HILARIOUS !!!! Loved this so much

There are two reasons to read this enhanced special edition Director's Cut of Colson Whitehead's highly regarded Grantland article about his time as the Republic of Anhedonia's official representative at the World Series of Poker. The first is the litany of bizarre truths littered in the twin deserts of Las Vegas and Whitehead's dreams. These will seem familiar, as they were viewable from the original article, but they are worth seeing again, up-close and with ever more excruciating angst. The s...

"Eat, Pray, Love for depressed shut-ins" is the self-applied description of this relentlessly self-aware, self-loathing tract covering mostly poker, with forays into beef jerky, death, and other topics of pressing interest. Colson Whitehead casts himself as sad-sack-in-chief, bringing us along on his explorations of some of America's most notable sad-sack ports of call, like Atlantic City, Vegas, and the New York Port Authority bus station. All the while, he's preparing (after a fashion) to play...

I really enjoyed Colson Whitehead's memoir about the time he spent playing in the World Series of Poker, but almost a month after finishing it, I'm having a hell of a time articulating why. Whitehead freely admits he isn't that great of a poker player—his greatest advantage seems to be his deadpan expression, a hard-to-read poker face he presents to the world all the time, not just at the card table. When a magazine agreed to bankroll his entry fee in the tournament, he wasn't in a great place i...

What even is this book. At the outset, I found The Noble Hustle surprisingly laugh-out-loud funny. As it continues, I generally thought it was humorous (so, less funny, but still entertaining). But. But. I knew this wasn't written by just anyone. I went in knowing it was by an author whose work has impressed me. In fact, I listened to the narration by Colson f**king Whitehead himself. You know, the MacArthur genius who wrote arguably two of the best fiction books I've read in the past decade?So....

Although I admit I would read absolutely anything Colson Whitehead writes, when I picked this book off a very deep TBR pile, I said, poker? Really? I'm doomed with this book. I know absolutely nothing about poker--in fact, I have to think really hard to name all four suits of cards (card playing wasn't A Thing in my house when I was growing up, and I have never had an affinity for card games. Every summer on in-law vacation my MIL gets very annoyed when I choose to sit on the couch and read inst...

This might be an unpopular opinion [all the accolades and awards it is getting puts me on a limb with my opinion] but the only reason I got through this annoying book by Colson Whitehead was that it was short. I have attempted to read Whitehead before and always stop in frustration regarding his over-written, trying too hard style...and that is the same with this bit of non-fiction about poker. Whitehead's nowhere near as humorous as he believes he is [I find him terribly unfunny] as he goes on

Colson Whitehead is quickly becoming one of my favourite writers. Like the late John Updike, everything he writes, even when it’s about out-of-left-field or seemingly light subjects, is thoughtful and beautifully phrased. There's always a sly, cheeky wit underscoring his polished prose.This book is adapted from a long article he wrote for the online magazine Grantland in July of 2011. The magazine staked him $10,000 to play at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Nice gig, right? Keep in mind...

Point 1. Saw a photo of Colson Whitehead beaming with an engaging, broad smile, and I was stunned. Based on The Noble Hustle, I figured he hadn't ever smiled. Throughout the book, he is discouraged and dour. In the opening sentence, he says he is "half dead inside," and he goes on to admit he lives in the land where there's the "inability to experience pleasure." Now, I hope this depressed attitude is a humorous literary stance he has taken for The Noble Hustle, but it makes for an unpleasant jo...

This book was poorly written and for those who play poker only. It was a difficulty read.

Overall, pretty fantastic, but I want to talk about it in context with this completely unrelated book about creative nonfiction, the thesis of which is that it's okay to fabricate parts of your nonfiction to make it interesting, because otherwise no one will read or remember it, and oblivion does no great service to The Truth. Instead of a-factual embellishment, Whitehead uses personality. (And a constant stream of decorative twitches that are obviously for comedy, but still help to set the scen...

A moment of silence, please, for the wonderful online magazine Grantland, which had some of the smartest sportswriting around. The magazine sent Colson Whitehead on assignment to participate in the World Series of Poker. They didn't pay him for the series of articles that followed, but they covered his $10,000 entry fee to the tournament and told him he could keep whatever he won.This book isn't for everyone. Those hoping for a guide to the World Series of Poker or poker in general will think it...

Poker eminence Doyle Brunson called Hold'em “the Cadillac of poker,” and I was only qualified to steer a Segway. In one of the fiction-writing manuals, it says that there are only two stories: a hero goes on a journey, and a stranger comes to town. I don't know. This being life, and not literature, we'll have to make do with this: A middle-aged man, already bowing and half broken under his psychic burdens, decides to take on the stress of being one of the most unqualified players in the history

While poker has never really been my thing, Colson Whitehead's writing has always *very* much been my thing. So it is surprising to me that I missed sections of this book, which were originally published on Grantland. I should go to that website more often. Anytime Whitehead is at a poker table, or talking to one of his poker mentors, this book is on fire. One of his "instructors," known just as Coach, especially spoke to me. A woman in her 60s who exploits sweater sets and pearl earrings for se...

A Pulitzer finalist. Along with The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova, this terrific book has inspired me to want to learn to play poker. Wish me luck.

Mom always said profanity is evidence of a limited vocabulary which may be why I am sensitive to it. Not that it does not have a place in writing and in life, but Whitehead, like many Millennial writers tends to use it as casual adverbs and adjectives and this overuse becomes wearing as you move through the pages. The book itself seems a bit forced. I found out that it is an "expansion" of a magazine article and feels like it. A title that would have worked is "But I digress ..." since he leads

Among the 6864 entries to the main event of the 2011 World Series of Poker was author Colson Whitehead. His gig was courtesy of GRANTLAND magazine. This book, like the articles from which it was spawned, reads like a diverse series of essays about the author's life-long relationship to poker, his preparations for the event, and the changing face of Las Vegas.He recalls the game from his college days, and a memorable 1991 road trip to Las Vegas. In that year there were a mere 215 Main Event entra...

The writing is delicious even if the entire enterprise never really achieves any kind of urgency or rises beyond its roots as an extended magazine article. Also, Colson Whitehead is a furious namedropper! Who knew? We get poker coach and author Helen Ellis, college buddy Darren Aronofsky and other assorted slebs casually dropped into the narrative. But it's all good. There's plenty of room for them because it's a bit thin anyway. Probably not the book I should have chosen after the triumph of Th...

I like Colson Whitehead's writing and I like poker, and I even like Grantland, so this seemed a no-brainer. It was interesting, but I was not very fulfilled by it. Perhaps I was expecting a more "poker-centric" book, a chronicle of his trying to get ready for, and eventual participation in, the WSOP. Something like, say, POSITIVELY FIFTH STREET by James McManus. That book, like THE NOBLE HUSTLE, weaves personal digressions and outside story angles into the natural arc formed by playing in the WS...

Besides my rating being abysmal let me explain what reading this book was like. It's like, you're on a long flight to Vegas and you're intrigued by your soon to be first HUGE gambling experience. Suddenly, some guy sits beside you and says, "Hey, been to Vegas before?"And you say, "Actually this will --""Great kid. Now, let me tell you this story of when I got to play in the World Series of Poker, and lost!"...And he goes on telling this pointless and dull story of his time in Vegas for 15 hours...