The Noble Hustle

By Colson Whitehead,

Book cover of The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death

Book description

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys • “Whitehead proves a brilliant sociologist of the poker world.” —The Boston Globe

In 2011, Grantland magazine gave bestselling novelist Colson Whitehead $10,000 to play at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Noble Hustle as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In a self-conscious effort to re-enact Positively Fifth Street’s reimagining of the writer’s journey, Grantland Magazine assigned Colson Whitehead to cover the 2011 World Series in exchange for the $10,000 entry fee. He falls short of matching McManus’ success on the felt, but that’s not really the point: the meat is in the interaction between the poker and Whitehead’s struggle with depression. Which might be unbearable in the hands of anyone other than Colson Whitehead, maybe the best there is at crafting sentences that will make you laugh and wince at the same time.

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