- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (20 Aug 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099516438
- ISBN-13: 978-0099516439
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.5 x 19.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 967,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
The hilarious new novel from the author of the bestselling Happiness.
Product Description
Nineteen-year old Jack McGreary is adrift of the faded boomtown of Paradise Flats. Raised by his eccentric and increasingly erratic father, Jack has learned to live by his wits. When a pair of fast-talking swindlers named Virgil and Miss Rose blow through town, Jack falls in with them and together they go on a crime spree across the American Southwest, staging a series of elaborate and hilarious cons and heists. Young Jack is swept along into the world of hot jazz and cold, calculating crimes of the heart as the sexual tension between him and Miss Rose comes to the boil. Someone is being set up. But who is playing who?
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Having thoroughly enjoyed Will Ferguson's Happiness TM, I was looking forward to reading 'Hustle'. Whilst never reaching the heights of his debut, Ferguson's follow up is an entertaining tale of duplicity, deceit and a quest for fulfilment.
'Hustle' is set in the American South-West, between the Great Depression and WWII. It follows the picaresque adventures of Jack McGreary, an intelligent young man, who falls in with two confidence tricksters. He leaves behind the small town of Paradise flats, and the limited ambitions of its inhabitants, as his two new associates open his eyes to a new existence. But in the world of the con, nothing is what it seems. Will Jack be hung out to dry, or will his sharp eye for detail see him through?
This is an easy to read novel, filled with high jinx, and period detail. It is also something of a potted history of confidence tricks. The three central characters are likeable, if a little thin. There is no plot as such, just a series of stings with ever-increasing consequences. As a result the novel does flag in the middle, before picking back up again before the end.
A novel about identity and secrets, Ferguson uses 'Hustle' to pose questions about self, identity, and the hold of strong parent. Jack's quest is about making up for the errors of his father. Ferguson's prose isn't quite strong enough to realise his novel's literary ambitions, making it occasionally feel hollow. The novel's conclusion feels forced, Jack's journey is more a railroad to redemption than a path to salvation.
Despite this, there is enough entertainment value in this novel to make it work, particularly if you are interested in the art of the con. This is light but thoughtful read, and definitely worth a look.
'Hustle' is set in the American South-West, between the Great Depression and WWII. It follows the picaresque adventures of Jack McGreary, an intelligent young man, who falls in with two confidence tricksters. He leaves behind the small town of Paradise flats, and the limited ambitions of its inhabitants, as his two new associates open his eyes to a new existence. But in the world of the con, nothing is what it seems. Will Jack be hung out to dry, or will his sharp eye for detail see him through?
This is an easy to read novel, filled with high jinx, and period detail. It is also something of a potted history of confidence tricks. The three central characters are likeable, if a little thin. There is no plot as such, just a series of stings with ever-increasing consequences. As a result the novel does flag in the middle, before picking back up again before the end.
A novel about identity and secrets, Ferguson uses 'Hustle' to pose questions about self, identity, and the hold of strong parent. Jack's quest is about making up for the errors of his father. Ferguson's prose isn't quite strong enough to realise his novel's literary ambitions, making it occasionally feel hollow. The novel's conclusion feels forced, Jack's journey is more a railroad to redemption than a path to salvation.
Despite this, there is enough entertainment value in this novel to make it work, particularly if you are interested in the art of the con. This is light but thoughtful read, and definitely worth a look.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
I wasn't sure what I was going to think of this book and I have to say I loved it. The little tales of all the hustle techniques they talk about against the back drop of America in the depression is compelling. His writing whisks you through the life of 3 con-artists with entertaining snippits of what life might've been like for them. All in all and excellent read that I would and will definitely recommend to friends.
I really enjoyed this book, and was sorry to finish it. Entertaining and seemingly evocative of an interesting period.
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