The Color of Money

Rating:
Summary: FORGET THE MOVIE, READ THE BOOK!!!!
Review: Don't let the movie fool you, this novel(completely different!) is vastly more enriching, entertaining and exciting.

Bear in mind also that this novel was written years before the film. The author Walter Tevis was sorely disappointed with how Hollywood completely butchered his original story.

The film was really just a vehicle to showcase Tom Cruise with Paul Newman and nothing much else. The book on the other hand is a deeper exploration of "Fast" Eddie that includes his childhood, a reunion with Minnesota Fats (yes, Fats is back!), and a desparate plan to come out from under a mountain of bills and broken dreams. The "Tom Cruise" character is actually a cocaine-sniffing, hyper-manic badboy/nememis NOT PROTEGE to Fast Eddie. And the pool action is many times more riveting than anything in that very often boring movie. This is not about glitz and glamor Hollywood style, it's about a desparate, aging man trying to reclaim what was lost and what was denied in order to redeem himself.

I first read this book as a teenager and was enthralled. If you liked the original Hustler, you'll love this, and if you didn't care all that much for the movie then by all means check it out!!! I also recommend Tevis' The Queen's Gambit. After back to back reads of Tevis chess and Tevis pool, you're guaranteed to be left reeling, drained, jolted, and then clamoring for more. But then of course sadly, Walter Tevis is a writer deceased. If only Hollywood could've gotten it right!

Rating:
Summary: Pool Pool Pool
Review: Great book -- maybe better than the Hustler. Ignore the movie. This is a handbook for living. It didn't change my life but it would have if i read it when i was 15. Will make an excellent bar mitzvah gift.

Rating:
Summary: A master of the craft delivers
Review: The color of money is, as a novel, far superior to the filmed version starring Cruise and Newman. The film is underrated, and has many fine points but when compared to the book it is very, very disappointing. The novel starts slowly, retracing the last 25 years of hustler Eddie Felson and him building a new future for himself. By the last chapter the book is absolutely galloping along. The final tournament scenes show off probably some of the best writing on pool that has ever been accomplished, really taking you into each game and feeling what Eddie feels, from his jealousy at the young stars to his own self-realization at and through the green felt. Not only a book for pool enthusiasts, rather for anyone who enjoys good pacey writing and literature as art.

Rating:
Summary: Tevis hated the movie??
Review: Walter Tevis died in 1984. The movie The Color of Money came out in 1986. He may have hated it, but he didn't tell anyone.