriptions of
lost card games with such exotic names as Caribbean Stud. Grammar
purists will gag over such sentences as “he saved my family and I.”

Little’s story has been told before (notably by Paul Palango in
“Wheel of Misfortune,” an article that appeared in the July-August
1998 issue of Saturday Night. Readers interested in Little’s story
would probably enjoy Palango’s abbreviated version more. Maybe Little
isn’t as lucky as he seems.