Color of Money
Posted: 2018/02/22 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust II, Fiction | Tags: 2018, book lust ii, book review, february, Fiction, gambling, movie, Walter Tevis Leave a commentTevis, Walter. The Color of Money. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1984.
Reason read: Tevis was born in February. Read in his honor.
“Fast” Eddie Felson was a pool shark twenty years ago. He dominated the underground pool circuit as a hustler for big bucks. Now he is playing exhibition competitions against his former rival Minnesota Fats in shopping malls for cheap prizes. His future looks bleak as he sips his Manhattans. Thanks to a failed marriage Eddie has lost his pool hall business and he has no other real world skills to make a living. He has never had a 9 to 5 job that he liked. All he can do is what he has known since high school, shooting pool, playing the shark. He needs to reenter the world of competitive pool for money. But, how? He is an old man playing a young man’s game. The rules have changed along with the style of play. He has a lot to learn and Minnesota Fats can only take him so far.
As an aside, when The Color of Money was made into a movie I didn’t care for it. I had this opinion that Tom Cruise only starred in movies where the protagonist had to lose something big in order to shape up and fly straight (think Risky Business, Top Gun & Cocktail). This was one of those plots.
Author fact: Tevis was known for his short stories. He often wrote for Playboy magazine.
Book trivia: The Color of Money is the last novel Tevis wrote. Second book trivia – I did not know the Hustler should have been read first. “Fast” Eddie Felson is the protagonist in both stories. Once again, I have read them backwards. Sigh.
Nancy said: Nothing about The Color of Money.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (p 43). For the sake of argument I must say I don’t think The Color of Money belongs in this chapter. No one in this book is a child or a prodigy.
February Progress
Posted: 2018/02/02 Filed under: audio book, BookLust I, BookLust II, E-Books, Early Review, Fiction, Lust To Go, NonFiction | Tags: audio book, autobiography, e-book, Ernest Cline, Fiction, Freya Stark, italy, John Berendt, movie, mystery, NonFiction, Rhoda Blumberg, science fiction, series, Sicily, Simon Brett, Simonetta Agnello, theater, trains, travel, Venice, Walter Tevis Leave a commentI have been seeing a chiropractor for over a month and have all but stopped running. At first, I admit, this bothered me to no end. Now, I’m okay with it for all the books I have been reading. And speaking of books, here is February’s plan for The Books:
Fiction:
- The Almond Picker by Simonetta Agnello ~ in honor of Almond Blossom festival in Sicily.
- The Color of Money by Walter Tevis ~ in honor of Tevis’s birth month.
- Dead Room Farce by Simon Brett ~ in honor of February being Theater month.
Nonfiction:
- City of Falling Angels by John Berendt~ in honor of February being the month of the Venice Carnival (AB/print).
- Full Steam Ahead: the Race to Build a Transcontinental Railroad by Rhoda Blumberg~ in honor of February being Train Month.
Series continuations:
- Beyond Euphrates by Freya Stark ~ in honor of Freya’s birthday in January.
For fun:
- Ready, Player One by Ernest Cline ~ because a friend recommended it (E-book).
There might be room for more titles, considering Dead Room Farce and Full Steam Ahead are barely 200 pages apiece. We’ll see…
