Ward once again explores the alchemy of stubborn yearnings and unrealized dreams amidst the well-tended rowhouses of his native city. Thereâs a mounting fury in Tommy Fallonâs heart in the fall of 1965. Heâs finally found his lifeâs calling â thanks to the inspiration of Professor Extraordinaire Sylvester Spaulding. Young Tom wants to be lifted on the wings of genius, to ascend to a clean, well-lighted place where cultured people talk about deep things. But how can this college boy learn anything about life or art while living in his familyâs house of pain? Pop Fallonâs youthful dreams of becoming a painter were dashed by the Depression and his own internal demons; he rarely comes out of the inner sanctum of His Holy Toilet, where heâs long been lost to the rituals of obsessive/compulsive behavior. Mom Fallon â beaten down by the vast resentment her husband harbors against her and all the other âBaltimoronsâ â is so starved for love that she enters the Miss Kissable Lips contest at the local radio station. Tom realizes he needs a refuge: a quiet, modest room of his own. There he wonât have to see the defeat in his parentsâ eyes. There heâll follow Dr. Spauldingâs lead by living inside the books that seem to be keeping his spirit alive. The King of Cards is the story of how Tom is saved from becoming a myopic, dispassionate snob when he answers an ad for off-campus housing. In the remarkable person of Jeremy Raines â World-Class Confidence Man with a Streak of Idealism, and Pied Piper to a ragtag band of followers â Tom finds a sense of adventure that is positively euphoric.