The Noble Hustle : Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead in DJV
9780385537056 English 0385537050 "I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside." So begins the hilarious and unexpectedly moving adventures of an amateur player who lucked into a seat at the biggest card game in town--the World Series of Poker. In 2011 Grantland magazine sent award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead to brave the harrowing, seven-day gauntlet of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was the assignment of a lifetime, except for one hitch--he'd never played in a casino tournament before. With just six weeks to train, our humble narrator plunged into the gritty subculture of high-stakes Texas Hold'em. There's poker here, sure, which means joy and heartbreak, grizzled cowboys from the game's golden age, and teenage hotshots weaned on internet gambling. Not to mention the overlooked problem of coordinating Atlantic City bus schedules with your kid's drop-off and pick-up at school. And then there's Vegas. In a world full of long shots and short odds, The Noble Hustle is a sure bet, a raucously funny social satire whose main target is the author himself. Whether you've been playing cards your whole life or have never picked up a hand, you're sure to agree that this book contains some of the best writing about beef jerky ever put to paper., "The Noble Hustle "is Pulitzer finalist Colson Whitehead's hilarious memoir of his search for meaning at high stakes poker tables, which the author describes as ""Eat, Pray, Love" for depressed shut-ins." On one level, "The Noble Hustle" is a familiar species of participatory journalism--a longtime neighborhood poker player, Whitehead was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online online magazine Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker. But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed ), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of--yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really --the human condition. After weeks of preparation that included repeated bus trips to glamorous Atlantic City, and hiring a personal trainer to toughen him up for sitting at twelve hours a stretch, the author journeyed to the gaudy wonderland that is Las Vegas - the world's greatest "Leisure Industrial Complex" -- to try his luck in the multi-million dollar tournament. Hobbled by his mediocre playing skills and a lifelong condition known as "anhedonia" (the inability to experience pleasure) Whitehead did not - "spoiler alert " - win tens of millions of dollars. But he did chronicle his progress, both literal and existential, in this unbelievably funny, uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself. Whether you've been playing cards your whole life, or have never picked up a hand, you're sure to agree that this book contains some of the best writing about beef jerky ever put to paper., In The Noble Hustle Colson Whitehead does for participatory journalism what he did for zombie novels in Zone One : Take one literary genius, add $10,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker, and stir. On one level, Colson Whitehead's The Noble Hustle i s a familiar species of participatory journalism--a longtime neighborhood poker player, Colson was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online ESPN offshoot Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker. But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed!), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of--yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really!--the human condition. The book will appeal to a wide variety of consumers: the poker-loving readers of James MacManus Positively Fifth Street , or the I-could-do-that genre including Stefan Fatsis' Word Freak, or the oeuvre of A.J. Jacobs, or fans of humorous sports books like Rick Reilly's Whose Your Caddy ?, or literary nonfiction readers who buy penetrating portraits of outcast subcultures like Bill Buford's Among the Thugs . The book delivers all those fans would want--including the author's surprising progress through the piratical competition of high-stakes Texas Hold 'Em poker. But it is also a bravura piece of writing, from its very first line--"I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside." And it is deeply, unbelievably funny, an uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself. So, yes, all the above comps can and should be used, but in truth The Noble Hustle is utterly unique, a book about poker like Moby-Dick is a book about fishing.
9780385537056 English 0385537050 "I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside." So begins the hilarious and unexpectedly moving adventures of an amateur player who lucked into a seat at the biggest card game in town--the World Series of Poker. In 2011 Grantland magazine sent award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead to brave the harrowing, seven-day gauntlet of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was the assignment of a lifetime, except for one hitch--he'd never played in a casino tournament before. With just six weeks to train, our humble narrator plunged into the gritty subculture of high-stakes Texas Hold'em. There's poker here, sure, which means joy and heartbreak, grizzled cowboys from the game's golden age, and teenage hotshots weaned on internet gambling. Not to mention the overlooked problem of coordinating Atlantic City bus schedules with your kid's drop-off and pick-up at school. And then there's Vegas. In a world full of long shots and short odds, The Noble Hustle is a sure bet, a raucously funny social satire whose main target is the author himself. Whether you've been playing cards your whole life or have never picked up a hand, you're sure to agree that this book contains some of the best writing about beef jerky ever put to paper., "The Noble Hustle "is Pulitzer finalist Colson Whitehead's hilarious memoir of his search for meaning at high stakes poker tables, which the author describes as ""Eat, Pray, Love" for depressed shut-ins." On one level, "The Noble Hustle" is a familiar species of participatory journalism--a longtime neighborhood poker player, Whitehead was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online online magazine Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker. But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed ), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of--yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really --the human condition. After weeks of preparation that included repeated bus trips to glamorous Atlantic City, and hiring a personal trainer to toughen him up for sitting at twelve hours a stretch, the author journeyed to the gaudy wonderland that is Las Vegas - the world's greatest "Leisure Industrial Complex" -- to try his luck in the multi-million dollar tournament. Hobbled by his mediocre playing skills and a lifelong condition known as "anhedonia" (the inability to experience pleasure) Whitehead did not - "spoiler alert " - win tens of millions of dollars. But he did chronicle his progress, both literal and existential, in this unbelievably funny, uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself. Whether you've been playing cards your whole life, or have never picked up a hand, you're sure to agree that this book contains some of the best writing about beef jerky ever put to paper., In The Noble Hustle Colson Whitehead does for participatory journalism what he did for zombie novels in Zone One : Take one literary genius, add $10,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker, and stir. On one level, Colson Whitehead's The Noble Hustle i s a familiar species of participatory journalism--a longtime neighborhood poker player, Colson was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online ESPN offshoot Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker. But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed!), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of--yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really!--the human condition. The book will appeal to a wide variety of consumers: the poker-loving readers of James MacManus Positively Fifth Street , or the I-could-do-that genre including Stefan Fatsis' Word Freak, or the oeuvre of A.J. Jacobs, or fans of humorous sports books like Rick Reilly's Whose Your Caddy ?, or literary nonfiction readers who buy penetrating portraits of outcast subcultures like Bill Buford's Among the Thugs . The book delivers all those fans would want--including the author's surprising progress through the piratical competition of high-stakes Texas Hold 'Em poker. But it is also a bravura piece of writing, from its very first line--"I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside." And it is deeply, unbelievably funny, an uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself. So, yes, all the above comps can and should be used, but in truth The Noble Hustle is utterly unique, a book about poker like Moby-Dick is a book about fishing.