The Hustler (novel)

"The Hustler" is a 1959 novel by American writer Walter Tevis, later made into a 1961 film of the same title. It tells the story of a young pool hustler, Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats (a fictional character, not to be confused with Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, who later adopted the nickname as his own). [http://www.cue-tv.com/blog/_archives/2006/11/23/2520090.html 1972, Johnston City Hustling with Minnesota Fats]

Plot summary

After losing to Fats, Eddie could spiral down to the scrapheap, but he meets Bert Gordon, a Cuegloss|Stake|stakehorse. Bert teaches him about winning, or more particularly about losing. Tautly written, it is a treatise on how someone, with all of the skills, can lose if he "wants" to lose; how a loser is beaten by himself, not by his opponent; and how he can learn to win, if he can look deeply enough into himself.

The book was followed by the sequel "The Color of Money".

References

*Available editions include: ISBN 0-380008-60-2 (1976), ISBN 1-568490-44-5 (1979), and ISBN 1-560254-73-4 (2006).