- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (5 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747582831
- ISBN-13: 978-0747582830
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.4 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 834,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
This is a compact, tidy novel. Its setting is the world of big time professional pool players,- hustlers, and its hero is Fast Eddie Felson, 25, a good looking, quietly dressed, pleasant young man with bright eyes, whose appearance is part of the successful "hustle" because it's not wholly false. Eddie and his mentor, Charlie, had left Oakland for Chicago and their trip had been lucrative although relatively small time. Eddie felt that he was ready for Chicago and Minnesota Fats - the best pool player in the country whose arena was Chicago's Bennington's where the business was pool and nothing else. Eddie played Minnesota fats at a thousand a game for forty straight hours and he lost. Broke, he becomes involved with Sarah, a student and a drinker, whom he recognizes as a born loser, and with the calculating Bert, a professional gambler who takes Eddie in hand and teaches him that there is more to the game (of life) than talent. By the time of his return match with Fats, Eddie has achieved a superiority over his opponent: he knows that who wins and who loses is important and that in the clutch, character and not skill is what counts. But in a showdown with Bert, Eddie learns something else: that you can't win them all. Through a language of casual statement which does not disguise the seriousness of its intent, this exploration of moral experience is a pithy and competent performance. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'This book sees the poetry of the pool game ... Fast Eddie's ascent up the ladder from pool shark to full-time hustler is the story of the will to power, told in cool fifties style' Guardian 'Tevis writes a stark, cut-down prose that admirably suits his tale of people who live on the edge of desperation in fifties Chicago' Irish Times 'If Hemingway has the passion for pool that he had for bullfighting, his hero might have been Eddie Felson' Time 'A wonderful hymn to the last true era when men of substance played pool with a vengeance' Time Out
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Read it in one sitting. Pure brilliance, from start to finish. As an avid pool fan maybe my views are biased but I'm sure someone who has never even picked up a cue will love this too.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The best book about pool. Later turned shot for shot into the film and hard not to visualise Paul Newman. If you like gambling you will like this.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Underappreciated work of literature
20 July 1999
Format:Hardcover
If art forces the participant to see reality from an unexpected point of view, or if art takes a generally accepted point of view and sharpens the edges with a light that is so bright that it is almost painful, then "The Hustler" is not just a work of art but a compelling tour de force of astounding power. "The Hustler" is not about pool players, but about how we look at life, how we make the simplest decisions. What is an acceptable performance? In our jobs? With our relationships? What compromises should we make? Must we make? How do we look at ourselves? Why and how do we lie to ourselves?
"The Hustler" is a simple book, well crafted, elegantly written, with memorable characters and compelling situations. This is art at it's best. No pretensions, just a craftsman's use of time honored techniques that reinforce the message without intruding.
Tevis presents life's dilemmas plainly, tells us what is unacceptable, makes us self-satisfied, then like all great artists, presents a little more complex dilemma, then asks us to make the choice again. Except it's not so easy this time...
Reading "The Hustler" should be a rite of passage for any person that feels every decision we make, or don't make, is important. A must read.
On a more personal level, I met Walter Tevis in a room called Hanger's in Pittsburgh in the early 60's. I was about 15, an unusual combination of voracious reader and aspiring 9 ball player. He told me I had a talent, that he loved the game, that he was addicted to it and its characters. He also told me he was a writer. I didn't know who he was at the time and we didn't do anything more than pass a pleasant 10 or 20 minutes. I saw the movie later, loved it, was a little too young and callow to appreciate it as much as I should have. The book has been out of print and difficult to find; I'm embarrassed to say I just read it yesterday for the first time. Let me just say it not only asks questions, but the right questions. I know, I've been trying to answer them for 35 years. Walter wherever you are, (and I believe you died a few years back), thank you.
PS: Walter played pool and wasn't bad, what we'd call a good local player.
PPS: The Minnesota Fats, (real name: Rudolph Wanderone)you all saw on TV wasn't the real Fats. The real Fats wasn't a jerk and a 2 bit hustler with a good agent. But that's another story.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Tevis' most acclaimed work; stunning character development.
1 July 1997
Format:Hardcover
Surely Walter Tevis' strongest novel, "The Hustler" explores the timeless struggle of man against himself, against a backdrop of gray, decaying, post-war billiard rooms and characters on the edge of society's moral perimeter. In a world of illegal billiard gambling, where matchups between road players is a winner-take-all proposition, Tevis shows us that winning can weigh heavy on a man's soul, and is lonelier by far than joining the always-populated ranks of the lost and defeated.
Tevis introduces us to "Fast Eddie" Felson, an extraordinarily gifted pool hustler with a penchant for bourbon - J.T.S. Brown - and for high stakes action. Loosely modeled after billiard master Willie Mosconi, Tevis' "Fast Eddie" takes on "Minnesota Fats" (at the time, a fictional character, who's identity real-lfe pool huster Rudolph Wanderone later assumed) in a series of thousand dollar a game matches. It is a competition that changes both his life and that of the woman he enlists in his struggle against the demons within.
"The Hustler" remains one of only two books - "The Color of Money" being the other - to truly capture the intensity and excitement of professional high-stakes pool without excessive moralizing.
The movie version of The Hustler, released in 1961 and produced by Robert Rossen, starred Paul Newman as Fast Eddie, Piper Laurie as Eddie's femme fatale, and George C. Scott as Eddie's deadly effective but morally bankrupt instructor on the ways of big money pool.
Nominated for several academy awards, the movie, like Fast Eddie, had the misfortune of bad timing and an unwinnable matchup: "West Side Story" swept the awards and relegated Tevis' story to cult classic status.
Sure, rent the movie... but buy the book. The plot differs from the movie in one critical aspect, which I will leave the reader to discover..
Tevis introduces us to "Fast Eddie" Felson, an extraordinarily gifted pool hustler with a penchant for bourbon - J.T.S. Brown - and for high stakes action. Loosely modeled after billiard master Willie Mosconi, Tevis' "Fast Eddie" takes on "Minnesota Fats" (at the time, a fictional character, who's identity real-lfe pool huster Rudolph Wanderone later assumed) in a series of thousand dollar a game matches. It is a competition that changes both his life and that of the woman he enlists in his struggle against the demons within.
"The Hustler" remains one of only two books - "The Color of Money" being the other - to truly capture the intensity and excitement of professional high-stakes pool without excessive moralizing.
The movie version of The Hustler, released in 1961 and produced by Robert Rossen, starred Paul Newman as Fast Eddie, Piper Laurie as Eddie's femme fatale, and George C. Scott as Eddie's deadly effective but morally bankrupt instructor on the ways of big money pool.
Nominated for several academy awards, the movie, like Fast Eddie, had the misfortune of bad timing and an unwinnable matchup: "West Side Story" swept the awards and relegated Tevis' story to cult classic status.
Sure, rent the movie... but buy the book. The plot differs from the movie in one critical aspect, which I will leave the reader to discover..
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant Psychological Study of Winning and Losing
24 Feb 1999
Format:Hardcover
More than a story about pool players (although the inside look at the green felt world is fascinating), this is a perceptive study of how we talk ourselves into losing because it's much easier than paying the price to win. Beautifully written with numerous memorable characters, far superior to the movie, this is one novel you'll never forget.
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