The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death (Paperback)

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The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death (Paperback)

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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 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 took the Greyhound to Atlantic City to learn the ways of high-stakes Texas Hold'em.

Poker culture, he discovered, is marked by joy, heartbreak, and grizzled veterans playing against teenage hotshots weaned on Internet gambling. Not to mention the not-to-be overlooked issue of coordinating Port Authority bus schedules with your kid's drop-off and pickup at school. Finally arriving in Vegas for the multimillion-dollar tournament, Whitehead brilliantly details his progress, both literal and existential, through the event's antes and turns, through its gritty moments of calculation, hope, and spectacle. Entertaining, ironic, and strangely profound, this epic search for meaning at the World Series of Poker is a sure bet.

Look for Colson Whitehead's bestselling new novel, Harlem Shuffle!

Colson Whitehead is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author ofThe Underground Railroad. His other works includeThe Noble Hustle,Zone One,Sag Harbor,The Intuitionist,John Henry Days,Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays,The Colossus of New York. A National Book Award winner and a recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City.

Product Details ISBN: 9780345804334
ISBN-10: 0345804333
Publisher: Anchor
Publication Date: March 3rd, 2015
Pages: 256
Language: English

An NPR Best Book of the Year

"Astonishing. . . . Witty. . . . Tom Wolfe crossed with Tom Pynchon." —The Washington Post"The Noble Hustle is fierce, funny and totally worth the buy-in." —New York Daily News

"Whitehead proves a brilliant sociologist of the poker world." —The Boston Globe

"The Noble Hustle, part love letter, part dark confessional, captures perfectly the mix of neurosis and narrative that makes gambling so appealing." —Mother Jones

"[A] trenchant, ruefully funny memoir of one man's attempt to dispel the banality of living with the anxiety of chance." —USA Today

"Fascinating. . . . Funny. . . . It's hard not to root for the underdog." —Chicago Tribune

"Mordantly funny from the first sentence. . . . Mr. Whitehead may not have gone home in the money, but he has a way with upstanding sentences." —The Economist

"Hilarious. . . . Equal parts philosophical and farcical." —The Seattle Times

"Clever and entertaining." —The Miami Herald

"[Whitehead's] reporting on the grimy glitz of casinos and competitive gambling has a funny, tragic, loser-chic sensibility." —The New Yorker

"A literary guide to the often bizarre world of casino-poker tournaments." —The Wall Street Journal

"Whitehead captures the sketchy and zombielike nature of poker tournament play well enough to leave you wishing this book came with a free bottle of Purell." —Entertainment Weekly

"A sly, shambling, self-appraising riff on how he—a fervent amateur (and newly divorced father)—braved a Las Vegas World Series of Poker tourney." —Elle

"From the first sentence to the last, Colson Whitehead never stops being clever. . . . If Whitehead played poker as well as he writes, he would have made the final table." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Part memoir, part satire, part meditation on the fractured state of contemporary culture." —Los Angeles Times

"A masterpiece of sportswriting." —The Rumpus

THE SANTA FE LITERARY FESTIVAL

Celebrating the power of story, the inauguralSanta Fe Literary Festivalwill be an unforgettable weekend dedicated to a shared love and language of ideas. Collected Works Bookstore is thrilled to be the official bookstore of the Festival.

Bestselling, prizewinning authors and literary legends like Margaret Atwood, Joy Harjo, Colson Whitehead, Sandra Cisneros, John Grisham, amongst others, will headline the festival, discussing their work with readings and book signings that set the stage for further inspired conversations.

NOTE: If you purchase a festival event ticket that is INCLUSIVE of the author's book, you willreceive that book upon check-in for your event a t the festival.

To order books by festival authors directly from CW, see below. Collected Works will be carrying a wide selection of books by all participating authors available for online pre-order and at the on-site festival bookstore May 20-23.

Purchase your tickets from the SF Literary Festival website here.

Purchase your books by festival authors directly from CW below:

Margaret Atwood     Freddie Bitsoie     Sandra Cisneros

Lynn Cline     William deBuys     Ashley Ford

John Grisham     Roshi Joan Halifax     Joy Harjo

Anne Hillerman     Cheryl Alters Jamison     Craig Johnson

Asma Khan     Phil Klay      Jon Krakauer

Valeria Luiselli     Deborah Madison      Emily St. John Mandel

George R. R. Martin      James McGrath Morris     Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co.

Carmella Padilla     Douglas Preston     Kirstin Valdez Quade

Bob Shacochis     Henry Shukman     Hampton Sides

Bryant Terry     Darryl Lorenzo Wellington     Colson Whitehead

Don Winslow     Lawrence Wright