• The Noble Hustle

  • Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death
  • By: Colson Whitehead
  • Narrated by: Colson Whitehead
  • Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (100 ratings)

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The Noble Hustle  By  cover art

The Noble Hustle

By: Colson Whitehead
Narrated by: Colson Whitehead
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Publisher's summary

The Noble Hustle is Pulitzer finalist Colson Whitehead’s hilarious memoir of his search for meaning at high stakes poker tables, which the author describes as “Eat, Pray, Love for depressed shut-ins.”

On one level, The Noble Hustle is a familiar species of participatory journalism—a longtime neighborhood poker player, Whitehead was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online online magazine Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker.

But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed!), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of—yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really!—the human condition.

After weeks of preparation that included repeated bus trips to glamorous Atlantic City, and hiring a personal trainer to toughen him up for sitting at twelve hours a stretch, the author journeyed to the gaudy wonderland that is Las Vegas—the world’s greatest “Leisure Industrial Complex”—to try his luck in the multi-million dollar tournament. Hobbled by his mediocre playing skills and a lifelong condition known as “anhedonia” (the inability to experience pleasure) Whitehead did not—spoiler alert!—win tens of millions of dollars.

But he did chronicle his progress, both literal and existential, in this unbelievably funny, uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself.

Whether you’ve been playing cards your whole life, or have never picked up a hand, you’re sure to agree that this book contains some of the best writing about beef jerky ever put to paper.

©2014 Colson Whitehead (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Whitehead serves up an engrossing mix of casual yet astute reportage and hang-dog philosophizing, showing us that, for all of poker’s intricate calculations and shrewd stratagems, everything still hangs on the turn of a card." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"As a novelist of considerable range, Whitehead consistently writes about more than he's ostensibly writing about...here writing a poker book that should strike a responsive literary chord with some who know nothing about the game...Engaging in its color and character." -Kirkus Reviews

"Colloquial, with many personal digressions and heavy on pop-culture references, it reads like a memoir crossed with a literary guide to the often bizarre world of casino-poker tournaments..."-The Wall Street Journal

What listeners say about The Noble Hustle

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not Beowulf

I would much prefer to write a positive review, but I've very little....
to sayhhhh

Because this is howww,
The book is read hhhh.
Dear readerhhhh.

It doesn't seem to be
Written in open verse,,,,
But that is how,,,,
It's read.

It gets oldhhhh
to hear each phrase kind of,,,,
tail off,,,,,,
into a kind of nothingness,,,,,
It's depressing - sigh - - - - - -

But that is how the book is , , , ,
all the way through....

Written in prose, , , , ,
but read as. h h h h h
Open
Verse.

And literally his voice, , , ,
just tapers to a poor sad sigh h h h h
at the the end , , , , ,
of each little phrase...
Losing tone and volume....

Please Colson....
Get some Zoloft, , , ,
Before you read,h h h h h
your next {sigh},
Book.

I forgot,,,,
part way through h h h h h h
what it was , , , ,
About.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Interesting story, awful audiobook.

What would have made The Noble Hustle better?

A different narrator. His disinterested tone just had me questioning every single moment I was listening to this book...if he cared so little about the story he wrote as he read it, why should I care too??

Horrible, horrible audiobook.

Would you ever listen to anything by Colson Whitehead again?

Absolutely not. I have never had such a strong reaction to not liking someone based on their voice and written attitude.

Ahedonian?? Really?! Ridiculous.

How could the performance have been better?

The author could seem to care a bit more about his writing and the affect he is having on people trying to "read" his words.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I think this may genuinely have been an interesting poker book if I read the words - every once in a while I would "read back" a sentence in my head with different inflections to see if it would have changed my perception of the book...and I really think it would have. If excitement had come across as excitement, sadness as sadness and so on, then it may have been worth reading.

Any additional comments?

There are better poker books out there that are better read. This one is worth a skip. And don't worry - the author makes a point of not caring about anything anyway, so you don't have to worry about hurting his feelings.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I don't like to pan books, but this is awful

I have listened to hundreds of books. This is the worst narration I have encountered. I had trouble believing the author was the reader. I'm not sure what he was going for but, yikes, he has the strangest cadence. Beyond that, I thought I was going to listen to a story about one fellows adventure in the WSOP. Frankly, most of the time, I had no idea what he was talking about. To say he was divergent is an understatement, Cards on the table, I am about 4 hours into this book (which is most of the way) but I am not going to finish it. Maybe he is edgy and I am just old but, nah, I do not get it. I just wanted to hear the story of his experience in the tourney. I did not get that.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Bad.

I really, really, really wanted to hear this story. I read other bad reviews and listened to the preview - I thought "I can put up w the shitty narration" and I went ahead & down loaded the book....

The bad narration is one thing - he reads his book like a really bad prose poet, trying to sell his digressive, cliche and way too abundant similes and metaphors. It seems like this author has read WAY too much Hunter S Thompson or other prosaic writers, and fails miserably at it.

Just tell the story dummy.

I give up. A much better WSOP book is Varconi's (?) Positively Fifth Street.

This guy stinks on ice. Like a long dead catfish, festering in the Vegas sun, it's bloated & rotten & gaseous body collecting flies and repelling passers by with its death stench & grotesqueness. (hate that? you'll hate this book)

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sad Funny Book Teaches You About Cards, Ping!

The Slate Culture Gabfest podcast pointed me Whitehead's way alluding to an essay he wrote about New York. Whitehead tells us he's bummed out, (with examples) and I believe him. He's a funny guy, and I liked hearing about his ambitious prep to play in a World Series of Poker Event. When you go on a journey like that, you make some unexpected buds. He does and I really like "Coach." Whitehead especially wins me over with his references to "the kid." He also comes up with an innovative structure (cheating?) to get a book's worth of material out his adventure. I came around to liking his reading of his own work. I recommend!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Way too esoteric and not very entertaining

What disappointed you about The Noble Hustle?

It was written with constant reference and analogy that I don't think the average listener could relate to and didn't seem to have an organized direction. Much like putting a hard copy book down, I had to stop listening because I couldn't enjoy how it was written and subsequently narrated.

Would you ever listen to anything by Colson Whitehead again?

If this book is any indication, most likely not.

How could the performance have been better?

Plain English with an organized flow and less, or no, vague analogies.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Noble Hustle?

Hard to say since I gave up on it less than an hour into it.

Any additional comments?

If I could get credit for it, I would delete it from my library which I may do, anyway.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Colson Whitehead, note-taker of our culture

First a word about the narration. Definitely listen to the preview first, because Whitehead has a distinctive way of talking, and it might not be for you. When I first listened to him, I thought it might not be for me, either, but, funny thing, his voice grew on me, and I started to like it. I've read two other books by Whitehead, and I liked them both for the deft way he mixes cultural observations with his stories, and his fresh, clear writing. He is wry, but not overbearing about it - at least that's how it comes across to me. I really liked Zone One. For me, all his books (including The Noble Hustle) come down to one thing - Our Culture. It's worth reading The Noble Hustle just to hear him explain the different hands in poker. A pair of queens (I think it was) would be like a pair of SUV's in your neighbor's driveway, whereas your hand with only one queen is like having only one SUV in your driveway. The person with the better stuff wins. He talks a lot about his anhedonia, his feeling of being dead inside, but he has such a lock on humor and observations that he manages to be good company. It's like sitting down him next to him at casino bar, and staying longer than you'd thought, just to hear him talk.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Ok not his best

It was fun to listen to but a little dull reading was enjoyable. Did not inspire interest in cards

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Worst poker book ever

Take a depressed, low self-esteem, guy, offer him one of the most fun opportunities ever, have him sink to the bottom depths of despair and self-loathing, let him write about it, and then ask him to read his own work for the audiobook. What could go wrong with this recipe? Whitehead was so incapable of embracing the moment of being free-rolled in the World Series of Poker Main Event that he doesn't even rise to the level of pathetic. This book is not worth the time or money.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Anhedonian Manifesto

I knew virtually nothing about the world of poker before this listen, but I sure do now. As a huge admirer of Whitehead's writing, I am working my way backwards from his more recent books. I enjoyed his dark humor and self-effacing wit along with the lyrical, technical lingo of professional card sharks and Whitehead's scathing cultural observations.

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